Exercise and PVC's

[ScottH]

I am a 51-year old male. My entire life, I have experienced stress-induced PVC

[WPWGuy]

Hi everybody. I am 45 and also a runner. Similar problem with PVC's during running and occasional short run VT's at rest.  Not much of a problem by comparison to some of the stuff you read here --- at least so far.  

Just a thought though --- the occurance of these PVC's is quite variable, even when not influenced by external factors.  So if caffeine or alcohol do have an effect, might it be difficult to distinguish normal "background noise" from effect of caffeine etc?  

Higher frequency of PVC's only struck me recently (had RFCA for WPW last year that brought em on), and it took several months to realize that there was any connection to caffeine. I could have a 20 oz coke and not notice much of anything if I was in a "good period". Consistently cutting back though has noticeably improved things.  I have fewer bad days. The running also helps the PVC's, as long as I persist with it, and also add plenty of rest to my schedule.

Regarding the gasping for air at night, I used to experience this with mild alchohol use. My WPW never acted up at night, and while my current arrhythmias do act up at night, they never cause breathlessness. It did take me an incredibly long time to figure out the connection between alchohol use before bedtime, and "gasping".  Now that I stopped that (except for an occasional beer no later than dinner time), it stopped --- completely.

I would like to qualify all of this by saying, in summation, that I am not a doctor, and that I am also not a drunk.  Only a doctor is qualified to tell you about health matters :).

[ScottH]

Once again, thanks for such a good discussion.

My ICD was implanted because the VT sometimes lasts so long (over a minute) that I loose consciousness. The cardio feared that I would not always come out of it on my own, hence the ICD for

[Konopka1955]

Hi, bama jane
your quote - While I do have some pvc's. They have never captured v tach on any of the monitoring. I wake up gasping for air quite often and wondered if you or anyone else knows if a fast atrial arrhythmia could also cause this gasping for air thing.  - end of quote

Hi, I'm sorry to say but I don't know what tachy's produces your gasping for air - I know what it was for ME as I had started off with pvc's (years ago) and then over the years it progressed to vt's with exercise and then I got them even without exercising.  I do remember it happening during a time that my vt's were quite active.  Which I think was from having several vt ablations.  When I had those ablations it often stirred my vt's up.  I don't drink alcohol.  I don't smoke but on occasion I do "swear" !!  and I love a chocolate bar now and again..  :-)  I DO have structural heart disease. Anyways, I'm not a doctor and I don't know.  But I definently would take those nightly 'gasping' events serious.  I've heard many ICD patients get those events and have been woken up with 'shocks' from their ICD during them!!!  I would think if you got a 24 hour monitor and got it recorded they could tell.  

I would talk to your doctor. I am not a doctor..  

I'm just amazed about Scott having 5 ICD's and 2 shocks !!! I hope his pvc's get better.  

Best Wishes
Marilyn  (runner)


  

  

[bama jane]

I have multiple arrhythmias and follow these posts. I noticed you said that you at times wake up at night gasping for air.  While I do have some pvc's.  They have never captured v tach on any of the  monitoring.  I wake up gasping for air quite often and wondered if you or anyone else knows if a fast atrial arrhythmia could also cause this gasping for air thing.  I have atrial tach, pac's, bigeminy trigeminy, sinus tach, sinus arrhythmia, junctional rhythms, acelerated rhythms, and some pvc's as well. No strucutral problems, and no known coronary artery disease. It only seems to happen in my sleep.I do have some shortness of breath with these arrhytmias but nothing like the gasping that wakes me up on some nights.  It seems to stop as soon as I am awake.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[tickertock]

sound like you had a rough time but you never let it keep you down , good for you. I think you said you had a cardiac cath, EPS study, echos, stress test and every thing is structurally normal with your heart, no blockages, no valve disease , no cardiomyopathy, only PVCs and exercised induced VT.

i am curious as to why you had an ICD implanted despite the exercised VT, were you considered high risk for sudden cardiac death  10 years ago and the ICD implanted as a so called insurance policy.

i understand that normal heart idiopathic vt that is induced by exercise pose very little to no risk to a person and doesn't qualify one for an ICD as it might have done years when arrhythmias, especially ventricular ones were more poorly understood and not well studied as now. Is your VT diagnosed as normal heart idiopathic VT, just curious? Thanks.

[runnertom]

Maybe you can just do a 60 min warmup to get rid of the PVCs! LOL
   I also am a runner/biker who started noticing PVCs about 10 years ago (am now 57).They occurred while running or riding whenever my pulse exceeded 110 bpm but would quit at about 140. I cannot say I ever noticed reduced performance due to the PVCs. A cardio supervising a stress test commented that I was "overdriving the focus". He seemed unconcerned as did two other cardios, one of which did a 24 hr holter that showed trigeminy during exercise with a few runs of VT.
   Over the last several years, the PVCs seemed to be increasing based on my Polar HR monitor. When they started, the monitor would quit updating as it could not calculate a pulse rate due to the variability of pulse to pulse timing. (I have neve been able to directly feel the PVCs unless I was actually counting my pulse manually.) At one point, my GP sent me to a fourth cardio based on the PVCs and VT I was getting on a stress test-actually pulmonary function test to look for cause of shortness of breath early in a run. The fourth cardio did a cath-because of the PVCs he said-and found a 95% blockage of the LAD. I had bypass surgery the next day (2 years ago) and all has gone well since.
   I had no chest pain or other symptoms likely due to heavy collateral development. I now question whether the sugery was really needed. Even the surgeon was soft-selling the surgery based on me not really having any symptoms. The cardio had said however that he was not going to let me out of the hospital until they fixed this thing.
   Anyway, post surgery, if anything the PVCs were much worse. The Polar was useless. However, over the last year, the PVCs have seemed to almost totally gone away. I don't use the Polar any more, as I have come to question its value and realize it just raises my anxiety level and keeps me from enjoying my rides.
   I am not sure what the lesson in this is. I guess the PVCs at least raised my awareness of my heart issues prior to possibly having a massive MI. Maybe I was essentially immune anyway due to the collaterals. I do know that I am now obsessive about keeping track of my risk factors (homocysteine was high) and am doing my best to minimize them.
   The jury is still out as to whether the PVCs were due to the blockage. My GP swears they were, and my latest cardio is not too sure. I do know that the cardios on this board alway precede comments on PVCs with "in the setting of a structurally normal heart..."