Hey Everyone! It’s been a while since I have posted an update or article, so I just wanted to let everyone know that I am finally able to get back to updating Life Off Beat!
It has been a crazy busy year with work, but things are slowing down. I am ready to jump back in and get back writing about managing heart palpitations. This has been my best year yet with my PVCs, so I can’t wait to fill you in on all that I have learned and experienced.
This comes at a great time for me too since my wife and I are expecting our fourth child in a few weeks (yep, we now have four boys!!). So things are about to get a little more crazy around here which means my heart palpitations generally get worse. So I need to be prepared!
“You know what it’s like having four kids? Imagine you’re drowning. And someone hands you a baby.” – Jim Gaffigan, “My Dad is Fat”
So over the next few weeks and months I will be posting about all the possible cures for heart palpitations as well as how I have been managing my heart skips. I will also try to provide some in-depth reviews on some products I find helpful and other products that I think are a scam so you don’t end up buying them like I did.
I hope y’all are doing well. I know the struggle is real and incredibly frustrating, so I hope you all are finding peace and success in your journey with heart palpitations!
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cool. a good website to maintain. really needed for those 1st time having this prob. i myself thnaks to this website, found my immediate solution. it works wonders to make u less worry things http://www.lifeoffbeat.com/stop-heart-palpitations-instantly/
after struggle wit heart palpitations for 1 year. finally starting this year. m havin a peace of mind. now wit regular excersize n non- caffein n non ciggy, palpitations didnt occur anymore.
Glad you are back. I was helped when I first read your site a couple of years ago and continue to use your suggestions when I experience off beats which are downright scary. Mine are always associated with stress so I do all I can to de-stress. Exercise, especially yoga for calming and full breathing helps a lot too. All the best!
Hi – glad you are back to posting again. I follow you from Cape Town in South Africa. I too am a long sufferer of these horrible things (10 years now). I too have been for the test and have also been ruled benign. Just as recently as two weeks ago I had a holter test which came out fine.
I am 40 years old, am a Chief Executive Officer of a public listed company, deal with major decisions daily, am a Christian and know where true strength comes from however, and I simply put this down to a fallen world, every little palp creates anxiety all over again. “Did they diagnose the palps correctly, maybe they missed soemthing”, “oh, that one feels different – definitely more sinister”….it is such a viscous circle isn’t it?
A post I read on one of the sites helped me where the recomended cure was “total acceptance”. Once you have been given the all clear and they continue, so be it. Keep on keeping on.
Keep up the good work, your blog has touched people in their hours of need and you should be really proud of that
Regards
Marc
Marc, thank you for your kind words! I am sorry to hear that you have had to suffer with heart palpitations for so long, but I’m glad to hear that all tests have come back negative. I can’t imaging the stress of being a CEO but I love that you find your strength in Christ and your faith. I’m sure your company is better off because of your faith and the integrity and hard work that accompanies it. I can certainly relate to your anxiety and the questions of doubt. Heart palpitations can be miserable and debilitating. I definitely agree with you that a big part of managing heart palpitations is total acceptance (especially if your doctor says that they are benign). Once I didn’t fear my palpitations they began to fade away to the background. My worry and anxiety occasionally creep back into my life (along with my heart palpitations) but I always try to go back to the basics of managing my anxiety (diet, exercise, prayer/meditation, and remembering their likely cause and that they are harmless) and they seem to go away faster and faster. I hope you continue to find relief from your palpitations. Thanks again for the encouragement. God bless!
Thanks Tom. Your website is so helpful. It’d be great to hear more the techniques you use to reduce stress like mantras and the ways you’ve helped reduce your fear if the palpitations, please. They’d be so useful, thank you
Thanks for coming back. This blogs has helped me.
Keep up the excelent work. Your doing a service for lot of people. Thank you
I have suffered with Paroxysmal Ventricular Tachycardia on and off for 10 years. Fancy word for the electrical impulses are misfiring in my heart. Been to regular doctor, and cardiologist. They seem to think its benign. No blockage no signs of anything serious. Doctor wanted to put me on a calcium channel blocker. “Calan” I am already high strung personality. Didn’t want to take something that can have other side effects. So I was told by a friend to try citrate of magnesium. Only one ounce to 3 ounces of water daily. It did help some. But not completely and my battle is I don’t have any control over them. Some days are just debilitating. Hours of back to back where I have to lie down and just be still. Feels like I am being punched in the chest and can’t get enough air. I go to the gym about twice a week. And yes they will get worse afterwards. I drink water all day long, and still they will come just by thinking about them. Is it possible menopause? Asked the doctor about this. He said no. I noticed years ago when having them I went on birth control pills and they went away for about three years . Only to return with a vengeance a year and a half ago. I am 51 years old. Still take the lutera pills my gyn wants me off now and I still have some refills left. I just feel better being on them, Thats another story. I’m not worried about dying, just can’t live like this…can’t function. Feel layed out. Some are small that I can ignore, others just are horrible. Do I go on that medication? I increased the citrate a bit and I guess that was too much, if you know what I mean. Why? What I am I doing or not doing that will make this just go out of control for hours? I get them everyday. Usually worse after eating. So now I’m afraid to eat! Its very depressing. I try to live normal, go out, do things that are uplifting, just doesn’t make sense. Just my thought of it will bring them on. And once they start they go into some kind of cycle where they will go on for hours. Something as simple as taking a shower and getting my hair and make up on will start this whole back to back palpitations where I end up on the couch layed out. I will say the citrate has helped so I am continuing to take it in the morning. It was worse when I wasn’t taking it. But still it just has a mind of its own. Don’t know what else to do. 🙁
Have you written a post about having a heart that’s pounding throughout the day? I’ve had problems now everyday for six months. I’ve experienced rapid heartbeats, skipped, flutters, heavy, forceful punching sensations, etc. Lately, it’s more of a hard, pounding for sometimes hours at a time. This all came on after months of stress, anxiety and panic (which were new to me). My blood work isn’t showing anything significant and my echocardiogram revealed two valves with mild regurgitation and “thickened” aortic valve with adequate cusp separation. Also, wore a 24hr Holter but haven’t discussed these results with my cardiologist yet. Follow up appt is in 3 weeks. The pounding doesn’t seem to have any rrhyme or reason to it and I’ve dealt with shortness of breath and chest pain with it.
Went to ER several times when it all began (before I was able to see a cardiologist) and nothing more then tachycardia and PVCS were expressed to me along with, “You need to see a cardiologist.”
I wish I knew how to help my body get back on track.
I haven’t yet! But I’ll put it on the list. My heart occasionally will have days where it feels like it’s pounding throughout the day. My doctor once told me that some people are just more aware of their body and are able to feel their heartbeat more. I am really sorry that you are having such a difficult time with your palpitations, but I am glad you have met with a cardiologist! Hopefully your follow up appointment in three weeks will go well. Hang in there!
I live in the UK, any other UK based people on here?? Just want to repeat what lots of others have already said, I love this blog! Thank you so much for writing it. It’s just so nice to know I’m not alone. I’m at the beginning of my journey as my palps only started in May but have been told on many occasions that my heart is fine. It’s just been hard for me to believe that, but with the help of this blog I am beginning to. The immediate benefit is that my palps don’t turn into full panic attacks any more, which they were at the start. Would love to hear from any other UK people but mainly thank you!
I’m in the UK! Not sure what’s going on, going to my GP tomorrow. Scared. But very relived to find this site. 🙂
After two days, this day being the worst of palpitations, I’m calling my GP in the morning. Checked my blood pressure 110/68 and heart rate 48bpm, reasonably fit 57 year old female, exercise most days, generally cardio and yoga and walking two dogs. I feel scared and looked for any information on the Internet. Finally I found this! I’m hoping I haven’t got heart problems, time will tell and hope I wake up in the morning to get advice from my doctor. I’ve had small episodes before but not like this and it’s not fun…
Hi, I am plagued by ectopics and flutters. I have a prolapsed mitral valve which drs tell me can cause palpitations by association but it’s not the cause! Still trying to understand this in amongst trying to avoid all other possible causes ie caffeine, alcohol etc but as I write I am still troubled by them day and night and without the 100 to 120 mcg of propranolol every day which make me feel so tired they would be so bad I would have to go to A&E. I have been told however they are benign but troublesome and to just keep taking be pills! Although Im not petrified anymore that they are going to kill me, they over shadow my life completely even though I try to get on with it living in hope they will go away. I’ve been told that where the ectopics come from, in two places in my heart, that I can’t have ablation there. Would do anything to be free of this condition. Have found comfort in knowing in not alone but still searching for prevention or cure. Does anyone find as well as the thud, it interferes temporarily with breathing? I’m 53 and going through the menopause which I believe doesn’t help. Gill
Hi, Tom!
Do you use any anti anxiety medications to help with palpitations. I have been prescribed Lexapro because the Dr thinks they are caused by anxiety.
I excercise and maintain a balanced diet, I’m physically fit except for a little excess weight but I’m working in that too. I am 6’1″ and 200 pounds.
Thanks!
Jameson