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What Causes Shortness Of Breath And Increase In Heart Rate While Exercising?
Posted on
Tue, 26 Jan 2016
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Tue, 26 Jan 2016
Answered on
Mon, 14 Mar 2016
Last reviewed on
Question : I am short of breath & accelerated heart rate when excersizing. When done light headed. been going on for the past 3 days. Never happened before. I am in good shape hiking 6 days per week & the gym. I am 54 years old 6 ft 1 & weigh 200lbs
Brief Answer:
Some tests are recommended
Detailed Answer:
Hello. Thank you for your question and welcome to Health Care Magic. I understand your concern.
Well, heart rate normally is increased when one is exercising and, actually, there is a formula for this (220-age), which means that a heart rate of 166 beats per minute, in your case, reached during exercise is still considered normal.
I am worried about the shortness of breath part. As long as you find it abnormal, this lets me understand that you had a better exercise tolerance before. This symptom could be totally without significance, but, referring to your age (which combined with the male sex is a risk factor for cardiovascular disorders), makes me recommend some further tests, more to exclude any possible organic cause of this symptom. Therefore, these tests should be run:
- EKG - to evaluate your heart's conduction and electrical systems during resting state
- a treadmill/cardiac stress test - which is basically an EKG but during physical stress, a test which would elicit if any narrowing within a coronary artery would produce these symptoms
- an echo cardiogram - which allows us to evaluate whether there is any abnormality with the heart structures, regarding their size, function and movement
- a plain chest X-ray - which would help us exclude a lung origin of this problem.
I hope I was helpful with my answer. I am happy to help, if you have follow-up questions. Please rate the answer, if you do not.
Best regards,
Dr. Meriton
Some tests are recommended
Detailed Answer:
Hello. Thank you for your question and welcome to Health Care Magic. I understand your concern.
Well, heart rate normally is increased when one is exercising and, actually, there is a formula for this (220-age), which means that a heart rate of 166 beats per minute, in your case, reached during exercise is still considered normal.
I am worried about the shortness of breath part. As long as you find it abnormal, this lets me understand that you had a better exercise tolerance before. This symptom could be totally without significance, but, referring to your age (which combined with the male sex is a risk factor for cardiovascular disorders), makes me recommend some further tests, more to exclude any possible organic cause of this symptom. Therefore, these tests should be run:
- EKG - to evaluate your heart's conduction and electrical systems during resting state
- a treadmill/cardiac stress test - which is basically an EKG but during physical stress, a test which would elicit if any narrowing within a coronary artery would produce these symptoms
- an echo cardiogram - which allows us to evaluate whether there is any abnormality with the heart structures, regarding their size, function and movement
- a plain chest X-ray - which would help us exclude a lung origin of this problem.
I hope I was helpful with my answer. I am happy to help, if you have follow-up questions. Please rate the answer, if you do not.
Best regards,
Dr. Meriton
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Arnab Banerjee
Answered by
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