Any triathletes out there?

Welcome to the club Steve

by IAN MC - 2017-12-06 11:33:28

..and congratulations on your athletic achievements.

As an ex-marathon runner myself , I have always been fascinated by the number of posts we get on here from runners, cyclists and triathletes.

Without any doubt, high levels of endurance exercise can eventually lead to electrical problems of the heart.  If you get a chance , read " The Haywire Heart "  written by an American cardiologist , John Mandrola MD . This book ( available on Amazon ) makes the point that " despite their lean looks and healthy glow, athletes entering their 50s , 60s and 70s are seeing a dramatic rise in abnormal heart rhythms "

Having said that, there is no way that I would change a thing if I could wind the clock back,

But it is just possible that there are many people who end up with pacemakers... because of all the endurance exercise they have done.

Once you get your PM settings optimised , I hope that you will be able to carry on exercising pretty much as before.

Best of luck

Ian

Haywire Heartwilma

by WillieG - 2017-12-06 12:18:36

Ian, I read the book and found it to be most interesting, esp the personal stories at the end of each chapter. I realize they don’t have enough people in their studies to make “for sure” conclusions, but it does seem to show that overuse can cause arrhymias later in life.  Thanks for the recommendation and I hope that others might read also.

Steve, good luck with getting your pacemaker settings correct for your level of exercise.  I think I  had 12 setting changes and I am just a bike rider of approx 10-15 miles per day in the summer as well as hiker (so not even close to what you have done and plan to continue).  Stay patient!

Wilma

ICD and Running

by natlat - 2017-12-07 09:15:22

Hi there, I am an avid and competitive runner with an ICD.  I have a scar that caused vt and had an ICD implanted four years ago.  I go undiagnosed. My heart is otherwise normal other than the scar.  Docs think maybe old virus.  Was on meds at the time which really made me feel lousy.  2 years ago I had a successful ablation which took care of my arrhythmia. Since then I have been running and strength training regularly and without meds! No events. Only issue now is a malfunctioning ICD!  I had to have it extracted last week and a new one implanted.  Now I have to give it about 4 weeks to heal then can get back to running and working out.  Check out cardiac athletes on Facebook!  Great group of heart issue athletes!

What is your Pacemaker for?

Natasha

ICD and running

by RegBrown - 2018-03-18 03:28:23

Hi Folks and natlat,

Thanks for your feedback and stories.  I am realIy surprised at how many of us flickering heart athletes there are out there. I was suffering from what Australian Cardiologists call "Athletes Heart Bradycardia".....the very slow resting heart rate associated with a bigger, trained, heart volume. That's OK until one's "heart wiring" plays up a bit, as it tends to with us older folks and we get missed beats  Missing a beat at 60BPM is fine but missing a couple of beats at 30 BPM means no brain blood for 6 seconds and one tends to faint.  So, I have a PM to keep my resting HR at 50BPM....from 50BPM upwards I'm fine.....at the moment!

Theory

by Teletim - 2018-10-06 06:59:13

I have not written a book but would like to suggest a theory: Maybe it's not all the endurace exercise leading to strange/slow rhythms, maybe there is something about having these rhythms draws people to endurance sports because there is some sort of cardio advantage? I think is is something to think about. In my case I have had strange rhythms my whole life since my cause is a genetic abnormality. And I am not a great athlete, but seem to have some sort of talent with long distance events. Do I sound like Mulder? Ha.