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Excitable cells

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304 points johannes_ne | 7 comments | 28 Mar 25 13:05 UTC | HN request time: 0.84s | source | bottom
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eknkc ◴[01 Apr 25 14:19 UTC] No.43547077[source]▶
I have frequent ectopic beats that I feel as a flutter / heavy beat on my chest. The doc says it won't kill me but it is extremely uncomfortable at times. This has been a great material to learn about the inner workings of heart cells.

BTW Here's an ECG from my Apple Watch showing 3 such beats (you can't miss them): https://link.ekin.dev/l1Vc3Gdf

If you happen to have these, just get checked out by a cardiologist. They are almost always benign but the frequency / daily amount are reasons for concern.

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1. rdegges ◴[01 Apr 25 15:48 UTC] No.43548209[source]▶
I had something similar for many years (triggered by an episode of afib brought-on by triggering my vagus nerve). The one thing that has helped me fully get rid of these (after YEARS of trial-and-error) was getting onto beta blockers (Propranolol).

These have COMPLETELY gotten rid of my ectopic beats and also helped me deal with the health anxiety.

If you ever want to talk, feel free to hit me up (contact info in profile).

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2. grumpy-de-sre ◴[01 Apr 25 16:25 UTC] No.43548662[source]▶
Propranolol is such an underrated drug, or at-least it was when I first started using it twenty years ago (initially for hand tremors but I found it did more than settle just my hands). Glad others have been discovering its usefulness over the years.

I think they've even recently found use in cancer therapy [1].

Sir James Black the pharmacologist who developed it is an absolute legend [2].

1. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2162402X.2023.2...

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPe0sLghRBQ&list=PLVV0r6CmEs...

3. UncleOxidant ◴[01 Apr 25 18:46 UTC] No.43550143[source]▶
> an episode of afib brought-on by triggering my vagus nerve

I get ectopic beats when I've got trapped gas in the stomach. Sounds weird, but generally when I get them I realize I need to stand up (because I've usually been sitting with bad posture which leads to the trapped gas) and have a large belch and then it calms down. I mentioned this to my doc and he said it was Roemheld syndrome ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roemheld_syndrome ) which is vagus nerve-related.

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4. ◴[01 Apr 25 19:34 UTC] No.43550569[source]▶
5. eknkc ◴[01 Apr 25 20:09 UTC] No.43550836[source]▶
Yeah, I’ve been on propranolol and then metoprolol but they don’t seem to do much in terms of reducing ectopics. Currently on metoprolol though.

I’ve had an echo, stress ecg and then a ct angiogram. Everything is physically fine so at this point I mostly ignore them cause at least I know they are not an immediate danger.

Thanks!

6. throwaway7783 ◴[01 Apr 25 20:24 UTC] No.43550951[source]▶
Daily dose of magnesium supplements has made it tolerable for me, when beta blockers (carvedilol) didn't help much.
7. benterix ◴[02 Apr 25 07:58 UTC] No.43554543[source]▶
Yeah I got quite scared when it happened for the first time.