Heart Rate

Hi All,

I have a Medtronic 'Versa DR' Pacemaker connected by wires to the atrium and ventricle. It was installed in 2013. It is programmed to turn on when my heart rate drops below 40 bpm and switch off again when my heart has been paced to 50 bpm. I do not believe that it has an upper limit i.e. to lower high bpm.

I recently purchased a 'garmin' 'vivoactive HR' watch .

I find the data interesting but get concerned about the heart rate readings.

I find, when I can see my exercise results i.e. back in the office on the computer, that my heart typically has frequent and enduring beats up to approx 220 bpm. This happens with 'surfski' paddling only and not with walking or cycling - yet ? 

Garmin have stated that the watch cannot take heart rate readings while swimming but will function while paddle boarding. Surfski paddling or canoeing is not listed as a 'recordable' sport by Garmin.

I thought for a while that the interference between the salt water or wrist hairs or light refraction between 'the back of the watch and my wrist' may cause the readings (light waves) to double up / speed up and cause magnified heart reading rates. Alternatively the action of literally throwing my hands ( with the paddle ) into the air while stroking may have caused a disconnect with the watch and wrist. I removed my wrist hairs and tightened the watch. No change ! A healthy surfski paddler friend has no problems with his 'vivoactive HR'. This seems to eliminate watch problems.

Then I swapped watches with my 38 year old 'runner' daughter, her watch is a higher end Garmin product (but also not suitable for HR readings while swimming) , and the same irregularity occurred for me on the surfski. My watch on her showed normal bpm i.e. approximately (220-age) 180 bpm at maximum training.  This again seems to eliminate watch problems.

I am a 71 year old, a bit of an exercise freak, trying to limit my heart rate under maximum exertion to less than (220-age) 150 bpm.

At all times when paddling I have felt comfortable, not stressed and certainly nothing like the time I had severe chest pains, resulting in the placement of a stent in 2014. At this time I had a 85/30/35% block in the circumflex artery while all the others were betwen 20 to 25% blocked. Weed on the rudder ?

It would appear that either:

a) the my pacemaker interferes with the Garmin wrist watches, causing enhanced readings or

b) my heart is faulty but sufficiently robust ( at this stage ) not to cause any pain.

I know that I am particularly lucky, to have had a stent installed in time and a defibrillator              ( effectively an ambulance ) in my chest. However, I am informed that sedentary people have the highest chance of heart attacks and that exercise is important. I love exercising but it appears that if b) is correct then, I am damned if I do and damned if I dont ?

I am hoping that a) applies ?? I have tried to obtain a response from Garmin to no avail.         Can anyone confirm whether a) in fact is reality ?

 

Kind Regards to You All

 

JohnL

 

 

 

 

6 Comments

@#$% 220-age Formula

by BillH - 2017-03-02 09:40:34

That formula is ABSOLUTE AND TOTALY WORTH LESS!!!!! But every one still uses it.

There are some better formula's around, but even then it is common for any individual to be 10 to 20 points higher or lower than give by the best one.

I am 73 and my max is around 170. I regular get into the 150's.

The best source is the from a stress test that was allowed to go to the maximum that you could do. Other than that there  are some sub-max test that can find with a google search that can give an extimate of max HR.

 

You have an wrist optical HR monitor. They have a number of problems with any activities that have motion of the write and hands. This is do to the position of the blood vessels shifting during the movement. Also water, besides getting between the watch and the skin can reduce blood flow on the skin surface.

And in general the work better for some people on the inside of the wrist or on the oposite arm. You might try those.

HR

by Hamsquatch - 2017-03-02 20:51:32

Your pacemaker isn't interfering with your watch. If you want the most accurate reading get a chest strap or even a pulse oximeter. 

From what I have read chest straps are far more accurate, also I endorse them because at one point my heart rate went up to 220bpm while I was just walking, and when my device was interrogated the reading was 221bpm. 

Someone should just make an app where you can use your pacemaker and a smartphone to monitor! 

Hamsquatch

by Tracey_E - 2017-03-03 19:45:30

Pacers can absolutely interfere with hrm's. It's great that it works well for you, but you are the exception, not the rule.  I've tried the chest straps, spent hours on the phone with technical support, spent time with the store manager, could never get a reading. Handed it to my husband, he immediately got a reading. Most sports monitors are are inaccurate. My phone has an app, too. It picks up the beats plus the pacing spikes so regularly tells me my hr is close to 300. A finger pulse oximeter is consistently accurate, not much else. 

Thanks

by Hamsquatch - 2017-03-04 16:09:10

Thanks for the information TracyE I had asked the technicians at my ICD clinic and they said it won't interfere. Could you tell me which phone app you use?

Sorry for the false information, I'm not an expert just a "normal" person with a pacemaker. 

 

experts

by Tracey_E - 2017-03-05 10:15:34

No need to apologize! I'm no expert either, just a lifetime cardiac patient who asks tons of questions and reads everything I can get my hands on. The monitor won't interfere with the pacer, maybe that's what they meant? I know for sure pacers can mess with monitors, tho, because I spent months trying to find one that would work for me. I used to have a pacer that maxed out at 170 but my rate regularly got higher than that working out, so I needed to know when to slow down. (Newest pacer goes to 220, problem fixed) 

The phone app is the one that comes on the Samsung Galaxy, you put your finger on the flash button next to the camera. I think the app is called S Heath.

wrist based versus chest strap monitor

by fourkids - 2017-03-05 15:08:08

I have run with both a wrist measure and a chest strap heart rate monitor.  I found the wrist measurement to not be reliable.  The average seems to be about right, so if you are just looking for that the wrist based should be fine.  If you want to use the information to guide, in real time, your excercise I need a chest strap,  the wrist based is often 20-30 beats HIGH or 20-30 beats low.  Again the average is pretty close.  When I doing arm based excercises (pushups, pull ups, jumping jacks etc.) rather than just running it gets even worse for the wrist based monitor.

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