PVCs are ruining my life

Thank you Kitt my husband is a physician and he endorsed me trying it. Actually he is aittle disappointed with his own profession since I went to four doctors , tried channel blockers to no avail. No docs suggested the magnesium , just a random forum bit it worked like a miracle for me. The very next day they were gone. My husband is thrilled with it and is telling the four docs I went to about it. I know this May not help everyone but it might work for someone so I wanted to get it out there.

I have been suffering from pvcs for 14 days. They started out of the blue. I was having as many as 20 per minute in occasions and I never got a bloody minutes peace. Lying down, relaxing,running ,walking, eating , drinking. They were my life... I stopped the nasty buggers, and here's how. I read all the blurb about diet and certain lack in chemicals that can cause irregular heartbeats. You see I was on a nasty tablet called floxitine which sucks all the sodium from your body and causes irregular heartbeat. Please don't think I'm crazy because I was desperate. I woke up, took 4*250mg in zinc and magnessium tablets + 2 milk thistle + centrum award winning vitamin. I then went out and bought a new tablet from boots simply called 'pulse'. I took 2 of those , I think it is a very strong- condeced cod liver oil tablet and pricy at 10 quid for 120 tablets. I then consumed 4 oysters , and a kilo pot of mussels.

Today I have woke up after 14 days of a nightmare without a single missed beat.. Is is to do with the lack of some chemical in your body.. Hell yes for me.. I have at least today without a single missed beat and can't believe it has stopped after it was causing so much misery .. I hope my solution gives someone at least a days peace.

Honestly, l would have tried anything / everything. Voodoo, eating dirt off the street to stop these things. I do not believe in rationality when you suffer. I am a do what you must at any cost type of man to achieve the results. If you need to puke your guts out to stop these blighted pvcs. Then my advice is to have ready access to the toilet.. Do anything , try anything and be dammed with moderation .

I was like this last year PACs, PVCs and waking during the night with a heart rate at 140bpm-180bpm and a racing heart when I first got out of bed. **I also was having digestive issues**, bloating and intestinal pain. I ended up in A&E twice as my GPs would not deal with a tachy over 160bpm and phoned an ambulance.

As pooh1953 said these heart issues would improve after burping??? A cardiologist gave me the all clear and said PAC/PVC is normal it is just some people get it more often and some people notice them more, but my tachy was sinus rhythm which was odd for an arrythmia, so could only suggest an electrophysiology study (invasive and not without risk). I had a strong feeling my stomach bug and digestive issues where just too coincidental and my BIL (a medic in a different field) did say there was no reason to doubt this view. I undertook a lot of research and trial and error after getting no help from the GPs who did not understand how fed up, stressed and tired these issues can make you and who did not have a clue what to do with me and did not want to refer me to gastro.

To cut a very long story short I found mine is due to food intolerances and Histamine and controlling the Histamine has "cured" the heart issues. Basically GPs/Cardiologists do not tell you about this and I firmly now believe many people are suffering when they don't need to (hence coming on here to try and help anyone suffering alone like I did last year before I joined the dots through diet diaries and endless research through scientific papers etc...). My GI consultant (also a uni prof. so up on the research) who I ended up paying private for as I needed the help, has also very clearly said what happens in your gut DOES affect your heart and PVC/PACs are common in IBS patients.

Histamine is the mechanism for postprandial tachycardia (speeding your heart up after you eat which is normal, as you will divert more blood flow to the intestine so there is greater demand like for example the demand from your muscles when you exercise). It is also why food intolerance aps now diagnose food intolerances using heart rate variability monitoring. Histamine Intolerance is not recognised yet in the UK, or US so do not expect your GP to know that much. It is however being recognised in some countries in Europe where PAC/PVC/Arrythmia is in the main list of symptoms. Histamine is a normal chemical signal mechanism in the body and we have receptors everywhere:

•Histamine H1 receptors: Smooth muscle and endothelial cells affecting skin; blood vessels (Benadryl and Claritin block activity of these receptors)
•Histamine H2 receptors: Cells in the intestines control acid secretion, abdominal pain, and nausea; heart rate (Histamine H2 receptor antagonist drugs have been used to reduce symptoms of dyspepsia and GERD)
•Histamine H3 receptors: Central nervous system controlling nerves, sleep, appetite and behavior
•Histamine H4 receptors: Thymus, small intestine, spleen, colon, bone marrow and white blood cells; immune function and inflammation

Histamine is released into your gut in the early hours of the morning and you need enzymes to break it down. Not everyone has enough of these... and probably explains why my issues hit me like a train after having a nasty stomach bug and the tachycardia was on time for it's 1:30am appointment most nights. I suspect I do not produce enough DAO, which makes sense as I also became lactose intolerant after the stomach bug as I no longer produced lactase. Most enzymes are produced in the ends of the finger-like villi and these can become damaged (often temporarily) after stomach infections/parasites etc...

I really hope this helps someone. My advice is; as odd and unrelated as it seems keep a diet diary along with a heart incident diary you may well find you cause is something you least suspect - my main cause was the humble potato! Do look at the nightshade group of foods as these are in the same group as atropine and we know what that does!

eta: if anyone wants any further info please just ask (this is the edited version of my experience or the post would be even longer!), I really do understand how awful you can feel when going through this.

Post Edited (Flo_Z) : 6/13/2015 1:29:37 PM (GMT-6)

I was diagnosed with benign PVCs last year. In fact I am coming up on the one year mark next month. I have been reading this thread for a while but only yesterday registered. This is my first post. After reading so many opinions, I have purchased the powdered magnesium and am giving it a shot. I believe that this condition is closely related to some sort of disorder with the vagus nerve and I find it correlated to anxiety levels in my life. I have finally accepted that it isn't going to kill me. I know people who have real health issues... Life threatening conditions... And have decided that although they are annoying, I am lucky to have this and not some horrible disease. Guess I can try everything but in the end, I'm blessed to have a benign condition. And if you can look at the glass as half full, maybe it might help you feel less anxious. Thank you for sharing your story. It has helped me.

V23:

If you are considering taking a magnesium supplement for PVCs, let your doctor give you a suggestion regarding dosage and when to take it. It's not good if you have kidney issues and can cause diarrhea.

I have been having what I think is PVCs for the past 3 months. I'm not sure what is causing them at first I didn't really notice them but they came on in July after a very stressful month. I went to my regular doctor. After I went told him about my sister n law whose flutters we're due to gerd, which I have, they put me on Prilosec. This did not help they seem to get worse or maybe I just noticed them more I ended up in the ER at the end of July. They did an EKG which was normal. I followed up with the cardiologists who after doing EKG Echo 24-hour Holter monitor. He diagnosed me with benign PVCs. He didn't put me on medicine cuz he said there's a trigger and if I find out what the trigger is it will help them. Needless to say they are very debilitating.

They all started with a flutter in the throat and most of them I feel in my throat constantly. Sometimes I do get them when I'm relaxed but mostly they occur when I walk or do any strenuous exercise or even bend over. They make my whole body tense up it makes my nerves feel like they're on fire it feels like they come from my stomach and rise up through my throat sometimes I feel like I have to burp with them but I know I'm getting a PVC because I take my pulse and I have a Skipped Beat. I've tried magnesium Gas-X I'm on Nexium I was on Prilosec nothing seems to help. I went to my GI doctor and he feels a lot of this might be GI related I did have an ultrasound on my gallbladder which was normal and having an endo at the end of the month I was diagnosed in 2001 with a slight hiatal hernia and GERD any advice I need to get to the bottom of this all I do is think about this 24/7. I am a 54 year old female. Also. I am on celexa for depression back in 2013. I Never go off it.

I have had PVCs at various times, sometimes several a minute and lasting for days, even weeks. No other symptoms, but I absolutely hate the way they feel. My doctor says it's too much caffeine and anxiety. I do have anxiety, but I don't really believe the caffeine thing because I can have a lot of caffeine most days with no effect. I can go for months with no PVCs, then they'll hit me again. I started taking small amounts of magnesium daily and also started paying attention to how much potassium I'm getting, and these things seem to help (although my dr. didn't think I could be low on either one). I also decided a few months ago to eliminate aspartame from my diet, just to see if that changed anything. In doing that, I sort of accidentally discovered a possible correlation between my PVCs and RED DYE #40. I had been drinking a lot of a certain sugar-free drink mix containing red #40, which I eliminated because of the aspartame. My very frequent PVCs calmed down. When they started again one day , I went looking for what could have triggered them and noticed I had consumed some red #40 in another food. This happened again a couple of times, so now I'm wondering if red #40 really is the problem. I'm not into food conspiracies but I have read that red #40 can affect hyperactivity in kids, so maybe it can affect your heart. I haven't had PVCs in awhile, but woke up today having them. So I started thinking about what I ate yesterday, and really I didn't eat much other than pasta and fish; but I did eat a packaged snack cake (swiss cake roll) so I checked the ingredients and sure enough, it contained red dye #40. I'm no doctor or scientist, but I've seen enough correlation to make me avoid red #40 from now on. Just wanted to share this in case it might help someone else.

As stated too much mag is not good. Always seek medical advice regarding supplements. Me pharmacist i trust. Med specialists...combos including adjunct treatnents. HT