Ectopic Heart Beat, Benign Palpitations, Cardio-Hiccups

This is a completely off-topic post, written  in hopes it may be of interest and help to people who have the same weird heartbeat thing which I have.  Starting in my 20's I very occasionally had a moment where I felt like my heart stopped and then went thud, followed by a nano-second of breathlessness. But before I could focus on my imminent death, everything went back to normal.  An EKG in a doctor's office assured me I was fine, nothing to worry about.  Hah!  Nothing to worry about, until the next time this happens!

In my mid-50's, I noticed it more, and once again had a physician check it out, same result.  Nothing to worry about.  Then a few months ago, around my 58th birthday, this started happening several times an hour.  Usually in threes, a few minutes apart.  I would be very conscious of my heart beating, a weird sensation.  Each thud would be followed by a slight flutter in my chest and stomach.  This began to drive my crazy, trying to figure out a pattern, what might be causing this uptick (pardon the pun!).  And lots of anxiety, since it is an unpleasant sensation.  The doctor reassured me it's harmless, and called an ectopic heart beat, as "in the wrong place".  No known cause, no cure.

Eventually the frequency made me so nervous that I asked for a referral to a cardiologist.  I just couldn't believe that something so scary-feeling could really be harmless.  He did another EKG and an echo-cardiogram, neither of which is invasive or unpleasant.  He pronounced me the healthiest lady he had seen all day, and described these as "benign palpitations".  Benign is good, but it sounds very alarming, really. There is no known cause, this is just one of those things that happens;  it's weird, but it's harmless.

I am slowly training myself to be less reactive to my benign palpitations; which at least will decrease my reactivity.  The most useful thing I've come up with so far is to rename them heart hiccups, since that in effect is what they are.  Somehow, hiccup sounds more friendly and normal than benign palpitations.
I do hope they go away just like them came; some days I have very few.  Other days I have a lot.  Just sharing.  By now I've discovered a few other people who have these too, and we're all alive and well.

Postscript: three years later.  I am incredibly grateful to the first commenter, who - years ago - wrote that magnesium supplements helped him/her.  I tried them and could feel the difference immediately.  I have continued to take them daily and it has taken the edge off my palpitations. When they occur they usually don't just happen once, but a bunch of time over a day or two, and I realize how long it's been since the last episode.  Eventually they stop, but I don't notice that they stopped until they happen again.

I reported this to my doctor and she said, basically "Cool."  Whatever works.  As in, no evidence it works but it can't heart.  I also told my acupuncturist and she confirmed that metals are good for heart function.