If you have no current health conditions...why not?! Something you should definetly confirm with your doc if you worried about it...good luck!

I asked one of the cardiologists I work with that question and he said "no, it's not bad, but it's not any better. " Dr. Cooper, also a cardiologist,

of Cooper aerobics says as we continue to run and our hearts become more accommodating, it's normal to exceed the current heart

rate formulas. The heart is a muscle and responds to whatever we do as a muscle does. You might want to check Cooper aerobics website

for more on that thought.

Here's a web site that gives coaching advice based on heart rate... you might want to check it out. www.numetrex.com/coachscorner

I hope I didn't kill this thread...I was looking forward to more information from my fellow Active members.

Bump.

ECO - you're throwin' around some medical words and mentioning medication. This raises some concerns for pushing your heart rate too high. Allow me to offer a few medical thoughts on this.

As others on this thread have pointed out, the "max heart rate" is just a guideline and everyone is different. Going 183 instead of 180 is generally not an issue, nor is going 195 if that's what your body does and you feel ok while doing it.

When we talk about these rates, we're assuming a normal "sinus" rhythm (exercise induced sinus tachycardia to be precise). The electrical impulse to trigger the heart beat starts in the top of the heart in the 'sinus node'.

There are people who's hearts will start to add beats when things get reved up, beats that don't come from the 'sinus node'. They going into a different cardiac rhythm (ventricular tachycardia or a re-entry tachycardia/PSVT or other scary rhythms) that can originate in a different part of the heart and leading to a short circuit type of thing.

If you have a history of an abnormal rhythm, you need to talk with your doctor before intense exercise. If you are feeling like your heart jumps from a semi-normal to a super fast rate all of a sudden, or if you feel like you might pass out or feel bad in some other way, you need to slow down and then go see a cardiologist.

Regards,

DK, MD

Hi Eco (and others interested in this topic)

Fascinating! Interesting stuff, isn't this??

Allow me to provide definitions for this discussion:

Dysrhythmia - a messed up rhythm (simple enough, just a fancy word)

Paroxysmal Atrial Tachycardia (PAT):
Paroxysmal ("it just happens all of a sudden")
Atrial ("top part of the heart" and the origin for this dysrhythmia)
Tachycardia ("fast heart rate")

The first step in diagnosing a dysrhythmia like this is to be hooked up to a heart monitor.
Of course, your heart might not cooperate and show the problem while hooked up to a monitor, so people often have to wear a Holter monitor for 24+ hours. This is a recording device, similar to a polar heart rate monitor, but it actually records the rhythm, too, not just the rate.

I presume you've done this already. Otherwise, you wouldn't have a specific diagnosis (PAT) and no one would have suggested to you to have the electro -physiology study (EP study). The EP study is when they poke you in the femoral area and run the catheter up to your heart. They can map out some of the conduction paths in your heart and, as you mentioned, sometimes cauterize the path that's triggering the dysrrhythmia.

I am a board certified Emergency Physician, I am not a cardiologist or an electro physiologist (a subspecialty of cardiology), so I don't know at which point you should pursue the EP study or have a path cauterized. I tend to agree with the idea that if the meds are controlling things and your cardiologist doesn't think it's dangerous, then ****... don't do it. I would talk to a cardiologist or an electro physiologist about this stuff.

I strongly disagree with your insurance company for saying it's experimental. It's not. It's been done for years and is the standard treatment now for certain dysrhythmias.

There can be more to the evaluation of a patient with a dysrhythmia. Sometimes other things going on with the heart that lead to these dysrhythmias. Sometimes people need an MRI of the heart to assess the heart tissue and check for changes in tissue.

And lastly, regarding the feeling you get when you can't catch your breath on foggy days, perhaps your heart is fine, but your lungs have a harder time in the moist environment? Albuterol, a broncodilator could help there, but it could, and likely would, exacerbate the tachycardia. Talk to your doctor.

Clearly, much of this is beyond what can be covered here. My goal is to simply offer a little clarification and the vocabulary so you and others can both research more on these issues and speak more with your doctors or cardiologists.

Bottom line again: Some weird heart rhythms are bad. The heart rate, how you got there (heart rate jumped up all of a sudden?), and how you feel all need to be considered when deciding who should pursue further evaluation, but the heart rate a lone tells us little. And for those who don't have a funny rhythm, exceeding the "max heart rate" is probably just fine (remember that original question??

DK, MD

Wawaski, thanks for the info. Very interesting! I will certainly ask the question about B-12 the next time I see the doc.

By the way - Zack (the original poster, hehe), sorry I sent this thread off on a tangent. How have you been doing? Still feeling good while exercising?