There are certain factors which either trigger heart palpitations. I would therefore suggest that, no matter what you are doing to reduce or eliminate your PVCs (otherwise referred to as extra systoles or arrhythmia), you avoid the following:
1 - Stimulants - I found caffeine (and coffee in particular) to make my extra heart beats much worse; generally speaking caffeine and any ingredient containing caffeine, such as black, white and green tea, chocolate, cocoa, mate-based drinks and so on, are to be avoided; all stimulates, as a matter of fact, should be avoided when you suffer from PVCs, as they may act like fuel on a fire. On the other hand, relaxants are always a good idea (relaxing activities but also relaxing teas and natural supplements, as explained on my other article).
2 - Alcohol - I found that alcohol (even a healthy glass of good quality red wine, unfortunately) is a significant trigger of extra heart beats in my case or, if I already have them as I sip an alcoholic drink, it seems to make them much worse very soon afterwards.
3 - Lack of sleep. It's commonly argued that lack of sleep or irregular sleep may trigger Premature Ventricular Contractions. I believe lack of sleep was a key factor in my case: before I started suffering from 'heavy' PVCs, I had spent several months sleeping very little, from 3 to 5 hours a night! I now wish I had not! I would strongly recommend to anybody (even if you are totally healthy) to sleep the recommended 7 hours per night. If not, eventually your heart will 'give out' and then you wish you had found the extra hours! Occasionally, given my work, I do skip some good sleeping time but I try to minimize this: it's jut not worth it.
4 - Stress - it's sometimes inevitable but - as you probably already know, stress does cause or at least trigger extra systoles. So, the key is to learn to either avoid stressful situations altogether or to remember, every time you feel stressed in any way (including anger, despair etc), that your life is more important than anything else. If you ever undertook a pharmacological stress test for your heart (as I did), you will know what I'm talking about: the test was to painful and dreadful in my case, that it made re-think my priorities: these days I care a lot less about many things, including money. Nothing, absolutely nothing is more important than your life!
5 - Sudden 'movements' after prolonged periods of 'rest' (sitting down or lying down): I noticed that, if I sit down for prolonged periods of time and then I suddenly stand up and walk quickly, even if only for a short distance, I trigger heart palpitations or make them worse. A person with a totally healthy heart in a totally healthy cardiovascular system may not even notice that his/her heart needs to beat faster to compensate for the sudden 'gear change' (so to speak): but someone with PVCs may not be so lucky (I certainly was not!), so 'changing gear' slowly is best. Now that I take a series of supplements (which I list, see below), I don't have to be so careful, but I still try to shift from rest to activity slowly (if I can remember!)
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