General Cycling Discussion - Palpatations

I posted a couple of months ago about wierd heart palpatations while riding. I made an appt. with my doctor and he said it sounded like "premature heart beat" (where your heart is cruising along OK and then it has a double beat followed by a pause. He said it is not life threatening, but the pause is scary. He said it could be caused by stress or caffiene, among other things. I scheduled a stress test and passed without incident (the man who ran the treadmill said I had a slightly enlarged heart due to training). I have since cut way back on caffiene and tried to reduce my stress. So far, so good although I find it hard to relax while biking in 20 degree weather with a 15 mph headwind. Aaaaaauuuuummmm. PS. I also quit using my heart rate monitor on every ride. I was watching it more than the road.

Glad you saw your doctor and that everything is ok.

Glad to hear you're ok. :thumbup:
At least he didn't tell you to give up cycling. :)

Hey there,

My cousin had the same thing.. his doctor said it was fairly common in guys in their 20's. His doc put him on some meds, told him to exercise more and try to de-stress a bit... All of it seems to be working for him. He was a bit overweight to begin with.. at about 6'4" and 275 lbs. (former college football player). Glad to hear your doing well

Jeff

Smart move to go and see the doc. Some of the things posted in this thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?threadid=19863) might be of some interest.

I had this problem last year and it was attributed to being a sleep deprived, stressed out, over caffeinated, fatso.

I started riding my bike and the problem has gone away. No drugs required. Cycling has improved my sleep, reduced my stress and lowered my fat content. I had to increase my caffeine intake to temper all the good things that were happening! :beer:

Your post brought back some unhappy memories. I was going through a painful divorce back in the 1980's and developed severe palpitations. One night it took me to the emergency room; I thought I was going to die. The emergency room doctor after looking at my strip asked: "are you under a lot of stress?" When I anwsered affirmative he said: "You better figure it out before it kills you." I have to say that advice forced me to make some decisions that moved the process forward and got it behind me. Interestingly the missed, or extra, beats seldom occured while running but occasionally I would get a string of them, really scary, while riding the stationary bike. A cardiologist had me wear a monitor for 24 hours and told me to be sure and do a normal workout. Sure enough he got a good run of abnormal beats to examine. He was impressed and said that he was sure I could feel them but they were benign and not to worry. I recall that I was so relieved I went right out and ran some steep hills, a very grueling workout, to purge the fear from my system. After completeing and surviving that workout I knew I was ok and never looked back.