Heart Skips and Magnesium

[skipolot]

I have mild MVP and had all the EKG's, Echo's, Holter and Event Monitor's galore. Always been told my heart is fine. When the MVP first started in my early 20's it was just Sinus Tachycardia. The older I have gotten the more PVC's have come ( I am 35). First it was ocassionally, now they are coming in a series. Once again told they were benign and my heart is fine. Put me on Atenolol 25 mg a day...told me I can increase if I need to, but it seems to me that this beta blocker makes me sleepy and depressed lowers my blood pressure and now I wonder if the slowing of the heart rate is not making my skips worse. Should I increase my atenolol, stop my atenolol or should I try Magnesium. I have heard alot of people say that Magnesium has helped them. If I do stop taking the atenolol I know you are not supposed to stop all together how should I wean myself off of it, again I take 25 mg a day...sometimes I even skip a day.

[Dave2923]

   Magnesium certainly could help, but my understanding of how it helps is a similar mechanism to how beta blockers work, but just in a more natural (non-medication) and mild way, so if a beta blocker wasn't helping you I would guess that magnesium would not either. It is always worth a try though. I recently started taking Magnesium, CoQ10, Vitamin D, and Omega 3, and a large week-long wave of palpitations went away a few days into it, but that could have just been a placebo affect or coincidence as my PVC's come and go like that.
     Honestly, if you have MVP though, then at least you know what the root cause of your issues is. Your ectopic  beats aren't as "idiopathic" as many others' as technically speaking MVP is a structural heart problem, although very mild and not necessarily life-threatening or compromising. I would just work with your doctor on monitoring and managing this condition. My mom knows a lady with MVP who has been going through bouts of palpitations for well over 40 years. She just goes through different naturally supplements and stuff, finding through the years that some work better than others.
      And of course going off a medicine should be done under doctor supervision if you are planning to get off beta blockers. You can have all kinds of weird side effects if you just drop it cold turkey.

[jkfrench]

I split my atenolol dosage in half.  I take 1/2 of the 25 mg in the am and 1/2 in the pm.  That has helped with the pvcs.  I also wondered by taking the entire pill if it was slowing things down too much as I was getting bursts of pvcs for a couple of hours at a time.  But breaking it in half has really helped.  Most days, I don't feel more than 20-50.  Good Luck.

[itdood]

Yea the meds decision should be done with your doctor.  I, like you, questioned meds when they didn't help or seemed to make things worse.  I went down many different paths.  

I messed around with my medications, I tried BBs and CCBs, which I felt made things worse.  I eventually just stopped and tried some other avenues but by then it was in consult with my cardiologist..

things did get better.  i don't know if it was the natural course of things or if something I did helped.  keep searching.

[is_something_wrong]

Hi!

It would be very bad if we suggested that you should stop taking medications. We can't do that.

Sleepiness and depression are rare side effects of Atenolol, as this beta blocker (opposite to Metoprolol and Propranolol) doesn't pass through the brain barrier in any high amount. But of course, a low blood pressure and slow heart rate may produce such symptoms, especially the first.

Yes, you are right that a slow heart rate can make PVCs worse.

You should ask your doctor what his opinion is. Anyone can try magnesium, it may help and it may not, it's impossible to say. If you have brady-arrhythmias such as heart blocks, or kidney disease, you should be careful with magnesium supplements.