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Re: Blood profile for Triathletes [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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i have had heart palpitations on and off for years. it will also sometimes start racing for no reason when i am completely relaxed. this has happened in and out of season, sometimes when im lying in bed or even just an hour after competition. strange, and ive just kind of ignored it but its good to know its not exactly rare among endurance athletes.
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Re: Blood profile for Triathletes [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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In the strictist definition a pulse of slower than 60 is considered sinus bradyarrythmia.... That is very common in this population...

Pathological Arrythmias are common but not to be taken lightly...

Palpitations that last seconds... everyonce in a while is normal
Palpitations that last minutes brought on by exercise not normal...

If you think you have an arrythmia you should check it out especially if you have a positive family history of unexplained sudden death in the family, family history of connective tissue disorders, history of early heart attack (before 50) etc.
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Re: Blood profile for Triathletes [taku] [ In reply to ]
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thanks Taku...
I did ALL the necessary tests this summer...I am getting VERY literate about arrhythmias..
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Re: Blood profile for Triathletes [Justin D] [ In reply to ]
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Here is my take on blood tests...

Useful if you are looking for something specific. Not useful if you are just looking. If you are symptomatic it would be a good idea to get certain tests such as TFT (thyroid function tests)

Here in lies the problem. When you talk about tests the danger is not only in the doing the test (dangers of blood drawing for example) there is the danger that you will find something falsely abnormal which is inherent in all tests. such an abnormal test wil cause you stress and lead you to do all sorts of invaisive tests.

Here is what I think you should do. Talk to your doctor and explain what you are concerned about and decide together what tests to do.

For example... Say I was worried about hypothyroidism becuase your cousin had hashimotos thyroiditis and you want it checked out. Or I have never done strenuous exercise before and I want to make sure I wont run into any problems.

A lot of these tests would be redundant. for example a CBC (red cells, crit, hemogolobin, wbc, mcv, mchc... wil tell you if you were B12 deficient. A good history and physical would identify thyroid tests. LFTs could be a good thing... A lipid panel would also be a good thing just to make sure that you are not missing any dyslipidemia... Other than that it would be excessive.
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Re: Blood profile for Triathletes [taku] [ In reply to ]
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Wow! So glad I did a search and found this thread. I've been having wicked PVCs for a week - never had them before. I am in my third week off after shockwave therapy on my plantar. These things are driving me crazy but I feel fine (I did see a doc already).

I finally resumed training today (swimming and pool running). For those of you who have had bouts of palpitations (specifically PCVs), how long did it take till they went away after you resumed training?
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Agree [ In reply to ]
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Yaqui hit a lot of things on the head I would just like to add somethings

The ONE thing that triathletes MUST be careful about is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy... Anyone remember Victor Petenko (ice skater) or Hank Gathers (Basketball player) these people died suddenly because of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

What happens is the heart walls are more or less too thick and kinda mishappen. When you exercise your heart walls get thicker worsening this condition. Eventually the heart muscle blocks the outflow of your heart and you start getting bad arrythmias leading to sudden death.

If you have this condition you should absolutely not do strenuous exercise.

You should be concerned about this condition if you have a positive family history of sudden death, especially in a athlete.

So all this talk about gettign blood tests is missing the boat. When you go to the doctor you should have them look for things that can kill you.

Blood tests should not be used as screening tests, there is too much normal variation for them to be useful
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