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Comment by throwaway_15axd | Hacker News Reader

I'm not a cardiologist (so take my comment with a pinch of salt). But I was an avid runner (running average 10km a week for 2 years) but a few years later, I developed a form of Ventricular Tachycardia called RVOT.

I went for a battery of tests similar to the OP. The results shows my heart is structurally OK. The doctor diagnosed that I had RVOT and recommended I do ablation. He says that this is a very very common procedure.

I did the procedure. However, the symptoms started coming back again.

After reading this article, I wonder if I should have just left my heart as is.

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Glad you mentioned this. I'm a avid biker and endurance runner. I'm diagnosed with PVC a few years ago. I went through two rounds of ablation, both failed. Now I take Flecanaide to keep the rhythm but I want seek second opinion now, thanks to this tweet.

Maybe this helps: some anti depressants (like Zoloft) modify neurotransmitters, like serotonin. In my case at least, having a lot of unused serotonin laying around caused arrhythmia. Most doctors have never heard of the side effect (I'm not sure if it's even listed), but in my case stopping / starting Zoloft behaved as reliably as a light switch on my arrhythmia, albeit with cause and effect delayed by a few weeks.

The sad thing is I took Zoloft for years, mostly because my doctor said it's not wise to stop. In my case it was bad advice, as arrhythmia is a self perpetuating condition that gets worse if you let it linger. I use Zoloft to get past a high stress few years in my life (running my own business). Once that was over I should have stopped taking it immediately.

My next door neighbor was a moderately healthy dude in his 60s. Went in for an ablation, had complications, died two weeks later. All cardiac procedures are risky.

10k a week is avid running?

It probably puts you in the 95th+ percentile in distance run per week

Thats only because 99% of people dont do any running at all. 10K is a warmup for runners.

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