Bradycardia and exercise

[Lavy4]

Hi there, I am a Latino female about to turn 40, I was recently diagnosed with Sinus Bradycardia. I am not in good shape, I haven't exercise for a year. I am not overweight and don't have any other health problems. I am tired all the time and I have some breathing problems (I feel like I don't take enough oxygen for my body), I am 5'1 and 120 pounds, I want to get back to be healthy and not tired but even 10 minutes of exercise is exhausting and it takes me another 15 min to recover from the exercise.

What type of exercise would you recommend me to do to get back to a healthy body? I just want to feel normal and not tired all the time. It is affecting my social life now.

All help you can provide me would be greatly appreciated.

[Poobah88]

I've just been diagnosed with bradycardia. Is there a fix for this or is it something I just have to live with for the rest of my life?

[bear165]

My name is Caroline, I have been diagnosed with Bradycardia since 2009, over the years it has been much worse. Last year I was hospitalized for 16 days before they could get my heart rate up enough to send me home. The last three days I have gone through an echo, a tilt-table test and a nuclear stress test. These are all to rule out pacemaker. I am 48 years old and I also have what they call mitral valve regurgitation. I have been severely fatigued and tired since they did the test of which they gave me isoproterenol to raise my HR, now it is dropping back into the low 40, I have been between 43-60 but when it goes over 60 my hear races. i have been sleepy and I fighting it.
My suggestions is do not do anything regarding exercise until you have the tests required to diagnose and treat properly because with Bradycardia you are at high risk for stroke or heart attack.

[kamaranhamad]

I have bradycadia too.It beats nearly 40 or less. The doctors suggest me a pacemaker .What happens if ineglect

[kane3]

All the advice sounds great to me too. I also suffer from Bradycardia, and my symptoms at first were pin point on with yours. But after awhile, these symptoms seemed to fade. My resting HR is usually in the low 40's and with exercise it can vary. My pvc's usually kick in when my HR is low and when my HR is really high (at the peak of exercise). I would suggest taking light walks to start off, and maybe increasing that after you see how your Brady reacts to the exercise. At first for me it seemed as though my  symptoms were almost 10x worse after light exercise. I felt like I was fighting for air at times and my breathing was all over the place...I hope you find peace with your problem...always follow up with a  doctor if you cant find a path right for you. Take care
Kane

[chuparosa]

I agree with LBBBGuy, could be the bradycardia causing your symptoms.

I have bradycardia also (although I have no symptoms). I was really surprised by the diagnosis (I also have atrial flutter). As goofy as it may be, I bought a Reebok Step a long time ago and love it. It was inexpensive to buy (got mine at Target), takes very little room to store, takes very little room to exercise with and you can exercise at home. You just pop in the dvd and follow along. I like that I can get a little exercise in at home at my convenience and I can go as easy or hard as I want to.

I'm not overweight or a total couch potato and I'm nearly a lifelong vegetarian. I don't think that bradycardia is necessarily the result of being out of shape but it's great that you want to get active. You should check with your doctor before starting to exercise though.

[Jerry_NJ]

The above advice sounds good to me.

What is your rest HR?  Does the HR come up when you do light exercise, e.g., walking?  What is the walking HR?

[LBBBguy]

Hi Lavy,
Before you go off starting to exercise, I think first things first. It sounds like your bradycardia could be the cause of your symptoms, so I think the first thing that needs to be done is figure out what's causing the bradycardia, and just how serious it is. Not sure if you've gotten that further diagnosis or not, but I think that would dictate your next steps. Has your doctor explained anything more, or given you some kind of treatment recommendations? The fact that you're so easily fatigued doesn't sound like it should be taken lightly. It may just be that your conditioning is poor from lack of exercise, BUT it could also be that your HR isn't getting up high enough when you exercise, and if that's the case then it could be trouble. The good news is that if that is the case, it's very treatable. So I would be very very cautious about exerting yourself until you've gotten some clarity from your doctor there. Keep us posted.