Interesting specimen

Not that rare I think ...

by LondonAndy - 2017-08-01 06:01:14

... the reason for my pacemaker is very different, but I have noticed a number of marathon runners and other 'athletes' on here getting pacemakers. 

Rarity?

by TBrous&Chip - 2017-08-01 06:09:54

Not sure about rarity. I was/am a healthy individual-lab work always good, not overweight, no medications. Total heart block corrected by a pm.  It is an electrical flaw not a physical failing.  Try to think of it as an electrical short in our wiring that has probably been there that cannot get better but eventually got worse. 

Right now you need to heal from the procedure. Hope your pm helps you continue with a full, active life.  

rare, but not atypical

by Tracey_E - 2017-08-01 08:45:41

av block is rare, yes, but your case is very typical. A lot of cardiologists go an entire career and don't see more than one or two of us, but there are a lot of us out here living with it. I've been paced since 1994, was my cardiologist's only patient with av block for years and years. I'm 50 and still the youngest in the waiting room more often than not. Until about 5 years ago I'd never met anyone else like me, and when I did finally find others it was through this site.

Most of us with av block are otherwise healthy and our hearts are perfectly normal other than the short circuit. Nothing we did caused it, nothing we could have done differently would have prevented it. Lifestyle choices- a healthy diet and exercise- prevent plumbing problems and keep the heart muscle strong. Our problems are electrical and happen at random, often with no known cause.

There is a genetic link between mothers with lupus and babies born with av block. Some medications, infection or surgery can cause it, but most of us never know why it happened to us and no one else in our family has it. My kids have been screened, no signs of problems with them. The good news is  if we have to have a heart condition, we've got the one with the easiest fix. Any time the signal doesn't get from the atria to the ventricle, the pacer is right there to kick in and keep us in sync. Once you heal, there's no reason why you shouldn't be doing more marathons and triathlons. 

Conduction problems and exercise

by IAN MC - 2017-08-01 13:41:08

I think Andy makes an interesting point re a possible connection between endurance exercise and the likelihood of ending up with a pacemaker.    There is growing evidence that this is the case.

I have just read an interesting book, " The Haywire Heart " by an American  cardiologist who is also a keen cyclist ( John Mandrola MD  ) .  He has collected data relating to endurance athletes ( runners, cyclists, tri-athletes  etc ) and their increased likelihood of developing arrythmias and other conduction problems of the heart. Without doubt there is reasonably strong evidence that endurance exercise increases the odds of you developing atrial fibrillation. He lists 63 references as part of this evidence..

One theory is that over-working the heart causes tiny tears in the heart muscle which lead to scar tissue . This scar tissue then leads to the electrical circuits going " haywire " ( hence the title of the book )

While AV block is not specifically mentioned , it seems to me that once you disrupt the normal electrical circuitry of the heart, anything is possible.    First-degree heart block is definitely common among well-trained athletes. Another possible reason is that vigorous and prolonged exercise can enlarge the heart muscles, which can cause mild disruption to the heart's electrical signals.

I, too, was a keen marathon runner and ,like you , had an absolutely clean bill of health  so fainting caused by sudden bradycardia took me somewhat by surprise as did my need for an ablation and a pacemaker.   But there is life after a pacemaker, it really isn't a big deal !

The evidence that exercise is good for you is definitive and overwhelming but the evidence that you can have too much of a good thing is increasing.

Best of luck

Ian

A little older, but 3rd Degree Heart Block

by MartyP - 2017-08-01 17:49:30

At 72, still healty as a horse until a Wednesday morning 9 weeks ago, was having breakfast with my wife at a local diner and simply keeled over ....

All tests on Wednesday were normal as was a brain MRI on Thursday, but I stayed in the hospital on Thursday night.

They work me up 3 times from 10 to 11 PM with a slow 40 BPM heart rate.

At 6:30 Friday morning they work me up and said by heart stopped for 31 seconds.  Luckily I was in the hospital.

They put on shock pads, just in case, but four hours later, I got my PM that I've named sparky.

So long story short, shit just happens and you like many of us are just lucky to be alive.

It's just like an electrical short circuit.

It will take a while to get it adjusted for your particular circumstances and a little unerving for a while as you will likely be hypersentive to everything involved with your heart - at least I was and still am a little.

Endurance Exercise

by Artist - 2017-08-03 22:55:00

These comments really interest me.  I am a 76 year old woman and retired from the USAF in 1983.  During my career I was at one time, a Basic Training School Squadron Commander, of an all male squadron and as a woman, often ran with some of my staff members, usually leaving them lagging behind me.  After work I sometimes ran 16 miles through the Texas hill country with 5 lb weights on my ankles and did not get tired.  I took up long distance bicycling usually went 50 to 60 miles a week.  I felt great and had an unusually low heart rate.  I could purposely relax and lower my waking heart rate to 40 BPM.  I also did weight lifting and played serious racquetball.  Thinking back on this,  there were times when I rode my bike, I had a feeling that was similar to a fist very briefly clenching in my chest.  I now know that I was beginning to develop arrythmias.  No one ever, in my experience, made any cautionary statements about well conditioned athletes doing too much.  The emphasis always seemed to be on pushing conditioning harder and harder to get in better shape.  I never thought in terms of pushing too hard as long as I felt good.  I felt light as a feather in the wind when I ran.  I think it was runner's euphoria because the only part of my body that seemed to exist was my vision.  Looking back on this and reading the above comments has really stimulated my interest in the possible connection between endurance exercise and the development of cardiac arrythmias.  I am going to try to research this further.