Heart rate and Hospital visit

Having just spent 3 nights in hospital all wired up to heart machines because my pulse on Sunday was down as low as 28 bpm I wonder if anyone else has had similar experiences?

Normally 45 to 48 bpm is my resting heart rate. Max is 180 bpm
Sunday night was when I was woken a good number of times, almost sighing or yawning to take maximum oxygen into my body. I put on my Garmin chest strap and checked my HR. Readings were 34 to 37 bpm.

I phoned NHS Direct and had a paramedic here very quickly followed by an Ambulance and then off I went to hospital. (No pain anywhere though)
Same readings in Hospital over Monday (blood test for heart attack proved negative) Just bed and monitored.
Tuesday I had an ultrasound scan which revealed nothing, then all wire up I did a treadmill test, regular increase in speed and incline. I got to the next to last stage and HR max was 174 bpm although I could still hold conversation they would not allow me to max out because they had got the readings they required.

I have seen 3 consultants and their verdicts were a virus, along with tiredness and an increase in fitness had all conspired to lower my HR.

I am back some where round normal pulse rate now having had no drugs what so ever.
Just a bed, rest and 3 days of boredom + worry that I may never run or cycle again.

I have now been told to build slowly again. Max HR 70% this week, 80% next and so on.
No racing for a month. Ireland looks like my come back.

Has anyone any thoughts or info on such hapenings?

What were your actual symptoms? How much training had you done in the days leading up to this? In a well trained runner I would not regard a pulse rate in the high 20s as necessarily abnormal.

When I was younger and fitter my resting heart rate was in the low 30s. As yours dropped from the mid 40s suddenly, you did well to seek medical advice.
Yiannis

Stagger, glad to hear you are back home. Hospitals are not always the most restive of environments. Good move to get it checked out.

Rest up mate, hope that's the last of it:)

Glad to hear your home and on the mend mate

Thanks for the kind support fellas.

Training before, Mike had been as follows
Sat Causey Pike 8k race
Sun rest
Mon 2 x 28k bike rides to work and home
Tu 14k bike steady
Wed 20k time trial
Th & Fri rest
Rivington Pike 5k race Max hr 179 & Average hr 172
Rest Sunday
Sunday night bed at 9.30pm and from about 11pm just a really deep breath about every 15 to 20 minutes. So deep it woke me up. Started getting a little sweaty in bed so had a shower at 1am deep breaths continued and then rung NHS approx 2am. Heart rates are now back to around normal.

This year I have run 14 time and 65k but biggest gain has been on the bike 49 times and 1300k.
Increasing steadly in my opinion.
Biking has gone Dec 270k, Jan 360k, Feb 430k, Mar 515k.

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Originally Posted by Stagger

Thanks for the kind support fellas.

Training before, Mike had been as follows
Sat Causey Pike 8k race
Sun rest
Mon 2 x 28k bike rides to work and home
Tu 14k bike steady
Wed 20k time trial
Th & Fri rest
Rivington Pike 5k race Max hr 179 & Average hr 172
Rest Sunday
Sunday night bed at 9.30pm and from about 11pm just a really deep breath about every 15 to 20 minutes. So deep it woke me up. Started getting a little sweaty in bed so had a shower at 1am deep breaths continued and then rung NHS approx 2am. Heart rates are now back to around normal.

This year I have run 14 time and 65k but biggest gain has been on the bike 49 times and 1300k.
Increasing steadly in my opinion.
Biking has gone Dec 270k, Jan 360k, Feb 430k, Mar 515k.

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I agree with Yiannis - you did the right thing as 1/this was not normal for you and 2/you had some symptoms for which there was no obvious non medical explanation. Do you know what evidence there was for a recent viral infection? Presumably they asked you about any tendency to dizziness/lightheadedness/fainting - and the answer is no. Apart from cardiac monitor evidence of a slow heart rate, the results of all the tests sound excellent.

The only evidence of a viral infection was that our son had a sore throat and cough for about 7 - 10 days although he never visited the doctors and I had a touch of a sore throat last week but it never developed into anything. My blood pressure was always normal, 120/70. Thanks for taking time to reply Mike.

good to hear you are ok Trev, look after your self
wouldn't a virus raise your heart rate?
I found after my heart problem that a lack of self confidence in pushing myself was the main problem,not my fittness

Sounds like you did exactly the right thing.
Pleased to hear all tests negative; you should take this at face value - it is very reassuring.
In a one-off episode like this it can be impossible to make anything more than an educated guess, or blame a virus.
It may be that something caused your natural cardiac 'pacemaker' to slow down from its athletic usual - a virus can do this.
If you never get an episode like this again, you'll never know what it was, and it'll never be a trouble to you.
Living with that uncertainty can be tricky

At that background level of fitness, with those negative tests, I would also advise gently starting back as you describe.
Initially, for your own sake, and those close to you, perhaps carry a mobile phone if you don't usually, and stay nearer to civilisation than you might normally?

Going to the Docs on Monday for low H/R 45bpm(65years old in June??) after blood pressure test, told them it was normal for me as I have used a monitor for the last twenty years, but they still insist I go in for a check

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Originally Posted by Big Compass

Going to the Docs on Monday for low H/R 45bpm(65years old in June??) after blood pressure test, told them it was normal for me as I have used a monitor for the last twenty years, but they still insist I go in for a check

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Sounds rather pointless! I suspect many people who run/bike/swim several times a week have a heart rate below 50; presumably it was a nurse/technician who checked your BP, and now they are just following a protocol.

Crickey stagger shaun went through this a month or so ago. They took him in as his HR was 37
checked him for heart attack, ultrasound and treadmill test, all is ok though thank god. Hope you are ok and we will see you tomoz.:p

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Sounds rather pointless! I suspect many people who run/bike/swim several times a week have a heart rate below 50; presumably it was a nurse/technician who checked your BP, and now they are just following a protocol.

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Spot on, after the nurse had done the test she said "on your bike"

..... current heart rate 38; earlier today it was 32 ......

Glad to hear things are all ok Stagger. I'm assuming you put your HR monitor on because you felt odd in your chest, would that be correct? What did you feel like?

On a similar note, does anyone else find there HR changes quite quickly? If I'm doing a resting HR reading I find it noticeably speeds up when breathing in, and drops considerably when breathing out. If I time it right I can get resting HR readings in the 30's but usually they're low 40's. I've always assumed this was normal but wondered if anyone else has noticed similar.

Whilst I'm banging on, does anyone else go a little pale/dizzy and get cold lips and painful jaw/teeth after running at max effort stuff (i.e 5k, or more recently bunny runs). I always finish feeling wretched and go a little pale with light-headedness and this weird pain/discomfort round my jaw with a blood taste in my mouth. It passes fairly quickly and I'm assuming it's simply a result of running close to max HR. What do you think?

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Originally Posted by Rob Furness

Glad to hear things are all ok Stagger. I'm assuming you put your HR monitor on because you felt odd in your chest, would that be correct? What did you feel like?

On a similar note, does anyone else find there HR changes quite quickly? If I'm doing a resting HR reading I find it noticeably speeds up when breathing in, and drops considerably when breathing out. If I time it right I can get resting HR readings in the 30's but usually they're low 40's. I've always assumed this was normal but wondered if anyone else has noticed similar.

Whilst I'm banging on, does anyone else go a little pale/dizzy and get cold lips and painful jaw/teeth after running at max effort stuff (i.e 5k, or more recently bunny runs). I always finish feeling wretched and go a little pale with light-headedness and this weird pain/discomfort round my jaw with a blood taste in my mouth. It passes fairly quickly and I'm assuming it's simply a result of running close to max HR. What do you think?

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Hi Rob. It is normal for heart rate to slow a bit during expiration - this is called sinus arrhythmia - it tends to disappear as people get older. I have no idea what is going on with some of the symptoms in your last paragraph! I suspect we all feel a bit off when running at our limit over short distances - I have felt a bit light-headed occasionally under these circumstances and I blame it on a mismatch between breathing and energy consumption - I think there is a tendency to breath too much - hyperventilate - as we approach the finish line.

Cheers Mike. I think there may be two things going on here actually. I think the teeth thing may simply be from the cold air, and the other stuff is from max efforts. I just wondered if others had similar or if it was just me :)

Take it steay Trev , BOFRA season shortly ! Glad you're ok.
Pete

Well the plot thickens.
After a couple of months running, racing and cycling all at normal (mid 50s) the low Heart rate came back yesterday morning (32 to 36 bpm).
BUT
After consuming a 500ml bottle of lucozade with my lunch I was back to 55ish (normal)
Same again today lowest reading was 32, the average from 8am till 12 was 47 bpm and that included walking around dropped to 36 to 38 when sat down.
Another lucozade with my lunch and back to mid 50s.
Been to see the Doc and I am booked in for a load of blood tests on Wednesday morning (fasting tuesday evening)

Anyone know why it should drop then revert to normal when sugar or glucose is consumed?

Should I race Stoodley Pike tomorrow evening???

Oh crap, after a couple of searchs all I keep finding is hypoglycemia!

Consuming caffeine (ie lucozade) will boost your HR slightly, but probably not as much as you've experienced. This is one for our resident medical expert Mike T to advise on....

Do you actually feel bad/ notice it? or is it just that you are monitoring it with a heart rate monitor? (only ask as I wonder if you didn't know whether it would actually matter or not? I have no idea just curious)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stagger

Well the plot thickens.
After a couple of months running, racing and cycling all at normal (mid 50s) the low Heart rate came back yesterday morning (32 to 36 bpm).
BUT
After consuming a 500ml bottle of lucozade with my lunch I was back to 55ish (normal)
Same again today lowest reading was 32, the average from 8am till 12 was 47 bpm and that included walking around dropped to 36 to 38 when sat down.
Another lucozade with my lunch and back to mid 50s.
Been to see the Doc and I am booked in for a load of blood tests on Wednesday morning (fasting tuesday evening)

Anyone know why it should drop then revert to normal when sugar or glucose is consumed?

Should I race Stoodley Pike tomorrow evening???

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There is not a large amount of glucose in Lucozade - you will almost certainly be getting more glucose from the food you have as lunch than from the lucozade itself. Having a meal does increase heart rate a bit - enough to cause angina in some people with ischemic heart disease for example. In someone with a resting pulse of 40 I would expect a normal meal to increase it to 55-70 odd - if a large meal with alcohol it could go up to 80-90 or even higher. I certainly do not recognize bradycardia by itself as a symptom/sign of hypoglycemia - it could occur with severe hypoglycemia but people would have other obvious symptoms to go with it.

As Rob says there is a small amount of caffeine in some types of Lucozade and this may have a slight heart rate increasing effect.

The question as I see it is - are the periods of bradycardia pathological - or physiological in a very fit person?

As to racing Stoodley Pike you will need to ask your GP/Consultant - but I know what I would do.....

PS I assume there has been no dizziness/lightheadedness/blackouts - and presumably the deep breathing/sighing you had have not recurred.

Thanks for the replys.

No ill effects at all, just HR monitor that says its low Karen.

I am in for blood tests 8am in the morning. So race tonight is off as I have to eat now't tonight.

I will keep you up to date.

Thanks Mike for the informative reply, its very useful.