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Posted 4 Months, 3 Weeks ago Linkback
my doctor told me that my ectopics are normal but this will not sink in theyre scary, the thing that worries ive read that they can turn into something very serious and cause sudden cardiac death is this true? ive had ecgs when my heart was racing and continuous ectopic beats i was sent home. is my doctor being trueful?
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stuart
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Posted 4 Months, 3 Weeks ago Linkback
You didn't post a similar question just a few days ago did you? Strange to get two such similar posts so close together!

Anyway, this is the answer to the post a few days ago and applies to this post too.

Your doctor is correct. Ectopic heart beats (the occasional skipped or extra heart beat, or palpitation etc) are very common. Everybody has occasional ectopic heart beats and probably never know it.

That's not to say that they shouldn't be investigated and determine if there's an obvious cause for them. For example if you have high blood pressure, then they are symptomatic of another problem, which is the risky thing, not the heart beats themselves. Ectopic heart beats may be symptoms of a problem, but on their own they aren't harmful. So, if you aren't showing other problems, you're probably just fine.


Just to add to that a bit ...

Ectopic heart beats themselves do not cause sudden death. The vast majority of cases of ectopic beats are stress and anxiety related. The rare cases where ectopic heart beats are implicated with sudden death, the ectopic beats are just a SYMPTOM of some other heart problem which has brought about sudden death.

These other rare problems you will have been screened for ... The most common is very high blood pressure, detectable with a BP check. Next is some kind of hypertrophy ... thickening of the heart muscle, or heart tissue damage causing it not to contract properly, and finally something gone haywire with the electrical conductivity of the heart and these latter things will stand out like sore thumbs on an EKG (ECG - same thing) and or simply listening to your heart's beat. They won't be "hidden".

So, if you've been screened by your doctor, you can be quite certain that you aren't a candidate for these rare problems.

That leaves the usual causes of ectopic heart beats, which are stress, anxiety or panic. Considering that ectopic heart beats cause anxiety and stress, they're kind of self fulfilling promises! If you've had a careful look at the entries on google for ectopic heart beats, you'll actually have seen that there are a lot of posts just like yours ... people scared as hell of them, but in almost all cases, you'll find people under stress, even some who get these heartbeats while they are PMS'ing! Anything that bumps adrenaline levels can cause an ectopic heart beat.

You need to stop worrying about them. Worrying about them will actually make you more liable to get them!

I get the occasional ectopic beat and normally I don't even notice them, and if I do notice, it's rare that they are "show stopping".

Ectopic heart beats cannot "turn into something very serious".

Think of your car ... you're driving down the road and you hear tick tick tick. Normally it's just a small stone in your tyre that's got lodged there. Occasionally it's caused by a bad tyre. But you have to remember that that small stone isn't going to turn into a bad tyre!!!

Let's face it, your doctor has no reason to lie to you!

Recommendations ...

1) If you smoke ... stop!
2) If you drink lots of caffeinated drinks, cut back
3) keep a diary of when you tend to get these episodes, see if you can tie them down to periods of higher stress and then try to reduce that stress.

Good luck, but rest assured that the vast majority of ectopic beats are totally harmless and most people get them from time to time. If they were dangerous, there wouldn't be many living people!
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me
Guest
Posted 4 Months, 2 Weeks ago Linkback
no high blood prssure the highest its gone to 140/85 thats when i was having a panic attack and my heart was doing 150 beats per min, bp normal sometimes low 90/58 always has been, i'll just stop readin articles cuz ive had a fair few ecgs. thanks for the info
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stuart
Blog Posts: 4
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Posted 4 Months, 2 Weeks ago Linkback
Definitely time to stop picking the bad bits out of the articles. It's like reading the side effects in the drug descriptions. Some go so far as to say "may cause death"! WHAT? Why would they advertise these drugs? But they do! So, the real problem is getting the info in the right context ...

Find some relaxation CDs ... and stuff like that ... it's good for you! Good life!
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