Anyone out there racing with this? I went in for a routine physical last week and my Doc heard a murmur, so he scheduled a heart echo ultrasound. Results came back that I have a mild case. Further testing is forthcoming. I have none of the causes, specifically, my BP is great, or so my Dr. said. The only symptom I have is light headedness when I stand up too quickly, often made worse when I happen to be dehydrated. I’m a 41 year old male who has no family history of heart disease, and just had the best racing season of my life. Other than that, I feel fantastic. I realize I need to wait to see what further testing reveals, but I’d love to hear from anyone who’s been diagnosed and what effect it’s had on your life, racing and otherwise.
Cheers,
Kevin
I have been diagnosed with “athlete’s heart,” which is a benign (or so it is believed) hypertrophy of the heart caused by regular strenuous exercise. Doctors appear to have various approaches to how exactly they want to nail down the diagnosis of this versus any of the other, less healthy conditions that can enlarge the heart. This subject has come up here before. A few interesting links that came out of that thread:
http://www.sportsdoctor.com/articles/heart.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/health/07hearts.html?_r=2&ref=sports&oref=slogin
And here’s the thread itself:
Upshot is that it’s important to be sure that the hypertrophy is, in fact, simply exercise related. This is one of those times when it pays to have a doc with whom you have a good relationship, and ideally one who understands athletes and their health.
As for myself, I notice no effects on the rest of my life, nor on my racing - other than that I sometimes think during a race that I’d love to have one of those huge, torpedo-shaped hearts that Olympic rowers have, as described by the NY Times article.
Anyone out there racing with this? I went in for a routine physical last week and my Doc heard a murmur, so he scheduled a heart echo ultrasound. Results came back that I have a mild case. Further testing is forthcoming. I have none of the causes, specifically, my BP is great, or so my Dr. said. The only symptom I have is light headedness when I stand up too quickly, often made worse when I happen to be dehydrated. I’m a 41 year old male who has no family history of heart disease, and just had the best racing season of my life. Other than that, I feel fantastic. I realize I need to wait to see what further testing reveals, but I’d love to hear from anyone who’s been diagnosed and what effect it’s had on your life, racing and otherwise.
Cheers,
Kevin
Yep, it’s “known” to be a side effect of exercise, benign LVH.
John
Sounds like I should impress upon them (doctors) that I’m more than just a weekend warrior type athlete. Thanks.
FWIW, I do echocardiograms for a living. As long as it is a mild case, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. As others have said, it goes along with exercising. As far as the getting light headed when standing up, If your blood pressure and/or HR is low at the time it could cause that to happen. Like you said, you should inform your Dr. that you do a lot of exercise and ask around to see if there are any that are more sports minded in their thinking. Feel free to PM me if you have any other specific questions re: your echo results.
Mike
Thanks Mike. I’m in the process of scheduling some additional testing, and will definitely make a point of being athletic.
You do want to be careful with this as some heart defects/anomolies can lead to dangerous conditions such as a stroke, even in athletes. Although this is rare the ramifications are severe enough to warrant a thorough investigation.
I think you make a good point in that many physicians aren’t in touch with the unique activities and requirements of an endurance athlete, even a recreational one like you and I. As a result sometimes the drugs they prescribe and the treatments and/or precautions they recommend may not be effective or appropriate.
The key thing with this is to have really good communication with your physician and give him good insights into the physical demands you place on your body in training and competition. Also, be certain to communicate your goals and aspirations to her/him. What constitutes a normal life for a sedentary (non-athlete) may be far from normal for you and I. When the doctor says, “You can go back to normal” they may not understand that means anywhere from 5-20 hours per week of aerobic exercise.
The key thing is good communication with your physician and, most importantly, don’t take any chances.
Its probably a normal variant (athlete’s heart) however, I would be concerned if your doctor (who heard the murmur) is a cardiologist and with the lightheadedness.
Like Mike, I work as a cardiac sonographer (echocardiograms) and see lots of young (teenage and college age) athletic hearts.
The echo is good but they may want to do a stress echocardiogram to assess for any outflow gradient (especially if you ever pass out from the lightheadedness). This test would be the true test of the significance of your hypertrophy. A really good stress lab can get the gradient while you are on a treadmill / cycling to assess the LVH.
Did they tell you how thick the walls measured and was the septum (significantly) thicker than the posterior wall?
In any case, they will certainly tell you to drink more water…
Hey Kevin,
I was diagnosed with LVH about 5 years ago and had the same light-headedness on occasion. The first reaction from my Doc was grave concern (family history of heart disease). He didn’t fully know my training regimen but he was very open minded, and set up every test imaginable. I was given the green light to continue what I was doing.
I still race (as you know) but I have backed off the big miles and intensities the last few years. For me it just wasn’t worth taking the chance of blowing a gasket, but that’s just me. I still train and race hard, but not like before.
Good luck and don’t leave any stone unturned.
Thanks Dan, I appreciate the support. Still a lot to learn. Maybe it’ll turn out to be nothing.
Kevin
I know they measured the wall thicknesses, as the person doing the ultrasound told me they were doing that. However, no mention of how thick. And I’ve never passed out from light headedness. On one occasion I did have to sit down, but that’s been 4-5 years ago. Only time I went lights out was when I landed on my head dismounting into T2 last year:) I’m looking forward to setting new records on any stress tests they may administer to me. I’ll try and remember to follow up once I get some more testing. Thanks to all for the advice and well wishes.
Kevin
Athletic Heart Syndrome.
I was pounding big hard mileage and yardage just before an Ironman taper, and began to feel my heart rhythm beat inconsistently. Was wierd because I could feel it distinctly. Never became lightheaded, but the feeling was very strange.
I have a good friend in the ER so I went to see her and get EKG wired. Freaked out all the techs when I could tell them it was happening…“now!” and 1 second later it would appear on the screen. None of them had ever seen a patient predict a partial irregular beat.
Proceeded to show the on-call MD, who thought it was the coolest thing he’d ever seen a patient do. Thought the read-out signaled a healthy ticker, but there was a small peak in the rhythm that he could not account for. Referred to a Cardiologist.
When I got home I typed “EKG” into Google, and one of the sites had all of the explanations and examples of 10-15 different conditions, and what the printout showed. I simply scrolled until I found the one that looked like mine - virtually identical. Even had the tiny unexplainable peak. “Athletic Heart Syndrome”.
Treatment was to rest a few days, and allow the the Left Vent to “atrophy” sufficiently for the SA node to push the electrical impulse through the LV tissue strongly enough to allow the tissue to empty the vent.
Took my AHS and thick LV to the Cardiologist. Diagnosed and prognosed myself for him - “Thanks doc!” slapped on a halter for 24hrs. just to make sure. No episodes.
Two day rest - Everything back to normal.
One of the things I love about we endurance athletes… Love to solve our own problems!
Take care - Don’t worry - Drop the Hammer!
Thanks. It’s the waiting right now that’s killing me. Once they said there was the possibility of a problem, you start thinking about how it may effect you if they’re right. Just want to get the testing done and find out what the real situation is.
Even though this thread is a month old, I just happened upon. I too have LVH. Diagnosed about 12 months ago. BTW, I had no symptons. Was discovered through routine physical, initially in the EKG. I would recommend you get a stress echocardiogram. Important for them to see your blood pressure with your heart rate up and flow of blood when heart is under stress.
I have heard of cases where individual’s blood pressure was fine or borderline at rest, but with HR above 150, BP got too high. If on a long workout or race, can put a lot of stress on the heart for a long time.
They should be able to tell you how think your septum and walls are. Should be in the written report for the echo.
At least once a month I see an article about an athlete having a heart attack, with negative consequences. Since diagnosis, I have made the following three changes: 1. on BP meds, 2. really watching my diet, 3. I don’t workout longer than one hour at a time, usually no more than 30 minutes. There is a school of thought that extreme endurance exercise is not good for the heart/body. I suspect there is significant variation between individuals in this regard, and some of us are unlucky.
This meant I only did one tri last year, and it was a sprint, and I raced at half ironman pace. Major lifestyle change, but this is an area where for me, caution is important. The good news, I have already seen a reduction in thickness. Goal is to get back to normal.
Best of luck.
Thanks for the good words. I promised a follow-up, and only just got the results from my second ultra-sound on Monday. Turns out everything appears normal. My cousin in-law is a nurse to one of the physicians at the Cardiac Unit at the Cleveland Clinic. I forwarded the results to her for review by the Doc she works for. His second opinion was that everything seems OK too. Glad that I followed up though, as it gives me some piece of mind. Guess that means business as usual.
Kevin