Heart Rhythm Conditions – Welcome to the group

@maggie8358 can you try not working out/lifting weights? For me, lifting can be a trigger for afib and rapid heart rate. So it may not even be the exertion: it could be the physical act of lifting weight.

The suggestions above are excellent and having a longer patch monitor and also having a smartwatch or Kardia device will provide information, as will a stress test.

But I do wonder if changing your activity would help. I get a good work out with tai chi and the added benefit is lower stress!

Questions are:

What is your current protocol for dealing with possible paroxysmal or transient arrhythmias where a recent ECG showed no apparent anomaly? You'll want some kind of positive indication that he/she will want you on a monitor like a Loop Recorder that you will have for some time that will have a record over weeks, not a few days. Also, you'll want to hear that he/she will not be averse to exercise, or if he/she is, to what target zone should you try to take your heart?

Would he/she attempt a stress test, possibly a MIBI stress test with contrast and CT scan?

Is ischemia a potential culprit? If so, how would he/she recommend a definitive assessment? Angiogram, Doppler, MIBI...?

Should you be on a statin if you are not already? Why? Are your lipids in a good ratio, triglycerides in normal range?

The thing is, maggie, you are intermittently in tachycardia, and apparently mostly/only during exercise of a certain intensity or type. It could be that you will simply have to desist if you don't want interventions of any kind, whether drugs or some kind of intrusive diagnostic (MIBI and angiography).

Secondly, you really do want to nail down what KIND of tachycardia it is. If it is ventricular, it must be dealt with aggressively. If it's supraventricular (meaning originates and takes place above the ventricles), then it's only worrisome to the extent that you don't like how it feels, you don't like the not knowing, you don't like the potential for progression (yes, arrhythmias tend to progress) and what an evolution to a more intractable type of arrhythmia means for morbidity. Yours.

Lastly, how does your cardiologist feel about catheter ablation if that procedure is ever indicated? Will he/she refer you to a (really crackerjack) electrophysiologist, a specialist in electrical conductivity and disorders of the myocardium? If you are highly symptomatic, and would like this nipped as soon as possible, then you should get into line for an EP as soon as he/she can refer you to one. A good one. A very busy, highly sought one. If you know somebody in the health sciences locally, ask that person to sleuth around for a great EP, but be open to traveling at least a full days' drive if that person is not local. You want THE BEST!!

I am grateful to have found this group as I was recently diagnosed with SVT after experiencing heart palpitations. I had an EKG and wore a Zio heart monitor for 2 weeks. My new PCP gave me a routine referral to Cardiology with a 7 month wait for an appointment. Two weeks ago, after experiencing lightheadedness and a 137 HR while working out (strength training with weights that I do 4 or more times a week), I went to the ER. I got blood work. EKG. echocardiogram and chest x-ray, all of which came back "normal". I guess that means I wasn't having a heart attack. Even with an "urgent" referral to Cardiology from the ER doctor, my appointment is still a month away. Any suggestions for how to find a great cardiologist; questions to ask, specialties to look for, etc.? Until now, I've been very healthy only taking one prescription drug (age 74) and this episode was unsettling and frustrating in dealing with our broken health care system. Anyone else felt an ageism bias from the medical providers you deal with?

I am 76, and had been doing yard work for an hour to two hours daily. Two times I pulled a muscle in my hip. First time it took about a week to recuperate, the second time three weeks. Also, I found it affecting my heart rhythm at times. I loved that I was doing, but my body is saying cut it out. Going back to just walking to town which is up and down steep hills and cleaning house.

Also, are you consuming ANY caffeine? If so, need to stop all. I would rather take practical, natural steps than meds and treatments.

windyshores - '...However, I would think the first approach would be to avoid the exercise that triggers the tachycardia...'

'Doctor, it hurts when i do this.'

'Uuummmm.....................don't do that?'

@gloaming knows his stuff. However, I would think the first approach would be to avoid the exercise that triggers the tachycardia, and find exercise that doesn't trigger it, whether tai chi, walking, swimming....As @gloaming implies, each time you do the elliptical @sa joe , you may be increasing the chance for longer term problems. I am only another patient so discuss with your doctor of course. (I take magnesium, potassium and CoQ10 for heart, something else to ask the doctor about perhaps...)

Tachycardia is considered dangerous when it exceeds 100 BPM indefinitely...certainly more than 24 hours. This is just my personal opinion, but I believe it is increasingly being taken as a reasonable reduction in the upper limit by cardiologists: a heart rate (HR) near or above 100 BPM suggests something is not right. The vast majority of children and adults have resting HRs between 45 and 80 BPM, either sex. When you see an HR above 85, and you're not getting wound up about an election, or your finances, or you're not walking around or doing some gardening, then you should seek at least a safety check by a physician....who should offer to run some tests.

Yes, for some, not everyone, an adjustment of Vagus nerve tone can bring the rate down to a safe level. HOW YOU DO THAT will be a personal investigation as only one or two of the YouTube videos will show you a method that will work for you. The rest won't. But the truth is that, for you....mebbe...you will be further ahead, first with an investigation by a cardiologist, and secondly on a drug LIKE metoprolol, but there are others if metoprolol proves.....PROVES...to be the culprit in how you feel. Diltiazem is such a drug. There is also bisoprolol.

This novel cardiac behaviour (Canuck spelling) is an indication that something about your heart's substrate (you can look up 'cardiac substrate' ) has begun to change. For the heart, and any major organ, you want to get on whatever-it-is as soon as possible while it is the most tractable that it will ever be. With heart arrhythmias/dysrhythmias, you want to deal with it as early as possible when it is still 'young'. Don't put this off!

Can you take walks rather than do the elliptical? Do you have tachycardia walking? I have afib and try to deal with triggers first even if limiting!

I'm a 75 year old male that has experienced tachycardia while exercising. I have been exercising on an elliptical machine for 60 minutes a day for at least 35 years and are now having tachycardia (180 BPM+) about 50% of the time. I went to a PA and was prescribed 25MG metoprolol twice a day which halted the tachycardia. Unfortunately, the side effects were significant from depression to weight gain and ED in 1 month. Now some of my questions:
When is tachycardia dangerous? It scared me the first time it happened since it took more than 20 minutes to decrease but I've never fainted and had no chest pains.
Is the first "treatment" finding a vagal response that stops the tachycardia when it happens before going to medication?
Since I have not experienced tachycardia that was not exercise induced is this chronic?

I just discovered this (the blog) after moving to Vienna, Austria. I have been a patient at the Mayo Clinic previously, but not for a heart problem. I developed an arrhythmia (frequent PVC's with occasional runs of VT). I lived with that for several years. My heart rate would go down to the 30's sometimes, and then I might become symptomatic. I eventually had it 'fixed' through an ablation procedure in Minneapolis (it was a miracle really), after failing a trial of Amiodarone.

In retrospect, I really wonder if the arrhythmia developed after I was shot with a TASER years ago. My ejection fraction was in the 30's, but now it is 50 or 60, and I just passed a stress test with flying colors at the age of 66 years. The only medication I take is Atorvastatin.

There was a long delay (3 years ?) between the onset and having a definitive procedure performed, but I am quite happy with the outcome.