Will having an SVT during exercise double or more your heart rate

Thanks for the reply. I kind of figured that. My resting heart rate is 60 also. I have had it for over 15 years now but that last two years as seen a huge increase. It started out as 1 a year, then eventually around 11 a year. Now I am averaging once a week. They want to put me on a loop monitor and may suggest an ablation because they said my resting heart rate is too slow for beta-blockers. Have you had any medical treatment for it or do you just live with it?

Hi James,

My plan was to try lifestyle intervention, meds and ablation in that order. I am still on the lifestyle stage meaning no meds at all. So far so good and no SVT episodes in almost 70 days while I had 17 episodes in the three months preceding. Not sure exactly what helped but I eliminated caffeine and almost all alcohol, lost 15 pounds and went on a FODMAP diet. Studies suggest that losing 10% of your weight can have a significant effect on arrhythmias.

Should the episodes start coming back at a frequency I can't tolerate then I will try beta blockers and if that doesn't work add an arrythmia drug to the mix like flecanide. I take issue with the fact that your HR is too low for beta blockers. We have a similar resting HR and none of the EPs I spoke to mentioned it was too low for beta blockers. And in any event you would start with a low dose.

Ablation would be my last choice if either the meds didn't work or I couldn't tolerate them.

That said, I have mixed arrythmias -- SVT, afib, aflutter. If I only had pure SVTs, I would be more apt to consider ablation since SVT ablation has close to a 95% success rate and is much shorter and less invasive than an afib ablation.

Jim

Jim

Great reply. Thank you. I am glad your plan is working for you!! I have kicked caffeine two weeks ago and it made no difference. I don't smoke or drink alcohol. My diet is good, although I will have to look up this FODMAP diet. The only major changes is that this all occurred once I gained weight. I spent the first 40 years of my life at 185 pounds. The last 13 years have fluctuated between 220 and 240. I am on the path of getting my weight under 200 and see what happens. According to my diary I keep, I experienced less SVT's when I was below 220. Also, the answers to my questions has been from the nurse practitioner, not the doctor, who I will see next week to review my echo cardiogram and stress test. I actually had all this done 4 years ago at the same office, but since it has been 4 years and my SVT's have increased, they wanted a new base line. I wore a monitor 4 years ago, but of course I didn't have an SVT while I wore it, so they never really recorded exactly what I have although the nurse practitioner believes it is SVT's. Thanks for the advice!