Exercise and physiology

Hi guys, 

I am a new member and just had a pacemaker fitted 5-6 months ago. I am 26 and from England...just thought I would give everyone a bit of background information.

My physiologist said to me that exercise is fine but as I have congenital heart disease and am young the long-term effects are unknown as the pacemaker will be doing a lot of the work.

I am back into running and exercising which is awesome and am loving running without feeling all breathless and weary. When people without pacemakers exercise, their hearts pump and as it is a muscle, it will enlarge and get stronger. However, as the pacemaker is doing a lot of the work (to which my physiologist has already said that my heart has become a little bit lazy) will my heart grow and become stronger, or will it stay the same as before due to the fact that the pacemaker is doing the work, so the heart doesn't have to?

I am intrigued to understand if other people have thought of this and asked anyone, or anyone that knows this to give me a bit more insight as I am clueless right now!

Cheers

Callum


4 Comments

Pacemaker

by Beckiiejayne - 2018-02-20 06:47:31

Hi!

I think this is the first time ive seen a post from someone who lives in England. I live here to! :)

Are you pacing at 100% because i think if you are, then it would take longer for your heart to become stronger. If your pacing lower then your heart is still having to do some work so if your active alot then your heart will be working with the pacemaker. (thats my understanding of it anyway!)

Hope my comment helps in someway!

 

 

Interesting Question

by IAN MC - 2018-02-20 06:48:46

Hi Callum   Welcome to the club !  

  Your pacemaker isn't doing any of the muscular work involved in pumping blood.  Only your heart can do that .  All the pacemaker does is creates an electrical impulse to make your heart muscle contract.  So your heart muscle will continue to get stronger with exercise no matter what is triggering the heartbeats .

Your percentage pacing is irrelevant.

When your physiologist said that your heart has become lazy he probably meant that your sinus node is becoming lazy . The sinus node is really your natural pacemaker ; it is a collection of cells which trigger off electrical impulses to make your heart beat.  Your pacemaker is probably set to send more electrical pulses when it detects that you are exercising.

Hope this makes sense .  ( I am in England too by the way )

Ian

ditto Ian

by Tracey_E - 2018-02-20 09:35:08

Ian is right on, the electrical signal is what may be getting lazy and what the pacer is doing for us. The pacer isn't doing the pumping, only sending the electrical signal that causes the muscle to contract. 

Thank you!

by CallumLennon - 2018-02-27 10:07:38

Thanks all for letting me know about this! 

It has put me at ease about exercise and progress in terms of training. 

If any of you are in London, I'll be happy to meet up for a beer to talk all heart-related issues and how much fun it is to have a machine keeping us alive. 

Thank you again for all your help!

Callum

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Member Quotes

I am just thankful that I am alive and that even though I have this pacemaker it is not the end of the world.