Too young with too many PACs

[Saleen9090]

Hello,

I am 24 years old and started noticing palpitations near bed time about 6 months ago. Since then, I have had a holter, echo, and stress test. All came out normal except the holter showed 600 PACs in a 24 hour period. Scary thing is, since then I think they have increased. I get PACs anytime my body is at rest (when my heart rate lowers) such as sitting or lying down or sometimes driving. If I get walking around, my heart rate goes up and they usually go away. When I do get them pretty bad I have about 1 every 5th beat which means about 12 per minute.

I have not found a single occurrence yet of someone my age with that many Premature ATRIAL contractions is one day. I have seen people my age with that many PVCs but not PACs. The only people I have read about with a similar amount of PACs is people over 50 yrs old. Recent studies have shown that a person with 200+ PACs a day could develop Afib later in life. Well that's already happening to me and I'm only 24.

To add a little more info, I swear I am NOT a stressed person. Ask anyone who knows me, nothing  phases me. If I lost my job tomorrow, I wouldn't even get worked up about it. I have also been having pretty constant back pain and neck stiffness since first noticing the palpitations. I have had acid reflux since I was in HS and am going to have my doc check/diagnose me with GERD next time I am in. I may also have a hiatal hernia (which I plan to have an endo to find out). Every once in a while I'll get a slight chest pain when taking deep breaths. This sometimes stops when I turn my next a certain way and breathe. I sometimes also get a dull "bruised" feeling pain at the bottom of both sides of my rib cage that comes an goes. For a long time I have been getting tension headaches where it feels like someone is pushing in on my temples. They have been occurring since college but I seem to feel them come on any time I slouch for a while like when on the computer. I have had bad posture my whole life, everyone notices I hunch over too much.

I would like to think my palps are gastrointestinal because of my history of acid reflux but most people who have GI related palps get a bunch of PVCs. Why would I be getting PACs and why so many. Any help is appreciated. I really need a word of advice right now.

[aliza2010]

Oh yeah and mine started probably in my teens if not earlier so 24 years old isn't too young to have these!!

[aliza2010]

I have zero PACS and hundreds pvcs only!! Never had a PAC on 5 24 hour holters.

[Saleen9090]

Seeing a GI doctor is my next move so I will take that advice. Also, I just find it weird that I had 0 PVCs and 600 PACs. I have read where a lot of people have some of each mainly because like you said, they have some of the same triggers. Having so many of one type an zero of the other I think says something different. Almost makes me think that I don't have one of those common run-of-the-mill triggers and maybe something special. Something that causes PACs and only PACs,

Thanks for your response Michelle

[MichelleP_3811]

The same triggers that cause pvcs cause pacs so I wouldn't really say your theory is totally true.  I would say to go and get your hernia fixed and the acid reflux addressed and see if that helps.  Mine are always worse when I have acid reflux.  Best of luck.