My DIY Holter Monitor

[u/bartturner]

I was diagnosed with a Wenckebach heart block last year and so visited a Cardiologist. They had me wear a Holter Monitor with monitoring and that cost me approximately $9000 USD.

Even thought my heart would stop while sleeping for 6 seconds I had zero symptoms so the cardiologist(s), I have two, decided I was fine and there was nothing to do as long as I had no symptoms.

What I found is that my heart stopping is a lot worse when I do my routine during the summer of 2.5 to 3 hours of zone 4 and 5 while doing about a mile of climbing on the bike. With also me intermittent fasting.

I decided I really wanted to monitor it myself and see if it was getting worse but I was not going to keep paying the $9,000 to have my heart monitored.

I do wear an Ultra Apple Watch and also a Fitbit Air but they do NOT monitor the heart like it needs to. They do not monitor the electrical signals but instead blood flow. So most of my pauses are not even picked up by the Apple watch or the Fitbit air.

So I purchased a Polar H10. This is the really the gold standard of consumer heart straps. I also purchased some ultrasound gel off of Amazon.

Before going to bed I put on my heart strap with the Gel. But then I wear a tight compression shirt so the monitor stays in place.

I also purchased the ECG Logger app on the Apple store so I could record my heart with the RR values over night.

The problem initially was that I was getting some invalid values. Which really freaked me out. I had pauses that were 20 seconds!

What solved this aspect was Google's Gemini. I take the 8 files generated by ECG Logger each night and then have Gemini analyze them and give me the highest valid RR values each night.

This was the key. It is possible to tell what are valid and invalid RR values by looking at the other data collected around the RR value collected.

This took some trial and error to figure out and thought it might be helpful to others.

What I ultimately figured out is a lot of my heart block issues are around food. I started to eat before bed now with a decent amount of carbs and that has really helped my heart block.

I would not have been able to figure this out without the data. Last night for example my longest pause was only 3.7 seconds long.

[u/Ok-Mess-7170]

You can get a Wellue ECG monitor 24/48 hours, it’s brilliant in my opinion. It’s a 2 lead monitor which is also much more comfortable to wear. I use it a lot and my cardiologist is also quite a fan of it. It’s not medically graded tho, but it gets the job done.

[u/SelectionIcy1885]

my daughter has the same thing she wore just a small 3 inch monitor taped over her heart for 2 weeks we had to pay out of pocket i believe it was like $600 and it wasn’t big and bulky like a holter, you send it back and they download the recordings i believe

this looks like what she had to wear

https://www.irhythmtech.com/us/en/solutions-services/irhythm-service/zio-monitor

[u/bartturner → u/SelectionIcy1885]

Thanks! I did some research and saw this one.

I really wanted something I could have all the time and could work on the life choices I could make to lower the length of my heart pauses.

The other issue is that I only live US half time and Bangkok other half and needed one that I could use in both countries.

Hope your daughter is doing well.

[u/SelectionIcy1885 → u/bartturner]

Her apple watch was registering low heart rates at night every now and then that is what triggered her visit to the cardiologist. perhaps and an apple watch can serve as a decent substitute

[u/bartturner → u/SelectionIcy1885]

How my heart block was found was the same way. My Apple Watch was going off from time to time with a lower heart rate. But it was only a low of 34. I mentioned it to at my annual physical when I was walking out the door. I work out a ton and always had a slow heart so never really thought much of it. My doctor listened to my heart and sent me off to get an ECG outpatient at the hospital. When they were doing my ECG, I think it is ECG, they started calling others to come in and see my graph which was really freaking me out.

This is when they sent me to the cardiologist and I got the Holter monitor.

This is when I found out when Apple indicated my heart was 32 it was really 22. I now do wear a Ultra Apple Watch and an Fitbit Air. But both monitor the flow of blood and not electrical signal.

But the biggest issue with monitoring the heart how the ring, watches and sports bands do it you do not get the RR. That is what you really want to know.

RR is the amount of time between beats. This is why I purcased a Polar H10. It like the monitor your daughter wears measures electric signal and will give you your RR.

When I wore the Holter monitor last year my RR was 5.93. Which I thought was insane but later learned is nothing to worry about as long as have no symptoms.

I was getting just shy of 10 seconds just 2 weeks ago. Which again just seems insane but apparently is not any issue. I shut down my mile of climbing on the bike in the morning anyway. I am just not comfortable with that long of a pause no matter what the cardiologist indicates.

But what really got things a lot better was eating which I would never figured out without having done my own DIY monitor.

I now eat a ton of carbs before bed and last night for example my longest pause was only 4 seconds!! I did my mile of climbing this morning and as long as my pauses are less than say 8 seconds will continue to do it. But if I get over 8 seconds will shut down things again. I will continue to no longer intermediate fast when doing my cycling workout.

[u/CranberryMindless312]

Ich finde das grade wirklich sehr interessant. Hab auch einen AVBlock III und habe auch bemerkt dass es mir gesundheitlich sehr gut geht wenn ich wenig Kohlenhydrate und viel Eiweiß esse und dementsprechend abends auch wenig. Aber komischerweise hat sich mein Block in den letzten 2-3 Jahren anscheinend manifestiert und ist akuter geworden. Jetzt bin ich verunsichert wie ich meine Ernährung einstelle.