Discussion: Higher than normal BPM when exercising

I'm brand new to this forum but just thought I'd share my latest diagnosis of Atrial Flutter with you. There was a previous thread along the same lines but which seems to be closed now.

So, the history ...... I'm 51 years old and have always followed a pretty active lifestyle - running, swimming, cycling hill walking etc.

I wear a Garmin Forerunner when training and about 6 months ago when running had a sudden feeling of a lack of energy in my legs and noticed my BPM's were up around 234!!

After questioning my Garmin's accuracy I continued but in the following weeks had similair incidents when running, cycling and even climbing hills. I went to my Doctor and he gave me an ECG which showed all was well but he referred me to hospital for an exercise ECG. The treadmill test also showed nothing and I was told I was a fit as a fiddle!

The episodes continued and after being signed off by the hospital I noticed that after exercising and experiencing high BPM's I was also getting an irregular pulse. I began to 'Google' and eventually went back to my Doc and insisted on a further ECG and to be referred back to hospital for a 24 hour ECG monitor. After much persuasion he eventually agreed stating he thought I was OK and making a fuss over nothing.

I went to see aspecialist and had the 24 hour monitor fitted and whilst wearing it ran 10 miles and cycled 15. luckily I experienced the usual symptoms. When it was reviewed I was told I had irrregular beats caused by adrenalin and was prescribed a beta blocker, Bisoprolol. It instantly cured me!

I returned a month later for another 24 hour monitor and a heart scan. The monitor showed normal activity and my heart's fine but I've been told I have 'Atrial Flutter'. Because irregular beats can cause blood to pool in the heart chambers the potential for strokes is heightened and for that reason I take an aspirin a day and have been told I can carry on as normal. All is now well.

My whole point is, if you experience anything similair, keep insisting with your GP that they investigate properly and exhaustively. If you're not diagnosed and you get a blood clot the consequences could be severe!

What about caffeine intake and your atrial flutter? I have found that this could be an issue with heart rate issues. Especially with faster heart rates.

To the best of my knowledge, caffeine intake and atrial flutter are on different levels of seriousness/structure of the problem. Several levels apart. The latter is a medium-serious issue due to permanent extra conduction paths in the heart muscle. The heart rates that result would be well above the max previously recorded, nothing that too much caffeine would be able to cause just by itself.

Prehaps I should go and see the doc... I have been getting similar dodgy high recordings intermitently when on the bike. Normaly only when decending. I have been blaming them on my home made bike computer that I was recording them with. I am now working an Andriod App for an Ant+ compatible phones so there is none of my dodgy hardware involved (just my dodgy software). I should start working on the the RR HRV app as well.

If you have Afib or atrial flutter, you'll know. Your exercise capacity will drop by 25%–30% due to the lack of "atrial assist" (there's less of a pump if only the ventricles are pumping). If you can get close to your max exercise output while still exhibiting abnormaly high HR readings, it's not Afib or flutter. It can still be another, less common arrhythmia, though.

For many years I suffered from heart problems similar to this when I started to put in serious effort while running. This would come on after 20 minutes or so when I started to push the pace, but not every time - it was a bit intermittent, but often happened during big races much to my annoyance. My heart rate would jump from 150 to 230++ in the space of 1 minute and then I would have to drop right back to a very slow jog or walk and couldn't get going again at any sort of pace. Extremely annoying and worrying. Went to several doctors who dismissed it as a minor issue and advised me to stop or reduce exercise - not an option really! I may be 52, but I still feel competitive and want to race hard. Eventually convinced a cardiac specialist to put me through a serious stress test on the treadmill, running to exhaustion. He found the abnormality came on when my heartrate hit around 150 bpm and was an extra systolic heartbeat. Not life threatening , but vaguely worrying that it came on as a result of exercise (normally occurs in other people while at rest and goes away when exercising). Cause unknown and no definitive solution, although most likely linked to faulty electrical impulses and feedback under stress. But advised to cut caffeine, keep the electrolytes up, keep the fluids up, get more sleep. Followed that advice by going cold turkey on tea and Coke. No problems at all since then. Caffeine-free is the way to go! Just finished the New York Marathon a few weeks ago with no heart problems (legs were another story :-))

Right at the start I cut out caffeine, and initially alcohol, and it seemed to reduce the instances of when it happened but not fully stop them. I also initially thought it was the fault of my HRM and tried new batteries etc before realising that tiredness came at the same time as high BPM's so there must have been a link. Granted, at first when I was told I'd need to be on heart meds for life it took the wind out of my sails but knowing now that I'm otherwise in possession of a healthy heart AND being able to train again properly, I've come to be grateful for the final diagnosis.

People have had ablation for Afib/flutter (namely Rich Parker, I believe), and are no longer on meds. It's in the other Afib threads.

My mother had ablation for Afib after meds didn't do the trick for her. In her case, ablation also involved getting a pacemaker, and she's still on meds like bloodthinners. But she's basically doing fine at age 84. I don't remember for sure when the ablation was, but I'd guess 15-20 years ago. My cousin, in his late 40s, also has Afib issues, but last I heard he was able to keep it under control by eating lots of bananas.