desaturating during exercise

I desat during exercise.  I actually had a stress test done on my doctor's advice after complaining of nausea, dizziness, & feeling generally ill during exercise.  (I am in good shape, 40 yrs old, and have been exercising in some format nearly every day for years.)  Anyway, the stress test showed that my heart is healthy but that I do desaturate during exercise (I have a normally low BP, but my diasolic went down to about 25).  My doctor told me to just eat more salt (which I feel like I do already).
Recently I have also begun to feel very, very sleepy during and for hours after exercise.  Is this anything I should be concerned about or ... just eat more salt?  It is frustrating.


This discussion is related to Exercise induced nausea.

[maggiemag]

You don't how much you desat, but I would want to see a pulmonologist for some PFT's at a minimum.  Have you had an echo, preferably a bubble echo to look for a shunt?  If I feel very sleepy after exercise, it's a pretty good sign that I have overdone it.  How many mets did you reach on the stress test?  Is your doctor a cardiologist?

[tek40]

I requested the results of my stress test and I was mistaken in the desating, however my diastolic is bottoming out during exercise.  When this happens I feel nauseous, faint, generally ill, and most recently have passed out on one occasion and thrown up a separate time.  I have also been feeling very sleepy after most any exercise.  My Max SBP got to 140 and Max DBP was 40.  My diastolic at its lowest was actually in the upper 20s, near 30.  During the stress test I didn't feel ill at all so I'm wondering how low my DBP actually gets when I do have symptoms.  You asked about METs.  Mine was 12.8.  My question is, what does "Worse-case ST Level" (mine was -5.5 III) and "Worst-case ST Slope" (mine was -16 III) mean?  The doctor was a cardiologist.   I am worried about my symptoms getting worse.  

[running23]

I was wondering if you ever figured out what exactly was going on with the faintness/sleepiness during and after exercising? I came across your comments and realized that I have very similar symptoms.  I've gotten checked out by a physician and a cardiologist but they can't tell me much about what's going on.  My heart seems to be in great health but my blood pressure is very low.  They just tell me to eat more salt and drink more water, which I've tried to do, but I definitely feel you on the frustration part.