max heart rate

walking on a treadmill the highest i can get my heartbeat is about 108. I am fully paced, and my cardiologist said that was good. I have the pacemaker with defib because i have CHF. i was down to 20% EF. it is now up to 50%. If i push it on the treadmill i start to see a bright white light. it starts as several small spots and they merge and it starts growing. I know from past history that i will pass out if i keep pushing and let it grow too big. I have posited to my cardiologist that this is my brain running out of oxygen, he thought i was prob right.
Anyway, i forgot to ask my cardiologist why they don't want my heart rate to get too high. is it because my heart may go into fibrillation if it gets too high?

5 Comments

EF improvement

by Hope - 2012-08-09 01:08:09

Hi! Just want to say I am happy for you your EF has improved and quite a bit too. My EF has pretty much remained the same for 7 years, but at least, it has not dropped. Take care and pace yourself. Hopeful Heart

You are likely right

by ElectricFrank - 2012-08-09 01:08:55

When any of us reaches the point where our HR doesn't increase with further exertion, we have reached it's limit. It is putting out as much blood volume as it can. Now if we increase oxygen demand our brain, heart, and muscles start to suffer. The white out is the brains response to lack of oxygen. Hopefully, we do pass out before the heart starts to fail from the lack. With CHF your heart may start to feel the effects before you pass out. Fibrillation is one of the effects, but it could also be sudden arrest, heart muscle spasm, etc.

It's time to accept that you can no longer do the things you could in your younger days. It is great that your EF has gone from 20% up to 50%. My approach would be to keep your HR down in the 95-100 range and just extend the time period a bit.

As I have told my cardio, the only time I would push my HR to it's limit is if I was being chased by a bear in the campground. Then I would rather drop dead of cardiac arrest than be eaten. LOL

frank

i have backed off

by wjhughes420384 - 2012-08-09 06:08:10

I have backed off, and avoid pushing too high, at this point I was asking an academic question about why they want to keep the heartrate down. once in a while when i am tired i will start to see the spots, however, Now i immediately stop. there was a time when i was running 3-6 miles a day and did not realize my heart was about to give out, i would slow up and found that i could often run through it. Looking back i was lucky i didn't kill myself. I did pass out several times. Amazing how much we can fool ourselves.

get your upper limit checked and raised

by ldebaugh - 2012-08-10 04:08:34

Hi wjhughes,
I also had the same treadmill problem with my HR staying under 111, no matter how hard I worked. My EF went from 30 % to 53%. I complained a lot. Also had tightness in the chest. I'm 100% paced with a St. Jude Bi-V PM.

Just had my upper limit adjusted and while the problem is not completely gone, it's better. This all just happened. I wouldn't settle for what he's telling you. Find out what your upper limit is and get it pushed higher. Now my range is low of 65 and high of 150. I'm going to ask for 160 next time. The did a test by having me walk fast around the parking lot and sure enough my HR went up to 115 bpm. So I would find out your upper limit and get it raised. So far I've never come anywhere near the upper limit and as I said getting it to 115 was a victory.
Good luck,
M'Liz

Fascinating subject

by pete - 2012-08-15 03:08:51

When my rate increases I feel sure that my heart just pumps faster but lighter. So no gain. Before my pacemaker and before heart problems my rest rate was about 50. Now it set at a minium of 70 and I think it is too fast.

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