Pacemaker Club: Battery

Battery

by chereescott
2014-09-09 10:09:21
Batteries & Leads
1288 views
3 comments

Can physical and emotional stress cause your battery to "die" quicker?

3 Comments

Unlikely

by golden_snitch - 2014-09-10 02:09:35

Hi!

Battery life does not only depend on how much you pace.

Actually, I went from 100% pacing atrially to 100% pacing atrially AND ventricularly, and had NO change in the battery life. Battery life depends on a lot more than pacing percentage. Much more important are thresholds (how much energy is needed to effectively stimulate the heart) and lead impedance.

The great majority of pacemaker does not react to emotional stress. There is only one manufacturer offering a rate response sensor that responds a bit to mental stress, and that's Biotronik with its CLS sensor. So, if emotional stress does raise your heart rate, the pacemaker has nothing to do with it, it's your own rhythm that's causing this.

And if your heart rate increases due to physical exercise, with the rate response sensor switched on, this usually has no effect on the battery life either. It's just more beats per minute that the pacer needs to generate, but as I said before, how much and fast it paces is not what really determines battery life.
You can, for instance, pace 20%, with a high threshold, and get only 6 years out of a device. Or you can pace 100% with a low threshold and get 10 years out of it. Just an example.

Inga

battery

by Tracey_E - 2014-09-10 09:09:43

What Inga said, a lot more goes into it than just how much you pace.

Not only----

by flutetooter - 2014-09-10 12:09:30

Not only your battery........

I have recently precipitated a higher than normal heart beat and much anxiety through worry, not planning ahead for my safety, being attacked by an unusual number of mosquitos, not encountering people to give aid, etc., etc., etc. No matter what our ailments, a sound mind and body and meditation or quiet time, a positive outlook on life, healthful food and exercise, etc., etc., etc., can add years to our lives ---- and our batteries.

When I breath faster, my "minute ventilation" part of the rate response in my PM thinks I need a higher heart rate and paces more and faster. That really does use up the better quicker.