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Is 11,000 PVCs a day going to kill me?

Hello,

My name is Elliott, I am a 31 year old male.

About a month ago I was laying in bed and all the sudden my heart began to THUD in my chest again and again about every 10 seconds or so. This scared me beyond anything I have experienced, I was sure something terrible was happening.

Since then i have ended up in the Emergamcy room 4 times this month with no insurance.

I have been seeing a cardiologist and have done ECG, ECHO and 24 hr holter. Which revealed 11,663 total ectopica or 11.27% ectopic heart beats (PVCs) per day. Some of the in pairs (231) bigeminy (176) trigeminy (67) and (399) supra ventricular beats.

They seem to come on strong the moment I sit down or lay down, but the doctor says I have them all day, so maybe I just don’t notice during the day.

But this is turning my life upside down and throwing me deeper into depression and anxiety every day.

I am currently taking 5mg of bystolic (beta blocker) per day. Haven’t really noticed much of a change so far and I have been taking it for 1.5 weeks. The only change I have noticed is that my heart rate drops I to the low 50s at night sometimes lower. And maybe left symptoms during the days usually after 11am.

i am desperate, if anybody has these issues please reach out or if you have any advice or words for me I would greatly appreciate it .

Thanks everyone
3 Responses
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1807132 tn?1318743597
Was your Echo normal?  In an otherwise structurally normal and healthy heart 11k beats is not considered a health issue.  The literature I have read is that the load has to be somewhere near 20k.  It's possible you irritated the heart in some way and the activity will ease up.  they tend to come and go.  I would cut our caffeine if you can and watch spicy foods.  If you have acid reflux take antacids to relieve and stomach distress.  And work on stress and anxiety.  The hormones that are released when we are in a state of stress and anxiety affect the heart.  Those are the big triggers. Hopefully the BP meds help and the activity eases up.  I know how distracting and upsetting they can be but in an otherwise healthy heart you have nothing to be concerned about.  Take care.  
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I had ~ 14000 a day for years. Still hiked, xc ski, backpacked. Got rid of them with taurine, l-carnitine, l-arginine (500 mg each/day), 2 weeks to see improvement, gone in 4 weeks.
Helpful - 0
1 Comments
I'll echo @pvcs_gone - I was in the 10k+/day for almost a year as well and they were driving me nuts.  I also started taurine and l-arginine regularly and mine stopped.  I'm still taking metoprolol er 25mg just because I don't want to change anything.  :)  OK, well I did bring back caffeine and some drinks!  These supplements don't seem to fix everyone as there seems to be a lot of underlying causes that trigger them.  It worked for me so you can also just start going down the list of things that have worked for others and try them out.  It's not instant though so you have to try each one for several weeks.  It takes a while to make a difference.

One quick note - the metroprolol didn't do anything except make them bang less.  That's still something though.
1616953 tn?1443835511
I had the same issue.  If I was running around they went away.  Going to bed they would hammer away.  I think my number from the Holter was 5000.  This is not normal.  My Doctor said "Everyone has PVCs.  Even I have them.  I probably have x number a day and last night you have had ....... Ah..... 5000???  Humm.... Does this cause you a lot of distress?"  Well if thinking every night I'm going to kack counts YES!  Well he looked at my chart and noted that I had heart surgery and explained that this sometimes causes this type of thing and if I wanted it fixed he felt that he could probably do it by doing a heart ablation.  I did go for that and it resolved the issue perfectly.  I'm very glad to say I would recomend Dr "EastCoast"  His last name sounds like that and he told me this was as close as anyone could say it.  Anyway having an ablation is never a 100% sure fire fix if you do go that way but its an option to ponder.  Good luck!  
Helpful - 1
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