Ectopic heart

[Worzelgumage]

I have been on long term medication Bisoprolol Fumarate to help control an ectopic heart beat but I have more skipped “extra beats” which is causing a lot of anxiety. Spoke to the Doc who advised me to up my medicated dose which is only 2.5 mg. I an anxious as I keep experiencing them throughout the day.

[Alixia]

Hello, I experienced the same thing on bisoprolol. If the higher dosage doesn’t work, ask to try a different medication, there are other options out there.

[Wonky_heart]

I've experienced ectopic beats for over four years and they used to cause a lot of anxiety (which probably didn't help). Now, the way I look at it is typically you have about 100,000 heart beats a day which is amazing. Therefore, if 10 to say 500 of these are ectopic then it still isn't a big deal on the overall impact. An ectopic beat makes just that one beat less efficient, but the heart is pretty amazing at coping with more than we'd imagine. I tend to get quite symptomatic when I get heavy spells of atrial fibrillation (breathlessness, dizziness, fatigue etc.) and so I'm on a waiting list for another ablation, but although I get symptomatic and can feel the ectopic beats, I'm now reassured that the ectopic burden impact isn't as bad as it feels if this makes any sense. The one risk of having AFib where there are bursts of ectopic beats in an erratic manner is that it increases the risk of a blood clot and therefore a stroke so I'm on blood thinners. Otherwise I've learnt to notice my heart beats but not be bothered by them, to me it's no different than my joint pains or other symptoms of my autoimmune conditions, it's simply a symptom.