I get pvc’s (preventricular contractions). i’m 42, fit, healthy, 120/70 blood pressure, good ekg. these things have bothered me since i was 16, but have come in mass in the last week. my doc says not to worry, but when my heart has an irregular beat so often, it makes me wonder if there’s anything else cooking. pisses me off.
anybody have these, and if so, what have you done? medication? i have a stress test 12.20, but these things are bothering me NOW and i want to swim tonite and run friday, sat. and sunday. maybe i need more action from my wife. 4x a week isn’t enough.
This is definately not my field but my wife has the same thing on occasion. She’s 37 and very fit. Her doc also told her not to worry about this. You might ask your doc for a referral to a cardiologist just to be sure.
So go ahead and work out. PVCs could be from a couple of different things, and are you sure that that is truly what you’ve got going on?
Hopefully, the stress echo and treadmill test will reveal any pathologies. Depending upon the results, it could be nothing (what did your EKG reveal?) or it could involve conservative treatment with a couple of different medications or even surgery, but this isn’t meant to alarm you or give you cause for concern.
Like I said, go ahead and work out. You’re going to get a hell of one, anyway, during the stress test.
not light headed, but i definately feel a momentary difference when i get a pvc. i’ve had 2 holter tests, ekgs (everyhting fine) echo’s (everyhting’s fine), cholesterol, etc. over the years. everyhting has always turned out negative and no problems. my doc swears it’s nothing and that i shouldn’t worry, but they’ve been more prominent lately. my diet is excellent, no smoking, very low fat. i’ve heard extra magnesium can help. any validity?
Have you been training harder than normal? I get them about once a week usually during the summer when I’m training. I’ve had them my whole life but had it checked out when I realized not everyone got them. My doctor said not to worry, although the electrocardiogram showed an abnormally strong impulse coming from one of the ventricles. He said “ I’ve only seen this kind of thing in the military with Navy Seals…” He was quite concerned until I told him how much I train. His suspicion is that it has to do with electolyte imbalance. Who knows? It’s kind of a pleasant sensation but I do tend to stop and pay attention when my heartbeat totally stops for a few seconds before firing up again.
I think the magnesium is meant to help smooth out the heart’s chemical/electrical balance and how it sends signals through the cardiac muscle telling it when and it what manner to beat. It can’t hurt, I guess.
I’d wait to see if anything comes out on the stress echo and treadmill test before freaking out, if indeed that’s called for. You could be experiencing a vaso-vagal response, which might appear to be a PVC but which in fact is not.
Do you get these only when exercising, or also at rest and relaxing?
Classic PVCs, Tri Nic, and nothing to worry about. I’d be curious to know the amount of caffeine and if there’s any herbal supplementation going on. Recent literatures points to a possible connection with certain supplements and cardiopulmonary pathologies.
You, and most likely rodgers, experience that “heart skipping a beat” sensation just like a portion of the population as a whole. It’s just that we’ve been conditioned to believe that the heart is this “well-oiled machine” that never misses a beat, when in fact it can miss them quite often. It’s like a machine that depends upon electrical signals, and sometimes, because of electrolytic imbalances or other issues, the heart will re-regulate itself to compensate.
I’d say that neither of you has anything to worry about. I myself had an episode of PVCs for a couple of years, but they’ve not been around for the last 4 years or so.
Have either of you had your homocysteine levels checked? Pre and post-exercise?
On blood samples drawn from finishers at the Ironman Triathlon in Kona, it was noted that homocysteine levels were at a level that one would normally see in a heart attack victim, for what it’s worth.
On most physicals, you can ask the physician to check for homocysteine levels in a blood sample. There’s a newer, more accurate test, though what it is escapes me at the moment. Supposedly, it’s a better marker for future cardiac problems than homocysteine.
i didn’t think i was along on this one. my doc - a good, board certified michigan grad in his late 40s - says he see it all the time, and more often in active people. i have cut caffiene to zero (can’t drink the major dickason’s blend from peete’s coffee in the a.m. which sucks), not even green tea.
i get them at rest, at play, running, riding, swimming, thinking, eating; granted this is unusual frequency vs what is normal for me, which is what i do not udnerstand. from what others are saying, i’ve heard electrolyte deficiency - i drink too much gatorade and eat too good for that. but tomorrow i plan on calling the doc back and getting checked out right away. it may be the same old story - nothing to do with blockage, weakness, any other abnormal condiiton - they jsut happen and don’t worry. but just sitting here typing i’ve had 2 nice ones.
i lifted weights for about 45 minutes tonite, nothing extreme. had a very small one during that period. seems they show up more often when i’m not working out. thanks for everyone’s input.
not crazy at all…i was thnking the same thing!!! my answer to my own worry was “no”, and that was after being crazy attentive to every motion/sensation/etc of my body!! you will feel them a little more lying on your right side, but i don’t feel any more frequency.
i jsut decided that screw it - i’m going to do a brick in the a.m. before work!!! if i die on the treadmill, then i go out wiht a smile doing what i love to do!! gunna make my wife mad, and the staff at the Y won’t like it either. but-unless you’re ill from these palpatations, everyone seems to think they are mostly harmless. no caffiene, booze or double chocolate deep fried snickers bars. excercise - good. stressing about this -not good.
The thing about laying on your left side is that the muscles and tendons upon which hang your lungs and other organs are predominantly more apparent on the left side, so therefore when you lay on your left they’ll hang down somewhat more and put relatively more weight on your pleural cavity and such than if you laid on your right side.
Does that make sense? Do you see what I’m talking about? Rotate from side-to-side or sleep more on your right side. It’ll make a difference.