Hello all,

I'm 51 years old .. was diagnosed with MVP about 20 years ago, and have had pvc's and pac's and rapid heartbeat all that time .. off and on. Some years it hardly bothered me at all, some .. it was TERRIBLE.

I finally went to a new Cardiologist and he did a stress/echo on me, I couldn't even stay on the treadmill for more than 30 seconds!!! My heart went crazy!

They put me on the echo at that point, and saw the pac's and pvc's ... and rapid heartbeat ... but he was specifically looking for blockages. He showed me on the screen, that my heart was of normal size and no blockages. But I was concerned with how many PALPS I had! He told me we'd try Toprol (50mg) to see if that helped. Well .. it helped at first ... but lately .. for the last 6 months or so .. they've gotten MUCH worse instead of better.

I'm really angry and depressed, because now I can't even walk from my door to my mailbox .. or from my car to my door .. without having TERRIBLE palps and rapid heartbeat! Forget exercising! Forget even 'walking' for exercise! When I climb stairs .. it's HORRID! I've never been able to sleep on my left side, but now I can't sleep on my back and even on my right side I get them! For the first time last night, I had them continually for hours... I never got to sleep until 3:00 this morning.

I also have Lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, menier's disease, mvp, deteriation of the spine, scoliosis, hypertension (on meds), and at this moment I have 2 infected teeth and an infected ear canal! My whole face hurts and so does my head! I tell ya, sometimes I just want to lay down and not get up!

I've made an appointment to see my cardio tomorrow ... and see if we can repeat the tests, to see if anything has changed .. and possibly see if I should go up to 100 mg. of Toprol .. all though I've heard it caused depression, and I AM depressed! I'm also very tired all the time, and I've been on them over a year! "sigh"

Also have an appointment on Tuesday with family doctor to check my electrolyte levels.

Also: wanted to ask if anybody has had any luck with Magnesium? There's another 'heart' board online, but I can't find it now .. where many of the members have had good results with Mag .. and also Q-10. I would prefer to control it naturally if I could .. of course, but I also can't deal with these many pvc's, pac's and rapid heartbeat every day either!

Oh yes, I forgot one thing ... I also had 'andrenaline rushes' before taking the toprol, where I would feel like andrenaline was being shot into my veins! It was awful! I got shakey all over and my heart would beat HARD and FAST, and for hours I felt like I had drank 1,000 cups of coffee! The toprol has controled that for the most part .. except, as I said .. lately I've been getting that back again, only not anywhere near as bad.

Any observations ... comments ... ?

Nice to meet you all, and thank you.
Dee

PS: Just thought of another question: I'm on Coozar for B/P and now taking Motrin for tooth & ear pain, along with Tylenol and Trimox for the infections, do any of you know if any of these meds might cause MORE palps ... or interfere with the Toprol?

#1. Are the palpitations painful?
#2. Have you ever been investigated for a pheochromocytoma?

Have you been checked for hyperthyoidism (Graves disease) ? May be worth a try.

Good luck

dd50,

You have quite a weight of illnesses to bear, but I will give you just one bit of advice on the MAGNESIUM. NOTHING works as well as magnesium for controlling irregular heartbeats in my opinion (never humble:D).

I have used it and gotten almost instant relief and recommended it to several of my friends both real and virtual on HealthBoards and diet boards (where screwy electrolytes are a way of life). Almost everybody gets the same good results.

Whatever else you do about your health, add about 250 mg. elemental Mg+ in whatever form. They are all quite soluble and there's no need for expensive "chelates". Plain old MgO 500 mg. tabs will do nicely and cheaply (health food store generic)...the cheapest is to drink epsom salts (MgSo4) dissolved in water but that tastes like death and needs some precision weighing...not worth the trouble.

Avoid only dolomite which is a Ca-Mg carbonate which tends to be insoluble).

If it works for you look for great results in much less than a week. Then take a tab daily forever! If no help in a week, very little has been lost (give the bottle to the next person who complains of palps.)
Good Luck.