Rapid heart rate 2 minutes into stress test

[stauf87]

I am 42 year old female.  I am overweight, work 50 hours a week.  Over the last 2 months I have had occassional chest pain with increased shortness of breath and decreased exercise tolerance.  I recently had a nuclear stress test and echocardiagram.  The stress test result was normal.  I was only on the treadmill for 3 minutes.  At the start my heart rate was 80 and regular, at the 1 minute mark it was 140 at the 2 minute mark 180.  No chest pain only extreme shortness of breath during the test.  After the test I had to be monitored for 40 minutes before my heart rate was below 110.  The response from the nurse was I am deconditioned, which to a point I am, but I do walk 1 mile 3 times a week and over the last 2 months I don't seem to be able to tolerate that well at all, I have to stop multiple times to catch my breath especially if it is hot outside.  Any ideas?

[Mom2four85]

You may want to try interval training and see if that helps with getting back in shape. Some of the benefits of interval training is you can do more easier and it takes less time to achieve say a mile, you won't get lactic acid build up and it really does help with strength & endurance gains.  

Google interval training, it can be done with any type of exercise and how I always started running again when I got off track.  I used to do a 5 min warmup/cool down; then jog for 1 min @ 4.5 then walk at 3.0 for 3 minutes, jog @4.5 for 1 min, then repeat the walk/jog and each week I upped my time & distance on each jog time but making sure I didn't feel any pain and then added as I felt ok.

It may be that you're deconditioned but it may be you have something else going on, did they check all your blood levels and thyroid (TSH plus free T4 & free T3)?

I was about 30-40 lbs overweight when a dr said to lose it and my problems would magically disappear...lost it all and my worst health problems started.  so pay attention to your own body and symptoms and don't push too hard so you keep on going and no injuries.  

If you feel anything unusual make sure you talk to your doctor right away and don't let it go for too long, we all know our own bodies best.

[itdood]

If I recall correctly there is a lot of study around heart "recovery" time.  THis is the time it takes for a heart to slow back down from an exercise level.  What the studies saw was that as recovery time goes up for people, so does the chance of cradiac issues down the road.

It could be some other issue, but I think your recovery time might be a warning for you to start taking your heart health seriously.

What was the reult of your echo?  I would want to look at all the measurements that can tell you how well your heart is pumping blood like ejection fraction and stroke volume.

If you get the all clear from your doc lose the weight.  I used to be very althletic but had put on 40 pounds after having kids.  All I did was lose the weight, I didn't even work out to lose the weight.  But when I did exerciseafter losing the weight my tolerance went right back to normal, it was very noticable.  It was the extra weight holding me back.  If someone asked me to carry 40 pounds of rocks around all day I'd say they were nuts, darn right I'd be more tired.

[tom_h]

Yes, catch your breath and push on.  If you've got a clean bill of health, go for it!  You have to push through the pain, while pushing that "wall" out further and further.  The good thing: The heart responds rapidly to conditioning.

I would choose either a time or distance.  If you choose distance, work on reducing the time to cover it.  If you choose time, work on increasing the distance during the chosen period.  I prefer the latter.

I remember some simple advice my speed skating coach said to me years ago at a particularly hard training session, "If it doesn't feel like your at Death's door, it isn't enough..."