Heart issue_cycling

A light bike doesn't replace good fitness.

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hanzo111
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:40 pm

by hanzo111

I have been having issues with erratic heart rate for the last few years and never paid much attention to it until my uncle had heart failure in March.

I have been a competitive athlete since I was 6 years old (swimming) then bmx and surfing. I ride only road now with a group here in the DC area.

My Simptoms started really hitting me hard 2 years ago, when my heart rate would spike by 70% within a few seconds for no apparent reason. After extensive testing I was diagnosed with wolf Parkinson's white syndrome ( extra circuit in the heart) that causes irregular heartbeat, thumping in my head and foggy thinking.i will have oblation surgery to zap the circuit in the coming month. I am still cleared to bike up until my surgery but am scared shitless.

Has anyone experienced this disease? My surgeon and literature suggest that this is 100% curable.

My surgeon is also sending me to nih to get a mri of my heart as he also suspects (athleats heart) as one of my issues.

Fingers crossed

Regards
:D

sanrensho
Posts: 433
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:54 pm

by sanrensho

No personal experience, but I hope you've read the Velonews article.

http://velonews.competitor.com/cycling-extremes

Scary stuff and it seems to map with some of the symptoms you describe. Anyway, I hope your surgery goes well.

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Wingnut
Posts: 2196
Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:41 am

by Wingnut

I had atrial fibrillation and an arterial flutter which were both brought on when I had ingenial hernia surgery...had an ablation which seems successful so far but was still experiencing chest discomfort so I had a CT scan which reveals I now have arteroscolisis with my risk of heart attack at 80% so back on blood thinners and cholesterol medication...currently waiting for more blood tests...

Good luck with your issues, read lot's and enjoy every day...

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hanzo111
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:40 pm

by hanzo111

Thanks for the article sanrensho.

Wingnut, are you still on the bike? I hope you have a good recovery buddy.

I have a ok the continue. Valves and chambers ok so far but we will see what happens


Regards
:D

Wingnut
Posts: 2196
Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:41 am

by Wingnut

I am hanzo111 , feeling pretty good but now have to be very strict with my diet so weight already dropping and keep stress levels low...doc says ride as much as I like!

I think once you realise you aren't invulnerable you appreciate the simple things such as just enjoying a ride rather than watching speed or data...

Enjoy, I hope all goes well for you.

drchull
Posts: 376
Joined: Sat Jul 30, 2011 6:38 pm

by drchull

That Velonews article is one of the few great articles to come out of Velonews.

Most of what is written in it is irrelevant to you as you have a congenital issue in WPW. I would definitely get the ablation done, should fix the issue which can be really serious, you don't want to see Torsades de Pointe.

Whether you keep riding while waiting for ablation or not is up to you. If you are not comfortable, take some time off, it is just bike riding.

That sucks Wingnut. On the bright side they found before something bad happened.

Between the velonews article and some medical studies looking at heart attacks/arrhythmias in older endurance athletes it is very interesting to see that being off of both sides of the bell curve when it comes to exercise is not terribly good for the heart. I was already going through the process of stepping away from racing because of the risk of crashes and have really modified my exercise routine as a whole part because of these articles. I still ride long rides, I still ride hard rides but almost never both and give plenty of recovery time where I tend to do more strength training and stretching.

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ms6073
Posts: 4288
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:24 pm
Location: Houston, Texas

by ms6073

While serving in the military, I was diagnosed with Wolf Parkinson's White syndrome during a flight physical shortly before I was supposed to attend aviation warrant officer candidate school. At the time, the flight surgeon told me that I had probably had the condition since birth and that a radio frequency ablation procedure would certainly resolve the issue, but despite being asymptomatic, this was an automatic disqualification from flight training. Even worse yet, the procedure could have ended up disqualifying me from any further military service, so I elected not to pursue it any further. Flash forward 20+ years, and I was surprised there has been no hint of WPW on any of my EKG's since the wife insisted we start annual wellness checkups some 5-years back.
Last edited by ms6073 on Tue May 31, 2016 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Michael
"People should stop expecting normal from me... seriously, we all know it's never going to happen"

11.4
Posts: 1095
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 4:33 am

by 11.4

Ablation can sometimes take two or three tries to work completely, but with some persistence it becomes effective.

It's not surprising, by the way, that conduction syndromes may show at some time in your life and then disappear. By the same token, they may appear at some point but have been present all along. It's all about the sophistication in the software of modern EKG's. It filters out false positives and also catches issues previously overlooked.

The symptoms you are having are not those of cardiac failure, but of an electric circuit that is intermittently malfunctioning. And it does so to make the heart race, which without secondary issues such as pronounced atherosclerosis doesn't pose much of a risk. You make it race all the time in training and racing anyway, right?

If your physician did an X-ray and diagnosed an enlarged left ventricle, do be aware that the old axioms about athletes' hearts are taken a bit less seriously than once. There are hearts that are seriously deformed, but what most long-term athletes have is something that was viewed as a problem 75 years ago but today is not seen as problematic. The heart is like any other muscle and should respond to training. You just don't want it to develop any abnormalities, such as an excessively enlarged left atrium, deformed inter ventricular wall, any kind of stenosis, or an excessively thickened outer ventricular wall. Those aren't all that common.

Your physician has cleared you to ride, and he's almost certainly correct. However, riding easy or laying off the bike for a few weeks is a better solution if riding is causing you high anxiety. You don't want to acclimate yourself to a fear of heart problems (nothing kills training faster, plus it becomes a form of PTSD). Get the MRI in the next few days and at least understand if you have a morphological problem in the heart. If you don't, you can then breathe easier. Be sure it's a competent modern sports cardiologist who is evaluating you -- this field has changed immeasurably in the last ten years or so.

hanzo111
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:40 pm

by hanzo111

My surgeon asked me to have an mri of my heart at NIH. He wants to check on heart condition in general.

It's funny that my alectrophyiologist was in the air force and performed oblation surgery on pilots. Was with navy medical then Walter Reid. I just want the roper coaster to be over

Regards
:D

nfecyle
Posts: 100
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:05 am

by nfecyle

Sorry to hear about your condition. I dont know about the wolf parkinson thing, but I had afib abalation last year. Before abalation i had full time fibilation for a year. My heart didnt beat at high rate like most of afib condition instead i was having low heart beat but irregullary. It was not life threatening but it does increase risk of stroke. Here is what i had before surgery: ultrasound to study structure of heart, some conditions will reduce the success rate of the ablation such as abnormal thickness or athletes heart. Ct for heart mapping, and TEE to detect any clot. The dr put me on xarelto 1 months before the procedure. In my case the procedure took about 4 hr. The worst is that i have to stay about 2 hour after awaken lying on bed not moving which kills my back, and also when the nurse took out my peeing catheter. During recovery the doctor put me on sotalol and xarelto. The first 5 days was kind of bad due to waiting the groin heal and mostly strange sensation on the chest, i was scared that i was having heart attack. By days 10 i was back on the bike (dr cleared). I was diagnosed with flutter about a month later which dr did cardioversion on me. So far heart rate looks good, there are some early beats here and there, but dr said it is normal. When i am healthy the quality life is better. I used to be tired most of the time. I could not ride long millage back to back like before. Now seems to be ok when i am healthy. Though i have not gone back riding to the level where i used to be.
Here is very usefull read the will help you to go through this. http://www.drjohnm.org
https://afibrunner.com


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hanzo111
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:40 pm

by hanzo111

Nfecyle- thanks for the links, they actually helped a lot. I am going for my ablation this coming Thursday. My MRI came out negative for any heart damage, so we are proceeding.

I'm excited that I got to speak with someone in my group who apparently has done this before . He says recovery took about 10 to 12 days total and he was back on the bike, he claims he broke the stress test bike after the surgery. I believe it by how he rides.

I'll post my results here in case anyone has a fib or WPW. Wish me luck
:D

petereps
Posts: 36
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 3:50 pm

by petereps

That Velonews article and the sudden deaths of pros have been freaking me out lately. How would one go about getting their heart tested in order to avoid those sort of things? I'm in my early 20's with shit healthcare so not sure if a doctor would even preform said tests...

nfecyle
Posts: 100
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:05 am

by nfecyle

Hanzo good luck with your surgery. I was getring dropped by my group i used to ride with. When i compared the speed, they werent getting fast, its just somehow i regressed due to afib. The recovery time might be different for each person. I would suggest at least a month. In my case i was on the bike 10 days after it, i was feeling good better than it was before and was hammering it maybe thats the reason i went into flutter and had to be cardioversioned. But dr said it happens anyway a lot time regardless excersise or not.
Hi pete if you go to cardiologist i think at least they would perform ultrasound of the heart, and you can also request stress test. But you might pay more if your have bad insurance.


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hanzo111
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:40 pm

by hanzo111

Update

I had my ablation surgery, I am so happy. Turns out the doctor found six different circuits in my heart that shouldn't have been there. One was directly touching one of my valves.

I'm surprised how good I feel, I forgot what it felt like not to have throbbing all over my body and my head. When I get up now my head doesn't go light like I want to pass out and it's only the second day.

I can't wait to get back on the bike, I went on the same day with really no restrictions except that I could not drive for 48 hour and that I could not lift anything more than 5 pounds for one week. I was cleared however for mild cardio. I walked about a tenth of a mile yesterday. Today I will ride the stationary bike at level two for about 10 minutes. In one week I can go fullbore and push as hard as I want as there was no real damage to my heart other than some minor scarring from the procedure.

I'll post the results here, I was also by the way going into a fib And that was taking care of as well at the same time.

Regards
:D

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DartanianX
Posts: 616
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2011 6:00 am

by DartanianX

I have a bicuspid aortic valve, gives me the sensations of no pain / feeling in the legs when the valve doesn't close properly, which allows me to push and push which I have done once or twice just for shits and giggles, and boy I can go uphills fast, as well as everything going into slow motion, imagine 50km/h+ and feeling like you're rolling around at >10kms/h. Scary stuff when I look back at it.

But I have come to the realization that I'm better off alive so if it ever happens, I just sit up and sit on the side of the road until I am back to good.

Can still punch on like the days I was racing internationally and do good power, but aren't straining my heart by being lean 24/7 along with training and racing, but just kick around in Sydney now.

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