Rick and Linda Strong wrote:

>Two questions:
>
>1) I don't want to take the drugs.  Anybody disagree?
>
>2) Could the slight cardiomyopathy be a result of my twice a week high
>intensity weight training?  So rather than being indicative of a problem,
>could it actually be a GOOD thing?
>
>He did mention that it might be slightly overized since I used to be a
>competitive runner, but that was 18 years ago now.
>
>Thoughts?
>Jim, I do not think it wise to solicit this kind of advice from a friggin' email list no matter how astute some of the members may be on dietary issues.  Your emails seem to evidence incomplete communication between you and your doc.  You should be seeking a second opinion from a good cardiologist to determine whether you have a cardiac issue or not.  If you do have some from of cardiomyopthy (cardiomegaly is actually the generic term for a large heart, diet may help but you may well need other interventions as well.  we need to integrate our preferences on diet issues with the better aspects of what modern medicine has to offer.  Everyone has medical stories that tend to dismiss the profession but the science is there to tell you whether you have an issue or not.  do yourself a favor and get a good diagnosis.  Rick
>
>

I have to agree with Rick here.  My first thought on reading your mail
was that an enlarged heart and cardiomyopathy are *not* the same thing.
And the arrhythmia, the presenting problem, is something else again.
The slight enlargement of the heart may or may not be a causal factor in
the arrhythmia, but it's the arrhythmia that the cardiologist wants to
treat.  Heart rhythm disturbances are not uncommon in trained runners,
but that doesn't make them benign.  I don't know anything about the
drugs you mentioned, but I take it they are prescribed for the
arrhythmia.  One may speculate as to whether an enlarged heart is a good
thing (there is no medical consensus on this), but in my view there's no
way an arrhythmia is a good thing.

In the past 20 years I've had 4 or 5 epistodes of SVT, or
"superventricular tachycardia".  Cause unknown.  It's a pretty horrible
experience.  I'd suddenly feel my pulse accelerate and become "shallow"
-- hard to describe but a very distinctive sensation.  There was no pain
or lightheadedness in my case, but I'm told that some people faint.  On
two of these occasions I drove myself to the ER (not a good idea, since
cardiac arrest is a distinct possibility).  The feeling, with my pulse
at about 210 and shallow, is one of extreme agitation and "fight or
flight"-ness.  I felt like I was about to jump out of my skin, or at
least out a window.  Talking to a triage nurse while in this state is
not fun.  The current treatment for this condition is an injection of a
drug, adenosine.  This is not fun either.  The injection of adenosine
has the effect of stopping the heart altogether for 5 seconds or so, and
then it "resets" at a normal rhythm.  Let me tell you, those five
seconds are incredible  -- like slowly falling down a well.

I also went to cardiologists, and took a stress test, and "nothing
diagnostic" was found.  SVT is often "idiopathic."  I have my own
theories about causal factors -- caffeine and dehydration (with
resulting electrolyte imbalance) are my favorites.  But they are just my
theories.  There is no real medical treatment for my arrhythmia.  I have
some verapamil tablets that I can take if I have an episode, while I'm
getting to the ER.  They may or may not work.  Other options are a cool
shower and doing valsalva.  Interestingly, the first time I had an SVT
episode, I didn't go to the ER.  I didn't really know what was going on,
but I instinctively took a cool shower, and my heart rhythm normalized.

Well, that's my situation.  Yours may well be different.  I would try to
learn more about the medical aspect of it, the probability that the
treatment will help, etc., before dismissing it.

Todd Moody
[log in to unmask]