Ballwin man gets trip to ER after bicycle computer tells him he?s in distress | FOX2now.com
Great story about noticing beats per minute indicator was telling the truth, cyclist was able to save his own life.
I need one too!

Lucky man

I'm happy for him that he survived his "wake up call" but losing about 60 lbs. of visceral fat would do more to keep him alive than bike riding! Exercise is great but it can't really offset the detrimental health effects of carrying around a load like that.

It also happened to Lennard Zinn, who writes for Velonews.
IIRC, he felt something was amiss, as well as seeing his HR indicating >200.

A couple years ago in an EMT class, everyone was paired up with a partner, taking each others HR. One girl couldn't believe what she was finding on her partner, and told the instructor it was ~150. The instructor insisted that was not correct, then came over and checked for herself; The guy had an HR of 150 just sitting there. This was a guy in his 20's who had no idea anything was wrong. Last I talked to him, they were sending him to a specialist, but no diagnosis had been made.

When you get an anomalously high reading like that, be sure to verify it by checking a carotid or radial pulse before panicking. I worked in health care for over 25 years; we had a saying, "treat the patient, not the monitor."

Looking at his bike you can see he's an avid cyclist....CHECK

Looking at his aero-belly you can see he's at risk for coronary problems....CHECK

Good to know he's OK though!

This is a problem with many middle aged or older athletes.

Some of us have spent half our lives trying to kill ourselves with generally terrible lifestyle. Then we pick up a sport, lose weight and feel better but the damage has already been done - blocked arteries, damaged heart tissue, etc.

Several people I know have had stents for blockages and these are people who cycle all the time. One found the risk through an abnormal high sensitive CRP test and then went for a cardiac calcium scan which confirmed blockage. I think I'm going to ask my doctor about this during my next checkup.


-Tim-

Wish my HR went to 150 and stayed there. Today's average was 151 and max was 178

I've seen mine go as high as 192 and it doesn't give me any cause for concern


This was today's ride

This tells me the person is out of touch with his own body. He most likely had many signs and symptoms long before this event that he ignored. As has been said, treat the patient, not the machine.

The fad of ignoring your body's direct messages and relying on an intrinsically inaccurate machine to report is a dangerous one.

HRMs are fun to use. But not so much for anything serious.

I had the scan. Honestly, I think it's a good idea for anyone over 50.

It's called a "heard rate monitor."

Once upon a time not too many years ago I could put my HR at 165bpm and hold it for almost an hour. Nowadays it's more like 155bpm. I suppose tachycardia could have many causes, not necessarily just from a bad lifestyle. Michael Kim in the video may have a bit of a belly, but he's not quite to the "flashing advertisement for a heart attack" stage yet.

A much more common thing with older athletes is Afib (atrial fibrillation). I have several over-60 riding buddies with Afib. What you see is that say on a long climb suddenly your HR will shoot up maybe 20+ beats above what it should be, maybe as high as 170. If you don't stop, you'll pass out. If you do stop, usually it comes back down after a few minutes and then you can continue as long as you keep the effort down, but you need to see a cardiologist.