New to this

I am glad to find a site with positive encouragement. I am 35 and had been having blacking out spells and a week ago today I was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia and had an ICD implanted. I was told you are too young and you look healthy. I do live an active live and have for years. I look forward to reading the encouragement from this site.  I lost my mother 11 years ago at the age of 47 to a massive heart attack with no symptoms so this all hits close to home.

1 Comments

Electrical vs Plumbing Problem

by ElectricFrank - 2011-03-29 11:03:24

There is a lot of confusion between blocked coronary arteries(plumbing) and defective electrical pathways in the heart.

Blocked arteries keep the heart muscles from getting an adequate supply of blood.Like any muscle the heart starts to complain and cramp giving the classic heart attack symptoms. Eventually the muscle starts to fibrillate and stops pumping blood resulting in death. The likely hood of blocked arteries increases with age and is more likely if we are in bad physical condition.

The electrical nerve pathways in the heart conduct the triggers that cause the chambers of the heart to beat in a synchronized rhythm. A failure of a nerve bundle can cause the heart to simply stop beating with no symptoms resulting in a silent cardiac arrest and sudden death. In many cases though the ventricles have a "fall back pacer) that keep them beating at a rate like 30bpm. The nerve bundle failure is not as much related to how young or healthy you are as it is to hereditary factors, congenital problem,or a viral infection,

The ICD should improve your situation. Keep up your active life.

frank

You know you're wired when...

Your favorite poem is “Ode to a Cardiac Node”.

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I've seen many posts about people being concerned about exercise after having a device so thought I would let you know that yesterday I raced my first marathon since having my pacemaker fitted in fall 2004.