I Wonder if anyone can help? I am a 48 year old perimenopausal women. I’ve been having infrequent ectopics for the past 3 years and I’m on propanolol 80mg slow release mainly for anxiety. The ectopics have steadily got worse over the last year and I now have them every single day (sometimes very very frequently). I’ve had lots of heart tests and all normal. Been told I have PACs and some PVCs.
my questions is why are they getting worse when I’m on propranolol? Could the propranolol be making them worse? I tried to switch to diltiazem and that was a disaster.
Is there a different beta blocker that works better for PACs/PVCs?
I don’t drink, I am a health weight, I exercise, I take magnesium. I eat well. I can’t think what else I can do to get rid of them. I know I’ve been told they are benign but my quality of life is seriously affected and I can’t bear to think I will spend the rest of my life feeling like this. I know that my anxiety makes them worse but these are the thing that’s causing the anxiety!
Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you x
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mummyofspot
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Thank you for your post on the Heart Rhythm Disorder support forum.
We understand your concern with the anxiety you are feeling, we think it would be best to speak with a health care professional to check the medications you are taking and see if they are causing you to have more ectopics every day.
I have linked an information sheet about 'Ectopic Heartbeats'
Hiya Sorry to hear of your problems. As Admin say it’s best to seek a specialist opinion if you can. The usual process would be to give you a Holter monitor for maybe a week to see how many episodes you’re having. The most popular betablocker for heart seemed to be Bisoprolol. However betablockers alone don’t always do the job so a specialist may consider if you’re a candidate for ablation or different drugs eg anti-arhythmics Hope you find something which helps. Best wishes
Hi, have you done an hotel? When you say "very frequently" what do you mean? How many per day?In principle, beta blockers do not improve para-sympathetic PVCs, those that worsen with rest. In this case, they only reduce the subjective perception of PVCs.
Ectopic beats likely become worse for reasons no one can ever be certain of, but the atrial mis-conduction that causes them seems to be something that slowly worsens over time. The cells in the atrium have been shown to be especially prone to any kind of "stretching" so issues such as hypertension and obesity, for example, will increase the chances of its becoming more prone to ectopic beats, including AF.
All betablockers work similarly and are said to help, with, in the UK, bisoprolol being the most popular since it is more specific to the heart. I take it daily but still get heavy and disturbing palpitations daily with AF maybe fortnightly but becoming more frequent.
I have pvcs, up to 20000 a day. Not sure what the cause is but they are usually triggered by swallowed air in oesophagus, stomach or bowels so I try to burp it out, avoid fizzy drinks and take care with hot drinks, it is easy to swallow air with them.
Magnesium has been a big help recently, very few pvcs since I upped my dose.
I took propranolol years ago, it helped a bit but made me weak, lowered my heart rate too much.
I also have EHS, electrohypersensitivity and this could be the main problem. For me it is real, I have proved it is physical though doctors don't believe it. The heart runs on electric impulses, we are bombarded with electric impulses from WiFi, phones, masts etc all day, what could possibly go wrong?
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SVT/pvc/pac
Does anyone have a real issue coping?
New and worried - Arrhythmia 
