Long Q Interval Any swimmer's out there who have this?

Let me be the first to pose a possibility: A false positive reading, triggered by something unrelated to your general heart health. I think what Taruky was saying in his excellent reply is that doctors are so skittish about malpractice lawsuits these days that if there is even the most remote chance that exercise could trigger something dire, they are going to tell you to stop exercising. In my heart of hearts, I am convinced you could swim the OW race and, in fact, do anything you have been doing in the past with absolutely no threat to your health. Call me a Long Q Interval Denier, if you must, but I do not believe there is anything dangerous going on in the heart of our Bobinator.

Let me be the first to pose a possibility: A false positive reading, triggered by something unrelated to your general heart health. I think what Taruky was saying in his excellent reply is that doctors are so skittish about malpractice lawsuits these days that if there is even the most remote chance that exercise could trigger something dire, they are going to tell you to stop exercising. In my heart of hearts, I am convinced you could swim the OW race and, in fact, do anything you have been doing in the past with absolutely no threat to your health. Call me a Long Q Interval Denier, if you must, but I do not believe there is anything dangerous going on in the heart of our Bobinator. Thank you for your kind words Jim. I hope your prediction is true but I'm going to pursue the genetic testing route if my insurance allow me to. I feel like I'm fine too but this whole situation has taken my confidence away. I doubt I'd have much fun in the lake because I'd be afraid of what might happen. According to almost everyone I've talked to I am probably in a low risk catagory. Most of the research is based on young (under21) people. Once you are past 40 your risk goes down according to SADS. I need to call my doc and find out what my # was. I'm thinking pool racing might possibly be in my future but I'm doubting if I'll ever participate in ow again. At least my 20K team this summer went out in great style!!!! (national champs!)

Second opinions should always be encouraged. But finding an answer that is more acceptable to you than the one given by your electrophysiologist does not necessarily mean that it is more valid. And you should not assume that it is simply the threat of litigation that is responsible for his recommendation against strenuous exercise. The reality is that the risk of sudden death in long QT syndrome is real but impossible to quantitate precisely for any one individual. Even low risk does not mean zero risk. Knowing what you know about this condition what would you do if this happened to you? I'm not sure this is a fair question but again I have nothing to compare the risk to. Is it safer than swimming in the ocean with sharks? Driving on the freeway in lots of traffic seems to be risky but we all do it. I wish I had some tangible activity I could compare the risk against. I am probably thinking too much.

Even low risk does not mean zero risk. Nothing is zero risk. Long QT or not.

I wonder if LQI patients are at a higher risk of sudden death even without exercise? If I don't exercise will my heart weaken and succumb to the irregular rhythm easier than a conditioned, strong heart? All these type questions keep popping in my head.

Knowing what you know about this condition what would you do if this happened to you? If confirmed by genetic testing, I probably would not swim. Tough question.

During vigorous exercise hormones like epinephrine are released which can provoke arrythmias in susceptible individuals. Exercise does not strengthen your heart, nor does lack of exercise weaken it. I thought the cardiac muscle was somehow strengthened through regular aerobic activity. Wow, I've been way off base for a long time about this. I'm really starting to freak out now. I was feeling positive yesterday, today is becoming bleak. I guess I should just be doing easy lap swimming instead of actual timed sets. Maybe I should just take a walk tomorrow.

Nothing is zero risk. Long QT or not. Those individuals with long QT syndrome, compared to thoe without, are at increased risk for sudden cardiac death during strenuous exercise.

Bob, Gull is a cardiologist with infinitely more expertise on this subject than laymen like me. I am not sure exactly what he means about exercise not strengthening the heart, nor lack of exercise not weakening it. In extreme weight lifting, the chamber walls of the heart clearly undergo enlargement, or hypertrophy, though apparently not of the same harmful sort seen in long time victims of high blood pressure. Extreme endurance athletes, on the other hand, increase the interior volume of their heart pumping chambers, along with an increase in blood volume--one reason why resting heart rate in trained athletes tends to go down (they can move more blood with each single pump beat.) Perhaps these adaptations do not qualify as "strengthening" the heart in some technical sense. But in the more commonly understood meaning of "strengthen," it does seem to me that exercise makes most hearts more efficient, resilient, and, well, stronger, than the unexercised heart. Amy, I think, is correct in saying that there is risk to anything. Clearly, if the data indicated having this syndrome increases risk significantly, you shouldn't ignore it. On the other hand, I would love to see some actual figures. Not just Long Q's impact generally, but broken down by genetic subtype, the presence or absence of family history, the presence or absence of symptoms, etc. Back doctors used to believe that herniated disks were the cause of excruciating back pain in many of their patients. The reason: many people complaining of excruciating back pain have herniated disks. However, some enterprising researchers decided to look at normal people without back pain. What they found was fascinating: virtually the same percentage of pain free individuals had herniated disks as those suffering hellacious symptoms. I wonder how many people are going thru their lives, like you did until recently, completely unaware of having even a chance of Long Q syndrome. How many of these never develop problems and die eventually from unrelated causes, their Long Q never having been noted? Gull, do you know the answer to Robin's question--i.e., how can she calculate her own risk? Perhaps I am being hopelessly naive here, but one of the quotes that has helped me quite a bit in handling medical uncertainties is this one from the stoical philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, who lived long before human cardiovascular function was known in the slightest: Never surpass the sense of your original impressions. Perhaps they tell you that a certain person speaks ill of you. That was their sole message; they did not go on to say that you have been harmed by him. Perhaps I see my child suffers illness; my eyes tell me so but do not tell me his life is in danger. Always keep to your original impressions; add no interpretation of your own and you remain safe. Or at the most add a recognition of the great world order by means of which all things come to pass. For what it's worth, my eyes do not tell me that Bobinator even suffers illness; in no way do I fear that her life is in danger. Keep swimming, tell the lifeguard and pool manager about your diagnosis when and if (a huge if, in my opinion) it is confirmed by genetic testing, and ask that they keep the AED handy (which they should be anyhow.) Tell your teammates, too, and maybe even ask the coach to take a quick course in how to use the AED. If you develop an arrythmia, they can zap it back to normal and then you can decide whether it makes sense to continue in the sport. But I just don't think you should quit because of a theoretical elevation of odds of something you may or may not have, and which even if you do have, may or may not pose any risk to someone who has been active her whole life without any incident whatsoever so far. That is my opinion!

Second opinions should always be encouraged. But finding an answer that is more acceptable to you than the one given by your electrophysiologist does not necessarily mean that it is more valid. And you should not assume that it is simply the threat of litigation that is responsible for his recommendation against strenuous exercise. The reality is that the risk of sudden death in long QT syndrome is real but impossible to quantitate precisely for any one individual. Even low risk does not mean zero risk.