Feeling Etopic Beats/ PVCS Very Scared

[RemiTravillian]

For awhile I’ve been feeling my heart skip beats that freak the mess out of me. Went to the doctor and they always told me it was just anxiety. But sometimes it’ll happen when I’m not even doing anything. So I received a holter monitor and it came back with normal heart rhythm with occasional pvcs and rare pacs. But tell me why I feel them way more than occasional, like every single day?? And sometimes they even go on for hours. Is this normal?? It doesn’t help that my anxiety makes them even worse. Sometimes I worry I’m going to die. I’m only 19. I’m freaking out here. Someone help

[Hidden]

Ask your GP to refer you for some counselling. Of course you are stressed and anxious. This is a normal human response. You will probably be referred for CBT. There you can formulate a plan of action for when these happen. Take care.

[Hidden]

PVCs and PACs are extremely common, to the point that it’s possible every single person has them. The difference is that only a minority of people ever feel them, and we know that once you start noticing them, your body becomes more sensitive to them, and notices even more. It’s not actually a skipped or missed beat, it’s a beat coming early leading to a longer pause to the next beat. Generally speaking, aside from being a bit unpleasant, for the vast majority of people they’re not of any concern, they’re just something you have to learn to live with. You would have to be having tens of thousands a day for them to be a problem in their own right, or if you were having lots and also had a particular type of arrhythmia that’s triggered by ectopics (you would know about this if you had it, it’s not something you miss).

Depending on what triggers your ectopics, whether it’s the sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system, there are some things you can do to try and reduce them, ranging from cutting stimulants out of your diet (all caffeine, chocolate, certain medications, tobacco, alcohol, any recreational substances), making sure you get enough sleep, and reducing stress/managing anxiety. Anxiety does make them worse. This doesn’t work for everyone, but these are the things medically known to increase the frequency of ectopics for some people, and I had huge success in reducing my own utilising these kinds of changes to my lifestyle. Other people also swear by cutting out spicy food, and ginger is another one for me, but this is dependent on stimulants being a trigger. For some people, they can be more positional, or a mix of both: I also get them without fail lying on my left side to try and sleep, and bending forward sometimes.

There is a really good U.K. cardiologist by the name of Sanjay Gupta who has produced a series of YouTube videos regarding ectopics, what they are, how to try and determine what triggers them (I.e. if they’re sympathetic or parasympathetic driven), and how to live with them. But it is a case of living with them; I’m 37 and have one of the arrhythmias triggered by them I mentioned previously, which I’ve been living with for the last 12 years. I feel several ectopics most days, but they don’t bother me the way they used to, purely because I know what they are and that life continues on regardless of the odd, early heartbeat. I would very strongly advocate getting treatment for your anxiety, because it can be successfully managed long term, and without medication. From experience, life generally is much better for appropriately managing it - you may always have a tendency to worry still, but learning to control that worry is life changing.

[RemiTravillian in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for this. This was very assuring. My main concern was if it was going to damage my heart. I also get them sometimes when I’m laying on my side or after I eat. The doctor told me it was only occasional pvcs but I feel them almost every day. Sometimes I get episodes where it’s every other beat. Could this be something else then? It feels exactly like etopics though so I was left confused.

[Hidden in reply to RemiTravillian]

Glad it helped a little bit. Did you experience them that regularly whilst wearing the holter? If so and they didn’t show as ectopics, it may be that what you’re primarily experiencing is purely palpitations, potentially anxiety related. There is also a well known link between the vagus nerve being stimulated by eating and palpitations, as the nerve runs past the heart. With regards to heart damage, the general consensus is that you would need to be experiencing a burden of more than 10% of your heartbeats as ectopics for it to be a concern, which would be 10,000 beats plus a day with an average heart rate of 70bpm. There are people here that have been/are in that situation. I used to have hundreds a day, but only ever felt a dozen of them (but had lots of palpitations generally). These days I feel about a dozen, but according to my last holter, I’m only having about a dozen all told.

[RemiTravillian in reply to Hidden]

I did experienced some though it wasn’t as bad as other days. I always thought regular palpations were just heart racing and pounding and not flutters/extra beats. So that’s probably it. Still some are not triggered by anxiety, they just happen randomly which what worrried me.

[PV74]

Dear Remi, sorry to read about your ectopics. I know how you feel. I realised about a month ago that I had what I thought were 'missing' heartbeats. I realised this one day when I felt a bit strange and took my pulse: one, two, three, four ... (nothing) ... five, six, seven. I realised some minutes my pulse is fine, other minutes I could 'skip' three, four, five beats. I contacted my cardiologist who ordered a 24 hour ECG (Holter monitor). The results show I have ventricular ectopic beats 1.5% of the time. He explained that it's nothing to worry about at this sort of frequency, and that most people have infrequent ectopics but aren't sitting at their desks taking their pulses!

It's not a very nice feeling (that sort of flutter, or a mini ripple effect in my chest), but I have tried over the past two weeks to ignore them as far as I can, and to remind myself when I feel them a little more intensely that it's ok. For me, I feel them more intensely when I am sitting down, working for a while at my desk that sort of thing. If I go for a walk, I don't feel them at all. I don't know whether that's because I don't have them when walking, or because I'm focused on being outside, walking about.

I found the following article quite helpful: theheartclinic.london/condi...

Also, I thought Charlie_G's response to your post very helpful (and will be looking up the videos he recommends!).

Try to keep your worry in check. The 'worry' part of the brain is great to alert you to things you should investigate, which you took the right action for and now you have the answer. Now that you have the results, try if you can to lower your anxiety levels about it. If you find yourself getting more and more anxious, definitely speak to your GP who should refer you for help with the anxiety.

Keep well and best of luck.

[RemiTravillian in reply to PV74]

Thank you so much for this reply, it puts me at ease. I didn’t know etopic beats were this common until I discovered this site. It sure is comforting know that I’m not alone and I’m not going to die.