Running with a pacemaker

It depends

by IAN MC - 2017-04-02 08:21:42

Hi Elise    It is possible that a pacemaker will have no adverse effects whatsoever  on your distance runnning if your only problem is AV block.  I hope that this is the case.

Another possibility is that you may have become " chronotropically incompetent " as well as having AV block. This would mean that your heart-rate no longer increases as it should when you exercise . If this happens then your running would suffer because you would need a Rate Response setting on the PM which puts in extra heart-beats when you exercise.  This is never quite as good as having a normally functioning heart but, don't get me wrong, you would still lead a pretty normal life.  Only the distance running MAY suffer !

I was a keen marathon runner myself and am fascinated that quite a significant proportion of pacemaker recipients have been distance runners before developing conduction problems of the heart. It has been suggested that endurance activities lead to tiny tears in the heart muscle which then becomes scar tissue which in turn leads to rogue electrical currents to develop. but who knows it may just be the luck of the draw ??

  I have been unable to run marathon distances since getting a pacemaker but this may not apply to you.

Sorry to mix some bad news with the good but I know that anyone who is daft enough to do 100k runs would want the truth  ( I did one once and did question my sanity at the time )

I sugggest that you discuss chronotropic incompetence with your cardiologist.

Best of luck and let us know how you get on

Ian

heart block

by Tracey_E - 2017-04-02 18:04:56

Are you symptomatic? If you feel up to marathons, it doesn't sound like you spend much time in heart block. If anything, the pacer should help your running, not hinder, because it won't let your heart get out of sync. 

One thing to ask about is upper rate. When you are in block, your sinus node works normally (in theory, see Ian's comments above) so all we need the pacer for is to make the ventricles beat when the atria does. It can onoy do this up to the preprogrammed upper limit. Do you know how high your rate gets? Many pacers only go up to 180, some of the mri ones only go to 150. Practically, we can get up to about 10 bpm of the upper limit, wh ich means 170. There are a very few out there that go to 220. If you get over 170 when you run, you want one of the ones that goes higher.

Know that it's not uncommon for younger and atheletic patients to take a few tries to get the settings fine tuned. We are all different so settings are not one size fits all. They start with a good guess then adjust from there. 

I've been paced for av block since 1994. There's nothing I want to do that I cannot and my endurance is significantly better than it was before I got it. 

Heart block and exercise

by Bostonbionic - 2017-04-03 16:49:30

If it's only your ventricular being paced and you don't need a rate response to increase your heart beat for exercise then there is no reason why you can't continue as you have. Check with your doctor what your upper settings are so if you find you can't increase your pace you know why as already explained in the other comments. Providing your settings are right for you then you shouldn't even know when you are paced and usually with heart block it's when the heart beats slower. I'm a long distance cycling and mine has been in just over a year and I had heart block. I'm out cycling no problems now and doing done short runs. Starting to build up my mileage again got to 30miles so far. Sometimes after I find when resting I get palpatations or extra beats for a while so I'm guessing that's normal as I feel ok the next day. Build up slowly is my advice and enjoy running again.

liz uk

complete heart block

by dwelch - 2017-04-13 05:16:16

Almost 40 years ago when i was around 12 they discovered my heart block, congenital, from birth, complete (level 3), statistically probably shouldnt have made it to 19 when I got my first pacer.  Today I cant find the statistics because they pop these things in kids no problem and they all make it through (statistically).   There are not enough untreated ones to collect stats on.

I was very athletic, very very, even for a kid back then.  Doctor told me I couldnt play soccer anymore, pissed me off swicthed to other sports that were just as bad, didnt tell him.  Well I told him I did a half century, 50 mile bike ride, cold turkey, no training was a bmxer not a long distance road racer.  Was told that people in my condition can die from doing things like that.

I dont know about you but with the block my heart mucle was getting thick and the heart was getting too large, you could see it beat between my ribs and I could hear it in my ear and feel every beat. The pacer stopped all that it was a very empty feeling for a while, simply because I didnt have the comfort of that rythm in my chest and ears.  You may or may not have that now yourself, that will go away.  but it is a good thing.

Even then and certainly now they have pacers that should suit your lifestyle, certainly tell them, these things make you normal not special, fixed not broken.  We are all different but I would expect it to help your running making your heart work much more efficiently, you might not need a high upper limit.  And if you are at risk may save your life so you can keep on running.

The doctor was right, I was off to college, then career behind a desk, the heavy activity I was doing was going to taper off into adulthood.  I kept up the BMX and skateboarding for years and the pacer AFAIK didnt restrict me in any way other than dont bang it on anything, as that really hurts, or did back then when they were relatively huge and bulged out, now they are wee bitty things.

There were a few then and now many athletes that have pacemakers, if you have an AV block this should make your heart work better, not inhibit you.  Talk to your doc, not getting the answers you need, find another doc, dont hang on for any reason move on till you get the answers you need.  If this persists or gets worse not getting one will kill you so you cant do much running then.

My first one did take some number of months to get dialed in.  Some may be normal first pacer stuff, I assume some of it was 30 year old pacer technology compared to what we have today.