i had elevated liver enzymes and cpk levels. both are caused by muscle damage and are indications of a heart attack. i train alot and i train hard. my doctor, who also does tri's, knew it was from working out but to be on the safe side she had me take another blood test when i wasn't in intense training...3 weeks ago. everything was back to normal. it'll be normal until i start the intensity again...which might be tomorrow.

My doctor says my blood platelets are to high(500K).Could this be from training?I told him what I do.He has me on Agrylin right now, but I hate taking anything.He said I would probably be taking something for this the rest of my life.

Dave

After my 2-IV episode at Ultramax, I had bloodwork done. My doctor knows I am a triathlete and thinks it's great. ("You are by far the most fit patient I have.")

Everything came back fine and well within normal ranges, except one slightly elevated liver test (biliruben), but that is due to an underlying (non-tri) thing.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I to had my blood tested just a few weeks ago when I went for a routine physical. The nurse called me a week later with my blood work results and told me my iron levels were high. I thought that was a little weird since I have not been eating a lot red meat or taking multi vitamins. Also my bad cholesterol was a little high so the nurse told me I should start exercising.

Question for you guys: I plan on visiting my doctor soon, I'm 24 I just started doing Tri's this summer. What should I ask to have done what should I asked to be tested for? Do I just ask to have my blood tested?

A similar question was asked on Gordo's forum some time ago and it was suggested that the following be tested





Your personal physician can advise you on the best blood work to have done. Typically...

Tyroid function
Liver function
B12 levels
Iron levels
Red blood cell
White blood cell
Cholosterol numbers

Do you think you can find out which values were out of normal range?

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If iron is high with litttle dietary intake you might want to get checked for hemachromatosis. Causes iron to build up in your system and can be deadly if you were to pig out on critters or supplements.

Sort of related, but after 10 hard years of cycle racing I had an x-ray done of my chest for heart for palpitations I get when I take a break during the winter. He ordered an EKG which was done on this real crappy treadmill and I had to do the test without any running miles in my legs. He had that thing cranked on high and the bed at max tilt and I couldn't get a max heart rate as this POS couldn't go fast enough. Next few days my calves were in total agony and the Dr thought the exercise over the years had increased the size of my heart and said I was in good shape. Wonder how they gauge what is enlarged and wonder if that causes palpitations. I only get them after many days of rest as my resting heart rate is very low and kind of caused a feeling of having to cough. The solution is to train year round of course. Sometimes is a worry as several older bicycle racers from Europe have died at a not so old age and there is always a mention of heart trouble. Any thoughts?

Also going through this right now. My doc, a triathlete, says could be the stress of not training after the heart has been accustomed to the stress of training consistently for most of the year. He explains it as the same response as when your calf muscles (or whatever) twitch after a tough workout. My palpitations surfaced similarly to yours, while taking a rest break upon conclusion of the season. I had a 24 hour Holter test to try to characterize it, and also thyroid function levels done, all results pending, since that could be a factor, especially for those of us, ahem, over 40. I thought they gauge heart size by volume per beat, but not sure about that. I can relate to your thoughts of hidden heart trouble among athletes, it's not so nice to feel your heart give that big thump. I'd be curious if you find out anything else. Enjoy your off-season!

I gave up spending money on that years ago and will just let it beat as it is. My doc know nothing about athletes and what pysiological changes we go through. Any other odd beaters around here?

One basic way to determine if a heart is large is with a simple AP chest X-ray...the heart shadow is usually about half the distance of the total distance from one side of your chest to the other. Ultrasound does a better job, and can fairly accurately estimate the thickness of your left ventricular wall and ventricular septum...generally these measurements can be a little thicker than a "normal" person's and you'd still be considered to be OK. Really big hearts are generally the sign of something that is bad, and needs attention. A mildly enlarged heart in an endurance athlete is not considered to be a problem...but I mean MILDLY. Big hearts are sick hearts.

LOTS of people have arrhythmias (especially as they get older and are athletes) when they take a break from training. There are lots of theories why this occurs, and more than one of the theories is correct, depending upon the individual.

The term: NORMAL, only means that if a great swath of the population were measured, the measurement would be about "X" +/- a little bit on either side. SO, depending upon the population measured, "X" varies. North Americans are taller than Japanese. It doesn't mean that either group isn't healthy due to their different "X" height measurement. Therefore, "Normal" doesn't necessarily mean "Healthy". It really is a good idea to seek out a doctor that at least knows what an athlete's
"normal" values should be. Preferably, this would be a doctor that is an athlete...it doesn't guarantee anything, but it does skew the chances that the doctor knows a bit more about athletes than the "normal" doctor.

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)

"LOTS of people have arrhythmias (especially as they get older and are athletes) when they take a break from training. There are lots of theories why this occurs, and more than one of the theories is correct, depending upon the individual. "


Are you sure of this? :-))

Hey guys, I'm new to the site and have been looking for a thread like this for weeks!
I too had heart palpitations only during a race, in the last half mile or so of the run in a sprint. My max HR is 184 and this occured around 165-171 and it was a weird feeling! I was already in O2 debt then my heart just reved up to 250 or so like it fluttered for a second, you can imagine that I then needed AIR so my belly breathing went to needing huge rib cage expanding breaths that didnt seem to help. It happened a couple of times for a second or two each time. I went to a cardiologist he had me wear the holder and told me to exersize. I did some hill runs and nothing happened till I had just finished the 3rd hill and was walking to recover, I felt it skip, like a thump. I hope the holder picked it up, I go back Wed. to get the results of that and an Echo cardgram. I'm scared that he's going to tell me to quit racing or worse quit running... This after the best year and a half of my life, getting off the couch, losing 35lbs. dropping cholesterol down to 117, and not needing the lipitor every day to keep cholesterol #'s below 200. Anyone else have palpitations during intense efforts? thanks

Nothing like that during exercise.

happens to me only when not training.
HR is never through the roof though.

I just get premature atrial contractions and got 2 A-fibs (I think before Florida it was more like a flutter or lots of PACS rather than a-fib but hard to tell w/o and ekg)

I had the same fear, but it didn't happen. make sure you have a cardiologist who knows athletes.
ask for a second opinion if needed....
I have had a really bad experience with this this summer but got over it (thanks to YaquiC. in particular!)

good luck. shoot an email if you need to.

"LOTS of people have arrhythmias (especially as they get older and are athletes) when they take a break from training. There are lots of theories why this occurs, and more than one of the theories is correct, depending upon the individual. "


Francois wrote: Are you sure of this? :-))

Well, there's Jaquie and me just on this thread that have had this, isn't that considered to be "LOTS"! :-))

Actually, I have no idea what the incidence is, I've just heard SO many people mention it to me over the years, and the older I get, the more I hear about it. For me, I think it is because I drink more caffeine when I don't exercise as much...because I'm tired when I don't exercise. For others, it seems to be something related directly to their training, because they aren't caffiene ingesters. So, I don't really know the frequency of it happening....might be interesting for some cardiologist that has an interest in it to pursue it, though. With many of the newer drugs and ablation techniques, it could be that athletes with this problem would comprise a niche that an enterprising cardiologist could serve. I think it would be neat to be THE Cardiologist in the US that specializes in treatment of athletes with arrhythmias...at least most of your patients would be basically healthy!

PS, glad to hear you're doing better!

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)

The occasional PVC's and PAC's are normal in the general population as well as the endurance population. PVC's are more prevalent in the endurance pop than pac's. I've seen heart attaack pts in trigemeny during exercise. After faxing the rhythm strip the cardiologist said "if he doesn't fall down, don't worry b/c I'm not"
In simple terms your throw pvc's and pac's because your HR is so low that the body says 'hey your pumping along at 46bpm and I think I want some more blood", BAM pvc. If you throw one here and there I'd say no worries, if your tossing them about on a regular consistent basis then I'd personally mosey over to my PCP's office and inquire.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Me too. Thats LOTS!

I regularly get palpitations when not training if/when my HR goes below 45...

There are two times when this occurs with me: 1. either when I am very well trained, but have to take time off due to illness or travel/study...after 2 days or so off, my restingHR goes dub...dub...dub...ddDDUB!...dub when under 45. 2. Other time this happens when i am overtrained/overreached and the HR drops due to fatigue (in this case, always suppression of maxHR, and unusually low restingHR, as well as lower HR at given intensity) Occasional irregular 'Huge' beats coupled with low overall HR is my own personal signal to take it easy.

Had ultrasound, 24hr Holter monitorization, blood work done. All normal, just recorded monomorphic VESs during 'down times' ie, resting, LV hypertrophy. Otherwise healthy endurance girl.

I have been racing for 12 years. My blood tests over the past few years have revealed elevated liver enzymes. My doctor recently did more bloodwork and found that I have high iron saturation (low 70s), which he believes may be the cause of the elevated liver enzymes. He suspects hemachromatosis and more tests are underway. Genetic test said I only carry one gene for hemachromatosis. I also have relatively high hematocrit (49) which is good, but will be reduced along with the iron if I need to get bled (phlebotomy)

Not sure if any of this relates to being a triathlete. Doctor said training can increase hematocrit. I didn't think that was the case unless altitude was involved.

Between you and Yacquicarbo I'm in good company. I'm lucky my doc is an athlete so I didn't get the 'stop exercising' routine. In fact, when I train, even lightly, it is off-season after all, my heartbeat evens right out. We're also tracking down some thyroid issues since my blood work opened that particular rabbit trail. Long live the odd-beaters!

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Jacquie Mardell

USA Triathlon certified coach
ASCA/USA Swimming certified coach
http://www.ladolcevelo.com

i guess i'll gladly join that group of odd-beaters as well. when trainging long and consistant my HR will drop to about 38 (in the morning, prior to getting up). every few weeks during these times my heart will flutter. it's always when i'm dead calm, usually reading or watching TV. it's like i'm so relaxed that someone in there panics and says 'hey, pick up the tempo'. a few seconds later everything is fine. i'd love to know what my HR is just prior to that.

anyway, went for my first physical in a decade last week and because of a really, really bad family history the doc (he's a roadie!) made me do a nuclear stress test and all the blood work. i get the results monday. we'll see.

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______________________________________
"Competetive sport begins where healthy sport ends"

Thanks Francois, I feel a little better knowing that other people have an abnormal rhythm. I wish someone had experienced it during exersize. I will see what the Doc says about the results of the tests.

Dude, last july I was dying! I knew it...I was so depressed I emailed Yaqui every hour to tell him, hey what should I do now?? hey what is this....
then I searched the web, and was even sure I was dying...I got so anxious I started having muscle twitches (that of course were a sign of lou goerig's disease....)

let me know how the tests turn up...