Can Seasonal Allergies Cause PVC's?

Hi everyone, I'm Alex.
I'm a 22 year old male, with no prior health problems.
And I don't drink, smoke or do drugs of any kind.
And I also normally live in Southern California.

Almost two months ago I moved out to South Georgia/Northern Florida to visit my mother.
Since the first night I arrived I have had the worst allergies of my life.
Constantly night and day I am sneezing and have a cough and itchy/watery eyes.
I started taking a holistic allergy medication that the local pharmacist recommended called Health*Star Allergy Relief and the active ingredient is Chlorpheniramine Maleate.
I looked the active ingredient up and found out that one of the side effects is heart palpitations/PVC's

I started taking the medicine on 3/15/11
I got my first set of PVC's on the afternoon of 4/1/11

I have never had a recognizable PVC before in my life.

They were happening to me very very frequently, like at least 4 or 5 a minute.

That night my mother and I went to the emergency room. I was taken in and immediately hooked up to a monitor and had an EKG. The doctor came in and said my EKG was perfectly normal, I had a faster than normal heartbeat but that was likely due to the stress of coming in and being scared.
They also took blood samples and didn't say whether or not those were ok, I assume they were or they would have said so.
The doctor listened to my heart and said everything was perfect, no murmur or anything else out of the ordinary.

On the monitors they saw I was having PVC's. They said they didn't know what causes them, but they were benign.
They also said that they weren't a problem unless I was having 5 or 6 in rapid sequence. The most I had back-to-back, according to the nurses observing my monitor, were two.

That was 8 days ago now and they have yet to fully stop. They still scare me every time they come up, I try to ignore them and tell myself that they aren't harmful, but it's hard.

I read online that allergies of all kinds can cause heart palpitations. I have allergies back in So-Cal, but never as badly as I do now. I may get a stuffy nose or itchy eyes every once in a while, but here in a South Georgia, it has been a constant thing. Every symptom of hay fever is happening to me all at once it seems. They are the worst allergies I have ever had.

Could my random PVC's be caused by my extreme seasonal allergies?
And when I return to Southern California and get away from the allergies completely, will the PVC's ever stop?

Good Evening,

Antihistamines  can make a heart arrhythmia worse or cause palpitations.  I would consult your Dr. re what medications to use including OTC and natural medications.

Also we have an allergy thread so feel free to post in there .

Kindly,

Kitt

Heartthread,

Your experiences sound identical to mine, including all the tests you've had. I recommend running. Start out light and work your way up, I do around 2 miles a few times a week, but I started out around 3/4 of a mile. You really need to work the heart, its a muscle just like any other and the stronger it gets the better off it will be. I will still sometimes get palpitations while running, but they will not harm you, just like they don't harm you now. Results for me were almost instant. Within two weeks my palpitations were 99% gone. However, you have to keep running multiple times a week. When I stopped running they were back two weeks later. I was having palpitations again for about 2 months and then started running again. They were gone again within days and haven't returned.

I hope this works for you. Let me know. Don't be afraid, I was a t first, but I ran through it and it really helped me and continues to.

Hello Newbie,

I cannot think of any mechanism by which allergies themselves could cause PVCs.  However, the white cell/histamine activity of a horrible allergy situation is extremely stressful, and the constant sneezing, coughing, and shortness of breath could be factors.

 

Those are real stressors, adrenaline-boosters, and your twitchy heart detests extra adrenaline.  Many allergy medications contain pseudoephedrine, which a sensitive heart also hates, because of its similarity to adrenaline.

 

Wondering what medication you are on ? The facts that you're young and have had an extensive  workup all point to a benign condition. Please remember I am not a physician.  These are just my personal comments.

 

I wish you the best and stick with us.

 

Kindly,

Kitt

Hi.  I am new here, and stumbled on this forum in search of answers. 

Like many of you, I have suffered from PVC's for years, have seen multiple doctors, have had the battery of tests, and still am without an answer. 

A few years ago, I started a journal in an attempt to notice any clues as to what made the PVC's start/continue/stop/return.  Looking over the journal recently I noticed that my symptoms seem to subside in the months of october, november, december.  I live in New Jersey.  I also noticed that seasonal allergy symptoms in many instances, accompanied my PVC symptoms.  In fact, the PVC's subsided this year about a month ago (right on schedule), only to return in full force last sunday, which coincidentally, followed a major allergy attack (lots of sneezing, nose blowing).   So it crossed my mind this week that just perhaps, the two are related?   I thought to myself that I was losing my mind even considering this connection!  Boy, was I was so happy to stumble on the posts here.   

I have considered taking an allergy medication just to test it out, but I do tend to react to antihistamines with a rapid heartrate, so I am really torn.  Perhaps I can try a half dose of benadryl at night to start. 

To further complicate matters, I have also read on other forums that allergies and the subsequent sneezing/coughing can aggravate a hiatal hernia, which seems also have a connection to PVCs according to many posters.  So if this is the case, antihistamines will not help after the horse is out of the barn, but rather would help as a preventative.

What are your thoughts, and have any of you had other updates since this was last discussed?

Thanks so much!

I suffer your symptoms as well. One treatment that's always helped me well was from Dr. Andrew Weill, who suggested taking L-Carnitine (500mg daily) for palpitations. It will not do anything for the allergies, but somehow it works for the palpitations. I come to regard allergies a real dampener on my life. Mother Nature does have a cruel sense of humor!

I'm 37 yr old male. I have had PVC palpitations for over two years. Went to ER at least twice and seen cardio dr many times. Been on heart monitor twice, done stress test. Dr said heart is normal. I agree palpitation is hard to get used to. Running helps. I recently notice allergies makes I worse from sneezing a lot. Good rest helps as well.

44 y.o. male in generally good health, living in CA, eating fairly healthy - little to no caffeine (even sodas), occasional splurge, drink red wine regularly (which helped to lower my b.p. & raised my HDL (good Chol.).

I too suffer from seasonal (spring) allergies.  I notice that each spring, like clockwork, when I show allergy symptoms (sneezing, watery itchy eyes), that my heart palpitations/flutters increase in occurance.  I may get them once a month during the summer or late winter, rarely in the fall.  However, once things bloom, my allergies hit and so too do my PVC's.  This has happened for the last 5 years when my allergies have been their worst.  I had many of the same tests, EKG, stress test (treadmill), blood tests, etc.  All were normal.

There deffinately is a strong coorilation between allergies and my PVC's.

I also notice, as others have posted, that regular exercise helps to lower the frequency of the flutters, even during allergy season.  I didn't excersise before. Being sedentary is generally not good, including for these symptoms.  In the beginning, I noticed some flutters during/after being on the eliptical for 20-30 minutes of low/moderate workout.  I just pushed on knowing that my medical tests were fine, and that exercise is needed.  Eventually, the flutters subsided during/after exercise.

My observations during the last 5 years, all other things being constant (i.e. diet, stress, etc):

Highest level of/Most PVC incidences occured during:

• Allergy season (spring), PVC's more pronounced with a bad allergy season.
• Lack of good night sleep, compounded when consecutive days involved.
• Being sedentary, Lack of exercise (~3x weekly).

Moderate level of PVC incidence:

• Lack of good night sleep, compounded when consecutive days involved.
• Being sedentary, Lack of exercise (~3x weekly).

Lowest level of PVC incidence:

• Being sedentary, Lack of exercise (~3x weekly).

For me, the #1 factor was allergy season.  #2 is when I don't get enough rest.

I know how terrible one can feel when dealing with these palpitations/flutters.  It's very, very unnerving.  And, when you stress about it, of course it makes it worse because of the increased levels of stress hormones, etc.  It's the classic snowball effect that feels like an avalanche in some instances.

As for dealing with my allergies issues, I usually only use ketotifen eye drops.  If the allergies are really bad, I will resort to adding in the use of Fluticasone nasal spray.  However, I try to limit the use of Fluticasone because it can sometimes give me more feelings of PVC.  I seem to be pretty sensitive to many medications so I try to limit their use.  What I find works very well for me is using a nasal flush, like the NeilMed Sinus Flush.  It's a bit strange to use at first, but after getting used to it and learning how to drain any residual water, it's pretty amazing!  Even after cutting the grass and then sneezing like crazy, If I rinse, about 95% of the time it stops my allergy symptoms.

As always, check with your health care professional regarding your symptoms and overall medical condition.

I hope my experiences can be of some use to those looking for answers out there.

Cheers!  

 

[Edit]

Forgot to mention...When I've got serious seasonal allergies, it congests me at night.  Congestion tends to lead to not breathing as well as one normally would, which in turns means your not getting a well rested sleep...waking up tired in the morning.

In other words, congestion due to allergies is linked with less rested sleep which leads to being tired the next day which in turn can lead to PVC symptoms.  For this reason, I sometimes use Breatherite strips to help open the congested nasal passages in a non-medicated way.  It really does help me with regards to allergies & PVC's.

Post Edited (jwill) : 4/17/2014 1:15:17 PM (GMT-6)