I’m hoping for some advice/recommendations from anybody that has experienced frequent Supraventricular Ectopy.
I am 39 years old, exercise regularly, practice martial arts and lead a healthy lifestyle. I don’t smoke, don’t drink and avoid all types of junk food. I recently started experiencing weird sensations with my heart missing/double beats. I was sent for the normal tests ie. ECG, Echocardiogram, holter monitor and was diagnosed with SVE.
The MD prescribed beta blockers and told me to reduce caffeine. I have found that the meds do absolutely nothing and I have eliminated caffeine from my diet completely but still experience these SVE’s regularly. I have tried to identify triggers but cannot make any clear distinction as to what is causing these. The only constant is that my stomach starts churning slightly right before they begin. Once they start they don’t stop until wake up the next morning, almost like my heart is reset by sleep…
If anybody has experienced anything similar and has found a remedy I would be extremely grateful for your input.
Thanks in advance,
Froggy
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You really need to find out what is causing the SV ectopics, can be many and various. If everything has been checked out and no medical cause then you are left with stress (including physical stress), dehydration and breathing and postural triggering of vagus nerve. Just my own process of elimination from my own experiences.
If your stomach starts churning it means there could be a disruption which could trigger vagus nerve. So what where you doing/eating/drinking/not drinking as your stomach starts churning?
Look at the post after yours - Breathlessness. Changing your breathing both whilst at rest and when exercising will greatly reduce your ectopic burden.
Are you keeping well hydrated? So you rest enough between activities? Relaxation is as important as exercise, do you relax? Good article in New Scientist about how relaxation is as important as sleep.
Beta-blockers tend to make people more breathless.
You probably don't want to hear this but it's worth ruling out exercise as a trigger. Maybe take a week or two off training to see how the ectopics respond?
Agree with Barny12 that it’s worth understanding the role of exercise. I have PAF and have had to cut back. My cardiologist advised 20% less volume and intensity. Sometimes it’s specific things that trigger the beats. The other day I was trying to lop off a branch that was too big for my loppers and that set off a few ectopics. On advice of lots of people here I also take magnesium and certainly feel better though as I gave up alcohol & caffeine at the same time, I couldn’t be completely confident about the impact. Also, ectopics often lead to AF so if you haven’t actually had AF you might be able to stave it off if exercise is a ectopic trigger.
The kind of ectopic beat you have is also called a PAC (premature atrial contraction). The equivalent in the lower ventricualr chambers is a PVC, which are more common. Often the two occur, as with me. Both are called "benign" as they are generally harmless and don't lead to clotting or anything untoward as atrial fibrillation can.
An ectopic beat is a ventricular contraction (i.e. heartbeat) set off a little too early by cells other than those in the heart's normal pacemaker in the atrial SA node. I gather that all heart cells carry the potential to send out these wrong signals and to cause ectopic beats. Why they do isn't fully understood, but caffeine is sometimes said to make them worse, It doesn't for you, nor for me. Exercise can make mine worse, or bending down - even eating breakfast!
Once a premature beat occurs, there is then a short delay or "compensatory pause" while the next normal (NSR) beat comes in. This delay allows more blood to be stored in the atrium and this, when it does move to the ventricle, needs a more forceful valve closure, creating the "thud" like beat or palpitation that feels like an extra heartbeat (but isn't).
I had long ago read somewhere that PVCs were the most common but looking again just now, you are correct.
In one 24-hour ECG study, between 40 and 75% of people had PVCs; in another study, 99% had at least one PAC. So PACs occur at about twice the rate as PVCs, it seems.
In January I had ectopics after a huge day on sugary drinks after golf like Gatorade and fruit juices and ginger beer, Coincidentally I had an appointment scheduled with cardiologist the next day. I got stressed when the cardiologist put the holter on me and ectopics continued for 5 days. I bought a book recommended by someone on this forum called Breath by James Nestor. It opened my eyes on how important how we breath is. It is now part of my daily routine. ‘Knock on wood’ I’ve not had a run of ectopics since… aside from the odd one or two blips
Sounds like what I used to have. I found my triggers are wheat/gluten and aspartame and sucralose artificial sweeteners. I don’t touch anything with those ingredients and I stay clear of these. I hope you find the cause in order to control these.
Your story sounds very similar to mine. I developed PAC’ and PVC’s in my 20’s due to anxiety. At one point they were so bad that not only was I getting thousands of ectopic beats a day but also it felt like my heart was racing at full gallop like Tachycardia. My GP at the time identified it was anxiety and gave me some beta blockers which literally stopped them instantly.
About 8 years later they came back. My GP said it was anxiety again but I genuinely didn’t feel anxious but it’s fair to say that I was going through a tough time. Some 20 years later I still have them.
For years the GP just wrote it off as anxiety and other than giving me beta blockers, wouldn’t do anything. It literally took about 5 years of me going back and saying to them, I’m not just getting the one or two you see on a 30 second ECG I can get a constant run of them for anything up to 2hrs. Eventually they referred me to the hospital and I had a 24hr holter ECG and an echocardiogram. After all that the only words the cardiologist said to me was “we don’t know why this happens but it does on some people. Just ignore it”. What he didn’t say was how you are meant to ignore your heart feeling like it’s trying to escape from your chest.
For a few more years it continued but after years of counselling and taking beta blockers daily I eventually got them down so that, whilst they still happened, I got a lot less of them and they were so faint I could barely feel them.
Then two weeks ago I had a cardioversion and they are back like they were several years ago!
My only advice is to keep telling yourself that these are benign, and aren’t doing you any harm. The next thing to do is to get your doctor to understand that whilst they may not be shortening your life, they are affecting your quality of life. Sadly in my experience GP’s don’t take this seriously and just expect you to accept it.
The only thing I would add to this is that according to my Kardia app it says that Frequent PACs can increase your risk of developing A-Fib. I don’t know if that’s true and I don’t know what they mean by frequent. That said I’d had them for 30 years and now have A-Fib.
Try increasing magnesium .. this often corrects benign ectopics.
Men need 450 mg a day… but those who are very active will need more… D-ribose is a signalling molecule that helps the hearts atp which produces energy in the mitochondria… worth trying short term.
Astaxanthin fixes mitochondrial issues throughout the body and is very good for overall health and energy.
Vagus nerve flossing may help too.. humming deeply and cold showers.
Short term tricks ..
Lower calcium intake… if you try the sodium bicarb test… not only do you lower serum calcium but the ectopics will stop. Beware this is no good long term because you push up the sodium levels..
Tighten junctions in the gut.. pomegranate and probiotics along with green bananas.
Kill bloating with white cabbage (sauerkraut)ACV or allicin… gas related issues can press on the vagus and create ectopics.
Btw .. stress/anxiety depletes serum magnesium as does sugar related diets.
Magnesium Taurate is by far the best for ectopics... and for reducing calcium in tissue.
Lastly if you are using high levels of Vitamin D
or out in the sun too much .. the calcium levels will rise so it’s important to take K2 alongside to stop calcium being laid down in the soft tissues such as the heart which could end up creating electrical pathway issues.
K2/ natto will put circulating calcium where it belongs teeth and bones.
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