Supraventricular Tachycardia (PSVT) and Running

Posted by ronbyrd @ronbyrd, Jan 11, 2019

I have been running for a decade including 6-7 marathons. Two years ago, while training, I had brief bouts of tachycardia. Cardiologist did tests that showed my heart was "structurally" sound. Then put me on Bisoprolol. That had side effects so I tried Diltiazem to mitigate SVT episodes. Both did appear to help but I stopped due to side effects. End result was Dr said SVT is rarely fatal and unless my quality of life was affected there was nothing more to do. Not wanting to aggravate the condition I have stopped running (but do a lot of walking). Are there any runners out there with similar experiences?

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@soliloquized

Supra Ventricular Tachycardias are often not considered as dangerous as ventricular tachycardias. Non-Sustaining Ventricular Tachycardia reportedly happens in younger, healthy hearts too (but not often). But those that seem to get bouts of SVT only tolerate them for X amount of time before going to the ER to have the episode terminated. How long does your episodes last, and has your doctor provided a trigger point where you should seek medical assistance? Have you had a stress test to observe their occurrence under stress on your heart?

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My episodes are short - around a minute and happen occasionally while running. I should have added "Paroxysmal" to diagnosis (PSVT), meaning from time to time. They stop when I stop running. Only other times I've had (detected) episodes is on brisk walks and that's rare. I never discussed a trigger point with doctor, as when I've seen it happen (on my Apple Watch) I break into a walk and it goes away. Always has. Yes, a stress test was part of the cardiologist's tests and it triggered episodes. My concern is, if I continue to run the problem could get worst, so don't want to have that happen.
Thanks for your thoughts.

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Supra Ventricular Tachycardias are often not considered as dangerous as ventricular tachycardias. Non-Sustaining Ventricular Tachycardia reportedly happens in younger, healthy hearts too (but not often). But those that seem to get bouts of SVT only tolerate them for X amount of time before going to the ER to have the episode terminated. How long does your episodes last, and has your doctor provided a trigger point where you should seek medical assistance? Have you had a stress test to observe their occurrence under stress on your heart?

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I am not a runner, but 16 years ago I had SVT, 205 bpm. It was determined that my resting heart rate was too low for drugs. I had an ablation. Three months later the SVT came back (the electrophysiologist has said there was that chance). I had a second ablation. Since then I’ve had PVC’s from time to time. Last May I almost passed out at work from a short fast arrhythmia. My cardiologist thought it might be ventricular tachycardia. In June I had a LINQ loop recorder implanted.

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