[heyerok]

I have PVCs. bigeminy I believe. However they seem to occur in 'episodes'. Approximately an episode in the morning briefly, one or two mid-day, and an episode in the evening up until and at times during sleep. During these episodes I have around 30 PVCs per minute. It seems when I'm moving about, walking, focused on something the PVCs go away! For hours during the day!
After EKGs and echocardiograms and holter, the reports came back fine. As a final test had a stress test. On the day of the stress test I woke up, felt the PVCs in the morning, but they went away as I walked to the bus to get to the hospital. They were gone at the doctors office. For the stress test I got my heart rate up around 190, very high for me, but it felt just fine and there were no issues at all.

Here's the thing: my PVCs went away for about 10 days following that stress test. I have to believe that is what made the PVCs vanish!

Just today, after about 10 days they've come back mildly in the evening.
I haven't had my heart rate elevated to close to 190 since. I'm going to experiment if the PVCs are with me tomorrow to see if I get my heart rate up to 190 for around 10 minutes, the PVCs will go away again.

My hypothesis is they will, and I'm curious if anyone else experiences this same phenomenon and/or what this might mean. Generally light exercise during the day (walking, cleaning around the house...) suppresses them for a few hours. Is there some sort of link here between exercise, elevated heart rate and my PVCs?

Thoughts?

Thanks!!
Erik

[Jeff]

A couple thoughts on that -

Because in those people for whom stress is a trigger, it's possible and even likely that while the exercise may have had a little to do with it, it probably had more to do with you being at the doctor, getting tested, and them telling you they didn't find anything alarming.

There is a thing called overdrive suppression, but that occurs during exercise, not afterward. What happens is whatever electrical pathways are activated to cause a PVC, during exercise your heart is just going too fast, the primary pathways sending signals too quickly for the accessory pathway to cause a PVC in between.

Also, sometimes if you exercise really hard, your body is spent, there may be endorphins coursing through your veins, and your body just isn't feeling the stress it did before you exercised, making PVCs less likely.

And that is another reason to WANT to exercise, even though you may be experiencing PVCs - because the exercise may just calm your body enough to make them subside until the next time you exercise.

Hope that helps.

Jeff

[heyerok]

Thanks Jeff - I agree with what you're saying about stress and especially about the exercising calming the body. I've already come to terms with the PVCs and am less stressed knowing they aren't life threatening, however there was something that I can only attribute to the intense exercise that suppressed these PVCs. I notice that even right now as I have the PVCs, before bed, i can do 20 pushups, get my heart rate up and they will be gone for about the next 15 minutes. During the day when walking around the office or a brisk walk downtown the PVCs are gone for more lengthy periods. Something to do with the calming / stress-relieving aspect of exercise...

Erik

[Jeff]

Or the overdrive suppression.

The body is a very complex, often puzzling thing.

I wish you success in keeping your arrhythmia at bay.

[Neil]

Just to throw a point it to discuss my ectopics can and often do occur during excercise, increasing in vigour with the increase in physical exercise. Im still struggling to deal with them!

[heyerok]

Neil - sounds like the exact opposite of what I have, and what you have seems more common from what I've read of other people with arrhythmia.

Have you had a stress test?

[Neil]

Hi, yes i have had all of the tests including an echo, holter and stress ironicaly non of the beats showed upp on the stress test, on all three occasions. not a great deal on the holter not of the big thumping beats and i was told all was well not to worry. OPretty much the standard cradio response (who does not have to live with it). Nice in an odd way to hear that im common lol, its reasuring in that respect!

[Susie]

I sometimes get a few during exercise, then, I get scared and want to stop. Of course, for me, the fright causes them to act up even more. I have never had a stress test, but, I have had an echo and worn a holter monitor, both were "normal"

[Neil]

Good to hear from you Suzie you sound exactly the same as me. You say that when you get the beats during exercise you want to stop , do you stop or work through them? I must admit that this is my biggest issue at this time. I used to be into my fitness in a big way but get the beats during excercise at they thump in my chest hard and for a second or two I can't catch my breath. So I stop exercising.i have not trained now for a long time. I think the thuds are due to the amplification due to the fact the heart is working harder at the time anyway it stil scares me senseless . It would be good to hear what you feel / think and deal with during excercise . regards Neil

[Susie]

I try to continue, but, I am petrified the rest of the time, so, I might as well stop. I am not even doing strenuous exercise, just brisk walking. It seems once I feel them, I then can not concentrate on anything else but the fear and any benefit of exercise is lost as I usually will cut the length of time short. I hate that catch in the throat where you feel you can't catch your breath, I just had that this evening, now, I am all scared again. Gee, I wish I could conquer this.
Susie