I am new here and but I already love this forum! Real people, real stories!
I've read almost all posts on the topic you shared and they have me mixed feelings as some of them made me worry more and some of them gave a good release of my anxiety.
I am 35, male with no weight (185cm/70kg, sporty psychic) or blood pressure problems or any other underlying medical issues (with the exception of reflux now and than). Roughly 1.5 months ago I went to my cardiologist for the bi-yearly heart check (my doc found a "not significant "mitrial prolapsus" 6 years ago, so have to check it every 2nd year).
We had the usual BP check, 12 point ECG, + ECHO (ultrasound) the summary says "left chamber dilatation, which was known from 6 years ago, did not get worse" Good sys and dias functionality, nothing to do, check ordered for 2023.
However 3 weeks after my visit (about 2.5 weeks ago) I started to experience a strange thing I never had before (or I never paid attention to), my heart started to "skip a beat" and give pounding feeling (sometimes I had lightheaded feeling and slight dizziness too - might be my anxiety only).
The pulse rate does not go up when it comes, also it seems to be regular beat checked on my wrist almost every 4th hour - but there are times it feels it skips even 2-3-4 beats / minute (not in a row) which is very scary and puts me into anxiety which obviously makes everything worse.
Usually comes in the evening, but had days when experienced it all day...terrible (strange I don't recognize when I am doing physical activity like gardening ) - I work from HO for 1+ years (office work with it's stress & pressure effects) now and used to go to the gym 3-4 times / week till November when the government closed them in Hungary (no real physical training for the last 5 months...might be the root cause).
I called the cardiologist, the assistant advised I should not worry ....I should start to take Magnesium & Palladium (Panangin Forte) + calmed me down that the heart's condition is not changing in 3 weeks also booked another appointment for the 23rd March.
I've also purchased a blood pressure meter (GMED 156) which has an AFiB option. The reason it scares the hell out of me (and increases my anxiety even more) is because it shows the AF sign every 2-3rd time I measure my blood pressure (bp is normal (110-140 / 55-78). Should I believe the BPmachine it's an AFiB?
How do I know if I have "only" ectopic beats or it's an AFiB?
Should I start to worry? Still have 20 days till 23rd (but as said as had a full heart check couple of weeks ago they did not see it justified to find a sooner slot)?
Anyone with the same symptoms in my age? (make me sad I have it so young..)
Apologies for the long phrasing!
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Balazs
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Hello Balazs! Sorry you're experiencing all that. I know from experience what that can do to you mentally...I've been there. I'm sorry I don't have time to get in-depth with my experiences with pvc's and sometimes pac's, have to run out, but if there is any way you can look up my previous responses to another post, it may be helpful. I do not have afib, but my mother does. She doesn't feel it at all. I feel every pvc I get and from your description, I'd bet it's that or pac's. Is it possible your machine is saying afib because it's not equipped to say pvc or pac? Just a thought. What you need to do is ask for a holter monitor which will pick up whatever this is. Any test that only captures the heart's activity in small increments is not going to show anything that isn't happening at that moment. Except previous damage. Pvc's will show up more at rest, when your pulse is lower because they have a better chance of jumping in there, vs being active. When my pvc's act up during exercise, it's usually when I'm power walking up a steep hill or straining myself more than usual. Also, my digestion plays a big roll in this too. I'm not a doctor, nurse etc...by any means. I'm just talking from 23 years experience with doctors, tests, specialists and mostly research. My pvc's started at the same age as you. In the vast majority of people, they are benign. I've never been hospitalized or on meds for it. Have had a few scary moments, but survived and just got used to it. It's not a big deal unless you're getting thousands of them a day. They don't do damage to your heart. They can definitely make you feel the way you described, but so can afib. Considering you had all those tests done, I'm thinking afib would have showed up, especially on the echo. Gotta run! I hope everything turns out well for you and I bet it does. Take care!
First, thanks for taking the time to share your experience of 2+ decades!
I will have a look on your posts to "train myself up"
Not sure if the blood pressure machine says AF for any type of arrhythmia (I suppose it can't differentiate pvc, pac or an af - but hell know - it's just scary!) - picture of the BP below.
As you said it's not a big deal unless you have 1000s a day, and I will be honest I have no clue how many I might have as I have times when I counted 2-3-4 / minute - if it's constant 2-3-4 / minute it can be easily 2k- 6k / day --> anyway I stop making up numbers with forecasting from the top of my head.
As soon as had the check up on the 23rd with the cardiologist, will share what the outcome is.
Maybe discuss the holter monitor with your cardiologist. That for sure will pick up what's going on because more than likely, if it's that bothersome to you, it should happen within a 24 or 48 hour recording. I live in the US so I'm not sure if you have access to what I do. I just recently bought a Kardia ecg machine and it works perfectly. First I used it on me and it showed "normal". Then I thought, well how do I know it's accurate? So I used it on my mother, who I know has a-fib, and it picked it up. It's very easy to use, small, no wires, and it remotely connects to your phone on the Kardia ap. I paid $82.00 for it. Let us know how you make out. You're in my prayers.
Will do thank you Chime62! Will write a brief update after my visit with the cardiologist. Yes Kardia is available over here too so I might look around and get one of those or a WiWe (not sure if you heard about it - it's a great tool as well to get a comprehensive picture of your heart's health in a clinical quality) - have a look
Thanks for the calming words and for taking the time to share your comments!
I've never heard of the WiWe. I'll have to look into that. Thank you! I'm anxious to hear your update. In the meantime, try to find what best relaxes you because as you know, whatever the issue is, stressing over it doesn't help. I find just plain old walking helps me. Good luck! 😊
I am a little older (63 ) and had OHS nearly 3 years ago.
I have always been very fit, pretty good diet etc etc.
At the end of Nov my Apple Watch reported possible Afib, I sent a copy of the ECG it produced to my GP, he agreed it could be afib, referred me to my cardiologist, amazingly quickly (10days ish), I got a letter to go for a 24hr holter, then received an appointment for early Jan for an echo and a face to face appointment with cardiologist.
Holter had picked up a lot of ectopics, echo and ECG where normal, cardiologist said that he didn’t think it was aFib but rather that I had had a run of ectopics, he was not in the least bit worried about them, so neither was I.
He did say that the Apple watch (and other 1 or 2 lead type ECG’s) are very useful, but are unlikely to be able to differentiate between aFib & ectopics etc, they just identify an unusual rhythm.
We talked about what possibly triggered them to be so bad, like you I normally train 5/6 times a week, with lockdown (UK) I hadn’t done any cardio for some time, I think & he agreed that a combination of no cardio exercise (& in my case a little to much caffeine on the day it happened) where almost definitely contributing factors.
I think that I have had them for sometime, but not so much that I really notice, especially as normally working out has my HR at 150+ I am pretty sure I wouldn’t notice them and I believe working the heart helps to keep them in check!
in reply to
Meant to say, when I had the really bad run of ectopics which my watch said was possible aFib, my HR was also at my normal resting rate of ~50bpm.
Thanks a mill for sharing your story! As you say I really hope this is just a "symptom of lockdown" with decreased amount of time spent actively and increased stress level. I will be smarter after my visit on the 23rd. Yesterday was a pretty bad day as experienced ectopic beats since woken up till went to bed...
Surprisingly today woke up pretty well and so far felt it 2-3 times only , totally unpredictable, as it's new to me - I am trying to identify what might trigger it as a lot of you said on other forums that it's learnable based on experience what makes it worse and better
Get a good pair of walking shoes and get a reasonably brisk walk in every day, about half an hour / couple of miles. Your heart is a muscle and at the moment it is winding down and getting flabby. Sitting down is very bad for you,
I started 30-40 mins intense walk sessions, after working hours 2 days ago, will see how it changes things.
Today the Hungarian govern just announced a more strict lock down from 8th March till end March, which is not only mentally but physically making things worse. Thanks again Ianc2!
Update:I went to my GP on Friday , she put me on the ECG for 5 minutes...murphy's law, all was ok on that test...she also only suggested more exercise + Palladium + Magnesium and sent me for a full blood test due next week so the cardiologist has all the results fresh.
I forgot to mention that I went through covid in November, also the GP mentioned sadly a lot of people got different level of nerve & heart damage as complication of covid, so she would not exclude covid as a trigger.
16th March blood test and 23rd Cardiologist, will share the updated.
Update: I went back to the cardiologist on 23rd March, he was kind of questioning why I went back as I had a full heart check on 21st Jan. I was explaining the symptoms I shared above, so he put me on ECG again, blood pressure test, did a manual stethoscope examination on my heart and finally an ultrasound check again. He said nothing to worry about - I asked if I can go back to the gym (as soon as they open) - he said yes, even it's gonna have a good effect on me...but other than this he said nothing. No holter, no other examinations...
Obviously it was giving some relief to hear the good news, but it did not explain those terrible symptoms I had for 3+ weeks daily. They seem to settle a bit by now (more like coming and going instead of continuously presence) for hell knows what reason, but I hope it stays like this.
1 thing learnt is potassium & magnesium level of my blood is pretty low (just hits minimum within the acceptable interval), so increasing both with more conscious eating habits (more banana, walnut, green peas, etc...) has definitely a positive effect on the symptoms!
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