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Periods of rapid Heart beats
sometimes when I am laying down or trying to go to bed I have periods rapid heart beats. The attacks last about 1-5 minutes. I also have some back pain and sometimes feel sick to my stomach. I have been to the doctor and he has giving medication for high blood pressure(atenolol). They also had me wear a holter monitor for 24 hour period. The result from the HM test was that I had SVT . He said it wasn't serious because I only had few extra beats in the 24 hour period but the day I wore the monitor I didn't have any symptoms. What can I do to reduce my risk of having these attacks,also what kind of medications are affective treatments. This is a very scare feeling and I feel like I have no control .
Hi,
Spend a few days looking over the posts and I am sure you will see how common SVT and PSVT is. Scary yes, but not likely serious providing you have been evaluated for it. Has the Atenolol helped?
If you get it upon lying down, try not eating or drinking any large meals within a couple of hours of lying down and avoid anything of significance (even too much water) within a hour or so of lying down. Avoid caffeine (coffee, tea, and chocolate) all day. Be careful about over the counter cold medications, and diet medications should not be used unless your Doctor approves. Also, some supplements can cause certain sensitive people to have arrhythymias (like myself), such as Mega-Vitamins, Ginko Biloba, and Saint Johns Wort to name a few. Also, try avoiding alcohol, if you use it, to see if that helps.
Try noting the position most likely to cause the problem. Is lying on your Leftside /Rightside /Back more likely to cause it? Avoid that posture immediately after lying down. It is not uncommon for people to experience some PVCs when lying down, and I believe that a PVC may, at times, be the motivation for the SVT episode.
Keep in touch with your Doctor. If an individual's heart is structurally sound, 1000s of PVCs in a day are likely of no significance.
Treatments can sometimes cause other types of arrhythmias, so often, unless the SVT is causing more serious problems, Doctors will not treat it. Betablockers (Atenolol and others) are a common first line of treatment for non life threatening arrhythmias as they are not prone to cause other arrhythmias.
Best of health to you and yours.
Spend a few days looking over the posts and I am sure you will see how common SVT and PSVT is. Scary yes, but not likely serious providing you have been evaluated for it. Has the Atenolol helped?
If you get it upon lying down, try not eating or drinking any large meals within a couple of hours of lying down and avoid anything of significance (even too much water) within a hour or so of lying down. Avoid caffeine (coffee, tea, and chocolate) all day. Be careful about over the counter cold medications, and diet medications should not be used unless your Doctor approves. Also, some supplements can cause certain sensitive people to have arrhythymias (like myself), such as Mega-Vitamins, Ginko Biloba, and Saint Johns Wort to name a few. Also, try avoiding alcohol, if you use it, to see if that helps.
Try noting the position most likely to cause the problem. Is lying on your Leftside /Rightside /Back more likely to cause it? Avoid that posture immediately after lying down. It is not uncommon for people to experience some PVCs when lying down, and I believe that a PVC may, at times, be the motivation for the SVT episode.
Keep in touch with your Doctor. If an individual's heart is structurally sound, 1000s of PVCs in a day are likely of no significance.
Treatments can sometimes cause other types of arrhythmias, so often, unless the SVT is causing more serious problems, Doctors will not treat it. Betablockers (Atenolol and others) are a common first line of treatment for non life threatening arrhythmias as they are not prone to cause other arrhythmias.
Best of health to you and yours.
Thanks for the advice. The atenolol does seem to be helping . I use to drinking alot of soda but since I have been having the attacks I have cut the soda out of my diet. I do have a bad habit of eat before I go to bed so I will take your advice and stop eat and drinking before I go to bed. The attacks seem to happen when I am lying on my back, what does that indicate to you. Thanks again for advice . I wish the best for you and yours.
Hi,
Anytime I have over eaten, I have been prone to an occasional run of PSVT. I used to be frightened (I still am to a degree) when they occur, but 3 weeks with a Loop Event Monitor showed several occurrences of the PSVT, and the technician seem almost bored when they would tell me that is was "just some PSVT".
Of course, anyone experiencing these problems need to be diagnosed by their Doctor and should never assume it to be benign. It seems like you have had the work-up, I encourage you to keep in touch with your Doctor if symptoms change or if you have any concerns.
I am not in a position (pardon the pun) to know what lying on your back indicates concerning your symptoms. I do know the story about the man that goes to the Doctor and says "Doctor, it hurts when I press here" (usually shown by the teller of the joke pressing on some part of his/her own body). The Doctor thinks for a minute and says "Then don't press there". If I had a Doctor tell me that my heart is structurally sound, and I knew that lying on my back tended to produce symptoms that I found unpleasant, I would avoid lying that way ;-)
My wife complains every (literally every) night about her heart missbeating when she lays down for the evening. I too have occasional problems. I do know that it is a common complaint that people have, not necessarily PSVT, but PVCs for sure. From my reading PVCs can initiate the PSVT, so I would believe that what you are experiencing is not uncommon. Also, the Doctor where I work (and very large Industrial Facility with it’s own medical center) says that the blood from the legs has something to do with the volume of blood increasing (apparently from your Heart’s perspective) when you lay down, it’s not being held in the legs by gravity anymore. I am sure that someone on this forum can give the dynamics of this situation in a manner more easy to understand, and also why the PVCs (and PSVT) may occur when you initially lay down for the evening.
Lastly, it seems that Vagal Responses might possibly be initiated by Reflux. The Vagus Nerve (look up Vegus Nerve on Wikipedia) will effect heart rate, too complex for me to try to explain here (the little that I know). Throughout this forum are posts of people that have arrhythmias that may be attributed (in part) to reflux. Being that reflux would be more pronounced when you lie down, this too may be a factor, and justification for avoiding food a few hours before going to bed (or even smaller quantities of water just before going to bed.)
Best of Health and Rhythm to you.
Anytime I have over eaten, I have been prone to an occasional run of PSVT. I used to be frightened (I still am to a degree) when they occur, but 3 weeks with a Loop Event Monitor showed several occurrences of the PSVT, and the technician seem almost bored when they would tell me that is was "just some PSVT".
Of course, anyone experiencing these problems need to be diagnosed by their Doctor and should never assume it to be benign. It seems like you have had the work-up, I encourage you to keep in touch with your Doctor if symptoms change or if you have any concerns.
I am not in a position (pardon the pun) to know what lying on your back indicates concerning your symptoms. I do know the story about the man that goes to the Doctor and says "Doctor, it hurts when I press here" (usually shown by the teller of the joke pressing on some part of his/her own body). The Doctor thinks for a minute and says "Then don't press there". If I had a Doctor tell me that my heart is structurally sound, and I knew that lying on my back tended to produce symptoms that I found unpleasant, I would avoid lying that way ;-)
My wife complains every (literally every) night about her heart missbeating when she lays down for the evening. I too have occasional problems. I do know that it is a common complaint that people have, not necessarily PSVT, but PVCs for sure. From my reading PVCs can initiate the PSVT, so I would believe that what you are experiencing is not uncommon. Also, the Doctor where I work (and very large Industrial Facility with it’s own medical center) says that the blood from the legs has something to do with the volume of blood increasing (apparently from your Heart’s perspective) when you lay down, it’s not being held in the legs by gravity anymore. I am sure that someone on this forum can give the dynamics of this situation in a manner more easy to understand, and also why the PVCs (and PSVT) may occur when you initially lay down for the evening.
Lastly, it seems that Vagal Responses might possibly be initiated by Reflux. The Vagus Nerve (look up Vegus Nerve on Wikipedia) will effect heart rate, too complex for me to try to explain here (the little that I know). Throughout this forum are posts of people that have arrhythmias that may be attributed (in part) to reflux. Being that reflux would be more pronounced when you lie down, this too may be a factor, and justification for avoiding food a few hours before going to bed (or even smaller quantities of water just before going to bed.)
Best of Health and Rhythm to you.
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