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ectopic heartbeat
im 24 old and i have suffered from health anxiety for 6 months, ive been to a and e because my heart was skipping too many beats the paramedic said nothing serious though, got hospital did about 5 ecgs when heart was beating 150 per min then it would skip beats even skip constantly 3 hours later the nurse said i was fine to go home, ever since then ive had ectopic heartbeat either occassionally or now and then, how do i stop worrying over them?
Best Answer
PACs sometimes appear in rows/salvos (without normal beats between). This is not considered a dangerous arrhythmia, but should be checked out just to find the cause.
PVCs rarely appear in rows if your heart is normal. If it happens, your doctors will try to find a cause and remove it. Rows of PVCs are considered dangerous if your heart is structurally ABnormal.
PVCs rarely appear in rows if your heart is normal. If it happens, your doctors will try to find a cause and remove it. Rows of PVCs are considered dangerous if your heart is structurally ABnormal.
Premature Ventricular Complexes (PVC)
PVCs
PVCs
Premature beats or extra beats most often cause irregular heart rhythms. If you've ever felt your heart "skip a beat," it was probably from a premature beat.
Just as with PACs the heart doesn't really skip a beat. Instead an extra beat comes sooner than normal. Then there's a pause that causes the next beat to be more forceful.
Typically no cause can be found and no special treatment is needed for PVC. The premature beats may disappear. In some cases, PVCs are caused by disease or injury to the heart and certain individuals may require medical therapies. PVCs can also be related to high or low potassium levels.
PVCs
PVCs
Premature beats or extra beats most often cause irregular heart rhythms. If you've ever felt your heart "skip a beat," it was probably from a premature beat.
Just as with PACs the heart doesn't really skip a beat. Instead an extra beat comes sooner than normal. Then there's a pause that causes the next beat to be more forceful.
Typically no cause can be found and no special treatment is needed for PVC. The premature beats may disappear. In some cases, PVCs are caused by disease or injury to the heart and certain individuals may require medical therapies. PVCs can also be related to high or low potassium levels.
It may help you to understand that ALL of the cells in the heart have the ability to fire off electrical impulses; they are a back-up system for the normal SA Node and AV Node. EVERYONE on the planet have premature beats; most people never realize the beats are there. if you feel them, there is really no way of knowing whether or not they are PACs or PVCs. When you are having anxiety attacks over this, your body is releasing cathacholamines into your blood system and that will cause the premature beats to worsen because that is the same system that gives you your fight or flight response. As far as thinking that a hospital will never let you go home if there is a problem; think again....I took my daughter home, not once, but twice, with a terminal form of heart disease and she recieved no treatments for the following year!! (she later recieved a transplant)
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Ectopic heart beats are (as you probably know) heart beats that origin somewhere else than your sinus node. They are almost always benign, but feels really scary. I would recommend you to read my post "facts about PACs and PVCs" that I wrote a couple of weeks ago.
In my opinion, worrying about cardiac events is worse than, i.e, worrying about cancer. The problem is; you feel an increased heart rate and/or skipped beats, your worrying will cause higher heart rate and more skipped beats, more anxiety, and eventually you will feel like going crazy or having a heart attack. A minor underlying condition (such as stress at work) can trigger this, and it's greatly elevated by your anxiety about symptoms.
I can give you some useful advice:
1. You need to accept that your symptoms are caused by anxiety and not heart disease. Always. It's a bit strange, because ectopic beats don't necessarily (though they can) occur during an anxiety attack. They usually appear after you've calmed down (or you believe you've calmed down since you in fact haven't completely). Your adrenaline levels are still high, making your heart believe it has to beat faster than it does. Since it doesn't, other spots in your heart would like to "help" as well, causing those extra/ectopic beats. I get mine after, not during, a stressful day at work, or before sleep.
2. Anxiety won't harm you. You won't faint, your blood pressure during these events is far too high (not dangerous).
3. Trust your doctors and avoid reading cardiology (believe me, I've got burned on this one)
4. If you get high heart rates, focus on counting backwards from 400. Do not count with the speed of your heart rhythm :)
5. Trust the fact that in a structurally normal heart (without congenital heart disease or heart attacks / MI), ectopic beats will not cause more dangerous arrhythmias.
Good luck:)