Pacemaker causes weight loss?

I was fitted with pacemaker little over a year ago for 3rd degree block after complications in aortic valve replacement surgery. I have since then lost around 30 kilos (65lbs) in weight, without making much changes into the diet or lifestyle. Looking into how and why the weight loss has happened, apart from the obvious valve surgery, I have been thinking if the pacemaker has a anything to do with it.

Curiously I have noticed that the rate response, albeit vital for comfortable living, also makes my rate go up as high as 130 in driving a car on uneven roads. Even just regular car journey, on uneven roads, raises the rate up to 105. As I need to drive around a lot, maybe 2 hours a day, I can easily verify with my heart rate clock that Im "exercising" 2 hours in my car daily.

Is it possible that this alone can be causing such a dramatic weight loss? Any experiences?

5 Comments

weight loss

by Cabg Patch - 2016-08-03 12:41:48

Why not, I know for fact rate response causes accelerated hair loss. Since my dad had a full head of hair it must be the reason I've lost mine...but why have I gained weight. Hmmm might require more thought.

Sadly......No

by Grateful Heart - 2016-08-03 15:50:02

Having a PM is not the cause for your weight loss.  My device has rate response on too and my HR goes over 200 at times.  

After 7 years I would be pretty thin by now....I am not.  I have lost some weight but it was due to hard work and lifestyle changes like you say....activity, less calories, better food choices, etc. 

If the PM caused weight loss then everyone would want a device.  :)

Grateful Heart

I lost weight too

by LondonAndy - 2016-08-03 16:42:45

I had the same thing: a PM after complications from having a replacement aortic valve fitted, and lost a good 30kg too - yippee!  Though sadly I have put some of the weight back on again now, about 2 years on from the surgery. 

I can't believe it's the PM - I think I did have some improvement in diet following surgery, as I had more time to spend putting myself first instead of work, but have put it mostly down to medication, particularly the water tablet I am on (Furosemide).  If I stop taking it (which I did for a week as a drug holiday test to identify the cause of a problem which turned out to be another tablet) I gain 0.5kg per day!  Are you on a water tablet?

medications

by Katja3 - 2016-08-03 18:31:02

Thanks for the input and comments.

As for medications I´m only on thinners (Sintrom - I live in Argentina), and vitamin B12 injections for chronic anemia, since more than 10 years already. I don´t believe either one of these does anything for the weight.

How strange. The doctrors told me to lose weight, but I have not really done anything different, apart of course that after the surgery I can walk more than 25 meters without dying...

Not for me

by RadioMattM - 2017-05-21 15:15:53

I have put on weight, probably since I have not been active. I am still in the six-week recovery period.

You know you're wired when...

Your ICD has a better memory than you.

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