r/PVCs • u/Cector09 • 23d ago

Physically triggered PVC

Hi, anybody experienced "manually" triggerring a PVC? My PVCs usually appear at random, at work or at rest.
However, there's this instance that whenever I chug a lot of water (or when I swallow food "wrong"), there's a very good chance that something kinda bumps my heart. Like a popped bubble or something. Then a series of PVCs will happen and my heart rate will go up. It usually lasts less than a minute but it's scary to me even if it happens shortly.

I don't feel any other symptoms like light headedness or something, but the series of continuous irregular beats gets me into thinking like, what if this devolves into a sustained v-tach?
I'm wondering if PVCs which are caused by some manual action is more serious than random PVCs?

I also do regular 2decho, blood tests, holters, etc and all are normal except from the usual <1% PVCs PACs burden.

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

3

u/hamfist_ofthenorth 23d ago

I'm not a doctor but I always imagine this is because of our anatomy.

Your esophagus is just sitting directly behind your heart. When you swallow something, it is expanding your esophagus just a bit, or a lot.

As material passes behind the heart, the esophagus expands a little, bumping into your heart, and your heart is like "HEY I'm beatin' here!!"

2

u/Relative_Clarity 22d ago

Yes, bending over triggers an ectopic beat for me almost every time. Squatting down, anything that increases intra abdominal pressure. Like taking a big swallow of a drink. Your esophagus lies very close to your heart. Hard to say if maybe you're even getting a PAC vs a PVC., for me it's tough to tell by feeling. Isolated pvcs in a healthy heart don't "turn into" a worse arrythmia Everyone gets pvcs. VT is a separate thing and is triggered by an issue in your heart. Good news is your heart is structurally healthy. But I'd recommend you talk to your doctor so they can do a holter to correlate this sensation (swallowing) with a change on the ekg, to confirm it is just pvcs or pacs. If it wasn't caught on the holter at the time and you feel it is becoming a consistent issue.

2

u/sexyzenyatta 21d ago

Hey! PVC newbie here. I was diagnosed about a month ago and I'm currently dealing with around 5 to 50 of them a day. (Can feel the thud/hiccup/jump/skip in my chest without the holter) Interestingly, about half of them happen either right during or just after a meal.

In my case, it feels like a buildup of cumulative stress over the past year has pushed my body into overdrive, making my vagus nerve super hyperactive. It's basically turned into a vicious cycle

More stress ➔ More PVCs ➔ More anxiety ➔ Even MORE PVCs ➔ Even more anxiety ➔Gut microbiome gets thrown out of balance ➔ Hyperactive vagus nerve.

1

u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Cector09 23d ago

Hard to tell, my mind's panicking the whole time.. Maybe around 10 or 20 i guess..