l am 20 years and 2 days ago l was driving and l started to feel strong heartbeats.l thought they were gonna go away but they didn't.l thought l was gonna have a heart attack so l called 911.The guy in the ambulance said l was having pvc is so they took me to the ER and they took an x-ray, took blood samples.Finally the doctor told me they were pvc is and that they are harmless.l was drinking a lot of coke zero for like 2 weeks.l do have stress cause l have a 14 month old.So they told me l could go home.But yesterday l started feeling them again for like 3 hours.And right now l feel them.l do not like them at all.l feel like crying.l mean im only 20 years old.Im not drinking coke and Im trying to relax and not get mad at all.

PVC is r extremely common & dont necessarily mean that there is anything wrong. One of the characteristics of cardiac muscle is that any part of the muscle can become excited & this spreads through the rest of the heart muscle creating a different type of heart beat

Premature ventricular contractions (sometimes called ectopics) r caused when the bottom chambers of the heart become excited earlier that normal. In alot of cases these beats r not assocaited with any significant heart disease.

The heavy beats that u feel r actually the normal beat after the PVC. Because the PVC is early there is less blood in the heart to be pumped, the heart then has a very slight pause (as the timing is reset) & the next beat has more blood than normal & so the heart beat feels heavier.

The best way to minimise them is to avoid stimulants such as caffeinated drinks (Coke etc), tea, coffee & dont forget energy drinks such as RedBull.

If they continue to be troublesome ur doctor could refer u for Holter Monitoring, where u wear a small recorder for 24-72 hours which records ur ECG, then ur doctor can see if u have an above average number of these beats. They could also do an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) to make sure that there is nothing strutural amiss in the heart.

Do remember though that they r common, some people r more aware of them that others & that they r likely to settle down particularly in a young person.

l have them, too. They almost knock your breath away, do not they? Stop the caffeine all together and within a week or so, you should notice a difference. Caffeine takes a while to leave your body. And if you are used to drinking a lot of caffeine everyday, your body will ''throw a fit'' when you do not have it, so you will probably feel them then, too. Stress, caffeine, exercise and things like that can cause them. Keep healthy so you can take care of that sweet baby!!

Isolated PVCs without structural heart disease are to be left alone. So the important thing is to exclude associated heart disease, which most probably has been done. No harm in getting one more evaluation if symptoms persist.