How do you avoid your ectopic heartbeats?

[MissLeBon]

Hello folks. I had catheter ablation for SVT last year (which so far has been a complete success!) but I am plagued with ectopic heartbeats. I have them all day everyday. My cardiologist says they're nothing to worry about and that suits me fine. I just liken them to feeling like internal hiccoughs and understand that I will have to just live with them.

However, I was curious to know if any of you have found a way to decrease your ectopics through diet or perhaps you've found a supplement that helps. I have very reluctantly given up caffeine but I find other things can really aggravate them, like bananas, certain brands of toothpaste (go figure??!!), alcohol or spicy food for example. So why would these things aggravate my heart? Do any of you have any tips or steps you take to help yourself. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

I should add that I don't take any medication like beta-blockers. My heart-rate goes so slow when I sleep that my cardiologist refused to let me take them, he said I might die if I did. Eek! I also go running so I'm pretty healthy and active. And I can't give up the wine just yet; giving up tea, coffee and chocolate was bad enough I just couldn't face life without one of my favourite things! I look forward to your thoughts.

[Loversghost]

Hi

I have found magnesium supplements to be helpful in the past.

[HD97]

After my 2 ablations 7 years ago (which didn't work) I also suffered with similar issues & sometimes 1st degree block however I have found overtime everything has settled down. I stopped alcohol, I have swapped running for cycling as I found it less intense on my heart, I've also found that a vegetarian diet seems to help all my tacky episodes. I cut out coffee which is fine but when I tried cutting out tea my tachy came back so I still have 3-4 cups a day. Water & sleep are really important to keeping me issue free too. Good luck - hopefully overtime it will settle down & then if & when it does happen you'll hardly notice

[maria40]

Hi,

I have SVT and, like you, have been told not to worry, though my symptoms are slightly different from yours. I don't get the ectopics constantly , thank goodness, but do get quite frightening instances irregularly. I take beta blockers daily and had given up caffeine and suffered withdrawal symptoms. However, I went to stay with a friend for a week or so and only on the last day of my stay did she discover that what she had thought was decaff, which I had been drinking and enjoying, was in fact full bodied caffeinated coffee! The interesting thing is that I didn't have any discernible reaction, so decided to continue with the caffeine because , let's face it, decaff is pretty disgusting. I still get irregular instances but no more than when I was caffeine free and I now enjoy my coffee. I don't say this would be so for everyone. I have read warnings about raspberries and yogurt but eat plenty of the latter. I don't drink much alcohol but have noticed an increase in ectopics after a couple of glasses of wine but since I'm not a regular drinker have not given up.

I think being aware that this is not life threatening helps one to relax and breathe deeply but if you do find a major trigger I'd like to know.