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Avatar universal

Pvcs and low heart rate

I’ve been dealing with pvcs for years and now with an Apple Watch, I notice my heart rate fluctuates between 40 and 80 while sedentary.  I’ve been getting low heart rate notifications (below 50 for 10 minutes) a few times a day.  I see a cardiologist regularly and he doesn’t seem concerned.  My echos are normal and I wore a holter monitor last year after my Covid vaccine as the pvcs went wild.  I had 38,600 in 24 hrs.  Calmed down after that but I feel their increasing especially with the low heart rate.

Anyone else have a heart rate problem like this?
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Avatar universal
Apple Watch is a wonderful thing, however, it does a terrible job at judging true heart rate on somebody with PVCs. The PVCs simply confuse the heart rate monitor in an Apple Watch. I would get one of those finger heart rate monitors, they’re pretty inexpensive, and they tend to be a bit more accurate than the watch. But in either case PVCs mess with these devices because the devices don’t know how to count the PVC or the recovery beat.

As for a low heart rate, I have that too, I typically run about 50 to 55 bpm. If I’m not exercising. During sleep, I can get down to the mid 30s  but usually am in the mid to upper 40s. My cardiologist said that is not anything to worry about, some athletes when they sleep their heart rate falls below 20 bpm. I am not an athlete, so I don’t expect to ever see that number, but under 50 especially when you are sleeping or relaxing  is not concerning to my cardiologist. You may want to ask yours to see if he or she agrees. Over time I have stopped listening to my Apple Watch as often because I think it just increases my anxiety to see my results.

All the best to you. :-)
Helpful - 1
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Thanks for your response.  I had another really bad episode and the NP at my cardiologist office put me on a beta blocker at the lowest dose.  It has worked wonders.  Also, I’ve stopped worrying about what the watch says since ER doc told me how unreliable it is for PVCs.  All is good for now☺️
Avatar universal
Hi I am new here but spotted your post and thought maybe you have a similar experience to me. I have ventricular eptopics and sometimes they occur every 2 or 3 beats this wakes me up and I've noticed my heart rate sits around 42-50 whilst in bed. Throughout the day it can fluctuate. Sometimes I can go a few hours without noticing the flutters and others it is a constant sensation. How do you cope with this? Are you on medication to manage it?
I have been reducing stressors and being more mindful with my diet but sometimes feel helpless. I'm 33 and have had them for a few years now but definitely felt worse lately and affecting my quality of life.
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First, I cut out caffeine, alcohol and sugar.  This helped but didn’t reduce the pvcs by much.  I also would take Xanax as needed which would reduce the anxiety that would increase the pvcs.  

Finally got my Doctor to take me seriously and  was put on the lowest dose of metoprolol and pvcs are very infrequent now.  I still refrain from drinking, sugar and caffeine and haven’t used a Xanax since.

Coping was hard so I kept on my doctor and finally the NP in his office prescribed the metoprolol.  I understand it doesn’t help everyone but it wouldn’t hurt to contact your doctor about it.
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