what cures ectopics?

[smine]

i am new to this issue, only having had them since december 23rd last year... and since then i have had dozens to hundreds a day... surely there must be some way of stopping them?

it's very uncomfortable and distressing... i can't even sit on my couch at night anymore to watch tv - the thumping and constant irregularity makes my chest feel tired and i have to get on my treadmill and walk for an hour just to reduce them...

[Arnie365]

Hi smine

well the good thing is you are exercising to get rid of them whcih though not a doctor would think rules out any sort of heart issue.

I woudl always advise someone to get checked out by a doctor though and then TRUST what they tell you. This is from my own experience of doubting them, being sure they had missed something etc etc and having numerous ECGs and blood tests over months only to be told the same thing. As soon as I started accepting I had anxiety and that was causing my chest pains, they have reduced a lot. Not gone altogether yet but it has made a difference.

Also, easier said than done but try not to panic when you get them You will only release adrenaline which will make your heart speed up making the situation worse.

[smine]

thank you arnie, i will be seeing my gp tomorrow, they have been closed and i didnt think it was urgent enough to pay for after hours care... but i just realised i havent really read anyone saying they did x y z and now they dont get them any more, im hoping there is some kind of fix as one or two are ok but to have so many at once really is draining and a bit concerning. i am not aware of suffering from anxiety... i wish i knew what causes mine

[Arnie365]

Neither was I aware! That's the hard part it's in your sub conscious mind so you don't know. Only between 1-10% of your thoughts come from your conscious mind the rest is all subconscious.

I really struggled to believe it was anxiety as I always got my chest pains without feeling anxious then cue the panic and anxiety but my gp and therapist both assured me I was feeling anxious bringing on the chest pains I just didn't know it!

[steveo]

Must be anxiety related surely. I'm saying this as a new sufferer from HP myself. Had anxiety for longer than I care to remember but only recently (probably around Christmas time too!) I've been having pounding heart palps as well as fluttery chests that are quite scary.
They are worse when I lie down in bed at night.
The problem is I also feel short of breath and light headed/dizzy...but.... I also think I have shortness of breath due and dizzyness due to the palps, not the other way round.

Was just trying to sleep now as a matter of fact and came straight on here when I got worried about it, but even doing this is making my heart beat much calmer.
I still will see a GP and a recommend everyone who experiences any issues with the heart the same but I'm 28, very fit healthy and active and am suffering bad stress/anxiety.

This is a brand new symptom for me!

[smine]

i'm not convinced anxiety is the cause of mine... i really dont feel anxious at all, and i am now in my second episode of palpitations (since this morning, after a week with none). our family is on holidays since mid december and we are relaxing at home, going on outings together, nothing stressful or dramatic... i have had tests (ecg, bloods) but nothing unusual showed up

[Arnie365]

Smile, read my second post on this thread. It's totally normal and exactly what I had that I wasn't anxious and felt fine then the pains came on.

It's because the anxiety is lurking in your subconscious and is likely to be about something from your past rather than what's happening now.

Through therapy I've traced mine to seeing my grandad have a heart attack when I was 5 though I have no recollection of it and only found out about it on Christmas Eve when my mum just happened to mention it in passing conversation. This is probably where my fear of death and having a heart attack comes from which I've always had. I'm about to become a dad as well so I guess I'm even more anxious about dying and not being there for my child. Add the two together and I can see how my sub conscious mind must be working overtime on this. I think I'm quite lucky that my underlying causes seem to be quite straight forward. I've got to this point in 3 therapy sessions. Unfortunately some people's issues are so deep rooted it takes a while to dig them up but now I know what's driving my anxiety it's started to get less and less. Cbt is also working really well for me. Hardly any negative thoughts are getting through now whereas I could fill pages in one data few weeks ago. My chest pains have reduced significantly in the past few weeks as well. It's no co-incidence. My heart problem I was convinced I had hasn't magically healed itself!

[smine]

Smile, read my second post on this thread. It's totally normal and exactly what I had that I wasn't anxious and felt fine then the pains came on.

It's because the anxiety is lurking in your subconscious and is likely to be about something from your past rather than what's happening now.

Through therapy I've traced mine to seeing my grandad have a heart attack when I was 5 though I have no recollection of it and only found out about it on Christmas Eve when my mum just happened to mention it in passing conversation. This is probably where my fear of death and having a heart attack comes from which I've always had. I'm about to become a dad as well so I guess I'm even more anxious about dying and not being there for my child. Add the two together and I can see how my sub conscious mind must be working overtime on this. I think I'm quite lucky that my underlying causes seem to be quite straight forward. I've got to this point in 3 therapy sessions. Unfortunately some people's issues are so deep rooted it takes a while to dig them up but now I know what's driving my anxiety it's started to get less and less. Cbt is also working really well for me. Hardly any negative thoughts are getting through now whereas I could fill pages in one data few weeks ago. My chest pains have reduced significantly in the past few weeks as well. It's no co-incidence. My heart problem I was convinced I had hasn't magically healed itself!

congrats on your expecting status! and on your recovery. i will consider what you have said... today mine stopped about 2 hours after i ate some food (an orange & some fried egg) at lunchtime. it was the first food i had all day... however i dont know if it is related because they started today before i even got up... I was reading my ipad in bed. ive had no more all afternoon and am about to go to bed hoping they stay away. i had many 5-minute episodes today, with many ectopics in a row at times... quite unnerving. and odd that they just stopped after being so frequent earlier. am rather puzzled.

[smine]

just an update... 6 months after the onset of my continuous palps, they have not recurred with that intensity since january, and now i only get maybe 1 or 2 here and there and seem to be caused by posture changes or breathing changes - which i think was pretty normal for me, but hard to say exactly since i didn't really pay attention to them until i had those episodes.

i can't explain why i had them in december or why they were so frequent... and i can't explain why they went away again.

one odd thing i did see... i have a deep horizontal dent and ridge in my right thumbnail dating back to december last year. none of my other nails are affected. and there are no dents after that date. it has now almost grown out. no idea if it was related to the episodes or not. i've never had horizontal dents or ridges before, and at the time i didn't recall any injury to the nail bed which could have caused it.

[Pinktel]

I get those nail dents if my thyroid is too low, also get more ectopics/pvcs when hypothyroid, perhaps get your bloods checked next time you are visiting gp?