PAC's

I am a 36 year old male and I have had palpitations (on and off) since I was around 16 or so. This past weekend I woke with numerous palpitations as I was lying down, have never had so many in my life. When I got up and moved round they went away, I noticed a few sporadic ones during the day but that was it. That night when I went to bed they kicked into high gear again, getting 1 every minute or 2. Got so bad I went to the hospital and got an EKG, Blood work, chest x-ray and all came back fine. Over the past few days I have noticed that they get worse when I am laying down, even though today they seemed to kick in as I was working and have been going haywire all day. I did go an see my doc yesterday and he did a quick ekg which caught 2 of these and he said that they actually looked more like PAC's and not PVC's, I always thought these things were PVC's. He told me they are not to be concerned about but that he was going to set me up with a holter monitor (I am scheduled next week)and that he would look to prescribe a beta blocker to take when they really are troublesome. I am coming here tonight, as I continue to get palpitations which are driving me crazy (and is very depressing) because I have a few questions.

One thing I do suffer from is GERD and the day before these palps started kicking in I had a bad and painful attack, one of the worst ever actually. Could GERD play a role in these things? I have seen some people say yes and some say no. I am just trying to figure out why (all of a sudden), I have this flare up and not just a flare up but I have never had palps that have been this frequent. Also, what is the difference between a PVC and PAC, is one more dangerous than the other? One last question, does anyone have any tips to help calm these things down? I know that relaxation and staying away from caffeine will help....

Sorry for the long winded message it's just that I am a father of 4 young children and this is really scaring the heck out of me.

Thanks for listening.

--Dez

Many people have both PVCs and PACs - they are contractions originating simply from different parts of the heart.  One in the upper chambers (atria) and one in the lower chambers (ventricles).  It is common to have both but they often feel similarly (if one feels them at all - a lot of people don't).

I experienced horrible palpitations due to hyperthyroidism and at that point, only beta blockers were able to ease the symptoms.  Prior to that, I had occasional PVC/PAC runs and ironically, the best way for me to rid myself of them was to exercise.  I'd take a 20-minute run and feel much better afterwards.  If you've been given the go-ahead to exercise, it might be worth a shot.  Also, staying away from alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco will help.

A lot of people with GERD find they also have concurrent heart palpitations.  You might check out the GERD forum and inquire there, I'm sure they'd be able to commiserate!