Event timeline added by: tim_77

Had a panic attack while driving home on 6/21/14. Fell asleep fine, but the next day I noticed my heart beating irregularly, which I now know is PVCs.

Have a second panic attack. Go to ER where they diagnosed my PVCs.

First cardiologist visit. Heart sounds fine, PVCs are happening regularly.
24 hour holter monitor reveals 2900 PVCs and 900 PACs.
appointment made for stress test and echo.

Have stress test and echo. Had VERY few PVCs around this time. Felt great. Told that heart looks great and stress test is normal.

Still having very few PVCs, cardiologist tells me that my heart is in great physical shape and not to worry about the PVCs.

begin experiencing PVCs again when standing. None present when sitting or laying down. No changes in diet.

PVCs have returned completely, when standing, sitting, and laying down.

started the following supplements before going to bed last night.
1000mg taurine 10x per day
500mg l-arginine 10x per day
2000mg fish oil 2x per day
100mg Coq10 2x per day
400mg magnesium (oxide, will replace with a more digestible magnesium soon) 1x per day
99mg potassium 1x per day

Currently PVCs feel lighter than the past few days - a flutter followed by a pause and then a normal beat instead of the normal stop, pause, huge almost painful beat.
This slight change is the same thing that happened before they faded off previously, so hopefully they are going to do that soon again!

i'm decreasing the taurine and arginine doses, to 6g and 3g split over 3 doses.
got a bit of a headache last night and didn't even take my last doses of them.

i replaced the magnesium oxide (which is common, cheap, and apparently hard to absorb) with magnesium citrate. a half hour after taking this last night, i was getting 1 PVC every 10 minutes or so. which is amazing. i could live comfortably like that.

this morning, they're more common again. so who knows what the effect over several days will be, but i'm trying to be positive. i'm having a PVC every 2 minutes or so now, which is still about a 25% reduction compared to where i was.

at lunch today i'm gonna go to a health store and try to find some magnesium bath salts as well. can't hurt.

also, i just want to say- these things feel horrible.
the weird hiccup in my chest. the dizziness. they're slightly painful. i get lightheaded when standing too long. and all the anxiety.
i'm fairly new to this. i'm glad to have found so many understanding people online. my hat is off to those of you who have dealt with this for many years and been able to cope and live. you're very strong.

I'm hoping I had a severe magnesium deficiency. Other symptoms I have/had were involuntary twitches, anxiety, depression, brain fog, lightheadedness/dizziness, tingling in extremities.

My PVC levels are still declining, though slower than I'd like.
When laying, I think they are gone.
When sitting, I can go ten minutes without feeling one- huge improvement.
When standing, I'm still getting them about 2 per minute. Not good.
No idea why the postural difference. Anyone else experience that?
Still, a big improvement over a short time ago when they were just hammering me when laying down!

Supplement note- further reduced taurine and arginine to 6g/3g as I believe it was lowering my blood pressure (possibly adding to the postural issue) and I feel like magnesium has been the biggest help.
Really hope this continues. I'm gonna walk to the store and get some potato chips, extra sodium should aid blood volume and help standing.

sodium was a bad idea!
had a lot of salty foods saturday afternoon and night, thinking it would help raise my (normally pretty low) blood pressure and aid the amount of PVCs i was having when standing.
this was a bad idea! was pretty fine with a low amount of PVCs saturday night, fell asleep easily - sunday morning, whoa PVCs.

decided to start keeping a paper diary of how i felt and amount of PVCs per 5 minutes every hour, and taking varied vitamins and supplements every hour.
also after my bad sodium experience, decided to supplement potassium (which does the opposite of sodium, right?) despite the amount of bananas i eat.
had immediate good results from the potassium.
my little diary was showing that taurine was having little effect, and possibly slightly a negative effect for me.
potassium was helping a lot, as was magnesium.
i've now nearly cut out all the amino acid supps - i'm supplementing potassium, magnesium, coq10, fish oil, and a 'one a day' men's multivitamin (2x per day) and it seems to be helping a lot. the potassium with magnesium is helping MUCH more than magnesium alone was.
NOTE- i'm not a dr, this is what is currently working for me. if you haven't had your heart checked out and aren't physically healthy and dr approved, excessive potassium supplementation can dangerously lower your heart.

i'm saying PVCs are a 3/10, but that's for me. the amount i'm having is still reported as hellish by some others. :)
at 10:30am, sitting at work, i'm getting ~1 PVC/6 minutes - so probably a couple hundred a day.
that is about a 90% reduction from less than a week ago.

i'm still upset to be having any at all. i still get worried and disappointed each time i feel one. but it's definitely progress.

i'm going to try to start diminishing the magnesium (because of stomach issues), and all other supplements and just stick to more supplemental potassium and potassium rich foods (bananas and pomegranate juice).
seems like potassium is what gives me the most benefit. possibly was low on magnesium as well, but needed to up magnesium intake for potassium to be absorbed (or so i've read).
PVCs are lighter when they do happen, and are happening probably <10 per hour, less than that when i'm laying down at night.
and again, <10 per hour is what some people are complaining about! but when i was at 3000 per day having 3-4 per minute, this is a huge improvement.

PVCs are still staying in check.
i'm taking 99mg potassium every 2 hours during the day, plus drinking a few glasses of pomegranate juice a day and eating 3 bananas throughout the day.
i'm down to taking 133 mg magnesium citrante 3x/day
1g taurine and 500mg arginine and 1 coq10 pill in the morning and before bed.

i will feel the PVCs coming on before i take the potassium. i'm 99% sure that was my issue. everything else helps too. i might double up on the potassium later in the day, when it feels like PVCs will happen more often, or if i know i'm going to be on my feet for a while.
oddly, this amount of potassium is still about 1500mg off the 4700mg daily recommendation! i think i'd have to eat nothing but bananas two meals a day to get up to that.
i hope that i'm ingesting enough to build up stores after a while.
but, long story short, knock on wood, PVCs continue to steadily decrease.

I think I found the best food for me yet- raisins! So much potassium. Even more than pomegranate juice or bananas. Had a half cup before bed last night and a half cup when I woke up today. Haven't had a PVC yet today, knock on wood.

i haven't had any PVCs in 4 days now.
i've reduced supplements to pretty much normal levels-
133mg magnesium in the morning and at night
2 fish oil caps in the morning and at night
a multi vitamin in the morning
no longer supplementing potassium - i was getting way more potassium from dietary changes anyway - and i am still eating potassium rich foods (raisins, bananas, pomegranate juice). that seemed to really make the difference, especially the raisins. there's like 1g of potassium in a cup of raisins!
Still have not had any caffeine or alcohol in about 2 months. may experiment with one of those this weekend, if i still have not had any PVCs.

after 4 days of no PVCs, work ordered pizza for dinner last night - i've had pizza during times of no PVCs, but this was from kind of a bar-food type chain place. probably had loads of MSG and other things in it.
anyway, about an hour after eating the pizza, started having PVCs. pretty frequent, about 1 every 2 minutes or so.
Faded away by later in the night. still having very occasional ones this morning.
Really hoping this is an episode caused by diet, and not the start of a full blown PVC return.

just adding an update... after having the severe reaction to eating some food from a restaurant, went back to my general practitioner. he was on the same page with me now on this being an electrolyte imbalance. also showed him how my heart rate increased significantly when standing still. he said that's typical of deficiencies and low blood volume.
had me take double doses of imodium for a week to slow digestion and make sure i was absorbing all that i should be, and continue my high potassium diet - i'm no longer taking ANY potassium or magnesium supplements (or taurine, etc), just eating high potassium foods.
i have not had any PVCs in... i think 10 days?
i even had a couple beers over the course of the weekend at a fest my band played, and everything went great.
so. this isn't for everyone, obviously, but some of you may have a bad electrolyte imbalance/deficiency like i did.

just an update - still doing great.
twice now i've had a food item (once bar food from a chain restaurant, once peanut butter m&m's) which triggered a bout of PVCs - seems to be some chemicals could disrupt some electrolyte channels in my heart?
that's what i'm thinking, since i know for sure my PVCs were due to electrolyte imbalance (mostly potassium deficiency). as long as i keep potassium consumption up, my PVCs are gone completely. i've even been exercising long and hard and sweating a lot again with no ill effects. woo!

after many months of not having any PVCs, i started to have them very regularly again about 3 weeks ago. i was getting all of the other physical symptoms as well - tingling in my left arm and leg, lightheaded when standing, more PVCs when standing than laying. i increased exercise and healthy eating, to no avail.
finally i tried imodium again, as my doctor had me do last year. they went away completely within a day.
there is something about my body that makes it push food through too fast and not absorb all the nutrients i should be. my dr said i'm like a leaky bucket - it doesn't matter how much potassium or magnesium you pour in if there's a leak. again, not sure if anyone else out there has my same situation, but healthy diet combined with making sure my digestion is slow and steady has been a complete fix (again).