iPod makes pacemakers skip a beat

A new study has determined that iPods can cause pacemakers to malfunction.

The report, presented at the Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Denver, was authored by a teenager and medical doctors, who conducted the study at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University.

The study found that electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient's chest for 5 to 10 seconds. The study looked at 100 patients whose mean age was 77. iPods were the only type of portable music device tested.

The report's authors said the effect may not have been noticed before because pacemaker recipients are not typically iPod users.

Apple fans were, predictably, outraged.

Blog community response:

"We'd really liked to have been there to see him try and pitch this study of his to the variety of seniors with heart problems who participated (they averaged 77 years of age), but don't get alarmed, we have a feeling your grandparents -- who've probably never even heard of that newfangled iPoddie doohickie -- won't find out first hand whether this is the real deal."
--Engadget

"So what have we learned? It's not that electronics produce electromagnetic frequencies capable of killing grandpa. No, the moral of the story remains the same as always: Don't strap electronics to the chests of people with pacemakers."
--Crunchgear

"At one point or another, it seems like every new technology or gadget gets a story where it's either deemed safe or harmful to pacemakers -- such as when some mobile phones were said to interfere with some older pacemakers, while a flimsy-sounding study said WiFi was safe."
--Techdirt

[setgo]

Is It Just iPods or all mp3 Players?

And why were just iPods tested? You story is incomplete.

[jeromatron]

17 year old high school student?

I'm all for accepting data from wherever, but it's interesting how the web propagates stories... a 17 year old high school student presents a study that finds that ipods interfere with pace makers? That's a little different than a comprehensive study in a medical research journal. Wow, the internet has brought us this far. I wonder if the ipod competitors are taking this further than it needs to go or if it's just irresponsible journalism.

[jeromatron]

Well, maybe not

Well maybe he because his parents are medical researchers it turns out and it's appropriate because he's of the ipod generation... anyway, maybe it's not that odd...

[Travis Ernst]

Magnetic field

The spinning hard drive, however short when loading it into
cache, does generate a magetic field. It could also trip a VNS
implant "in theory" to activate. The VNS requires a magnet
swipe in a specific manner to activate "when needed" outside of
programming cycle.

The point here, don't have it in that pocket if you have an
implant.

And for those of you asking, YES teens do have heart implants to
help maintain a regular heart beat. It's not just for older
patients. Very young patients have even had them put in.

The VNS is an implant often used for epileptic patients, a variant
of it is used for parkinsons.

[assman]

you're right

Yes, it's the hard disk.

I watch digital over-the-air broadcasts on my laptop, and when I turn on my external harddrive, the signal strength on all the channels either become weak or are lost completely. The radiation from the disk will have the same effect with any device that uses it, not just iPods.

In fact, a simple motorized fan will have a similar effect.. electromagnetic radtiation is everywhere these days, I'm sure the pacemaker is designed with this in mind.

[FlaGrl]

Can you tell me more about what you know can 'trip' the VNS implants? I notice that it goes off at odd times, and I'd like to know what things in my environment could be causing it.

[orlandparktodd]

IPOD and pacmakers

Having two teens with pacemaker/defibrillators. I am very concerned about this. Both of my teens told me that they were keeping their IPODS a good distance from their defibs...they had a "feeling about this" but apparently never mentioned it before. I haveve a feeling that their feelings may have been more than theoritical thinking.

[desertsurfergirl]

IPOD and Pacers

Geeze I don't think this was a valid study. Where's the double blind randomized control? lol
Besides 2" from their chest, who puts it there?
I clip my shuffle to my shirt that way when I'm on my eliptical but a guy with a pacer isn't gonna be exercising for 50min on an eliptical.

Must have been a slow science and news day to report this kind of stuff! What happened to microwave ovens and pacers? Now there's news lol

[SECCHAS]

Thanks!!!!

The majority of pacemakers are fitted in adults its true. But I have a 16 year old son with a pacemaker who frequently runs 2 plus miles. He also has an IPOD. This was useful info as he didnt know it produced an electromagnetic field

[pahlmark]

IPOD/Pacers

Only sissy guys work out on eliptical's. I have a pacemaker/defib, use an ipod, and 50 minutes is just a warm up for me - and I am in my 50's - don't over generalize

[rx7lover6297]

I've used an elliptical machine before!

And I have a pacemaker. Please don't assume that people with pacemakers cannot do things that everyone else can do. I am 34 yrs old, have had a pacemaker for 9 years now and yes, there are some things that I definately cannot be around under any circumstances, but exercising on an elliptical machine for 30 to 50 minutes is definately not one of them. My shortness of breath makes me stop exercising, not my pacemaker! It's what allows me to do the things I want to do in the first place. Like being alive!

[rx7lover6297]

Glad to hear this!

Even though this study was basically on people that would likely not have and ipod as well as a pacemaker, I am 34 years old, have had a pacemeker for 9 years and am completely pacemeker dependent. In other words, my heart does not beat without that pacemaker. I was wanting to get an ipod and now will definately not be getting one. This makes a lot of sense to me though as my ex-boyfriend had an ipod and if I used it and put it in my shirt pocket, I'd get dizzy sometime s and nearly faint. I always blamed it on something else, but now I think it was likely the ipod that caused my heart to skip a beat. I could really die from that, so, NO Ipod for me!!

[FlaGrl]

www.vnstherapy.com
I'm 26, and the link I've posted is for a treatment I have for a pacemaker-type implant. I, like other users of VNS therapy, need to follow all of the same precautions that patients with regular pacemakers have (imagine being at the airport in the 'pacemaker line' to be patted down instead of going through the metal detector when you're only in your 20s.) This sort of information is good to have, because I have noticed that some objects will set my implant off or will cause painful stimulations, and because of that, I just stay away from them. I don't have an iPod, but have been looking into getting one. If I had bought one, who knows how long it would've been before I figured out that my iPod was causing irregular stimulations or what damage would have been done to my implant. Get over yourselves Apple and just put a pacemaker warning on your device to play it safe. I like to know this stuff. And shame on the rest of you for assuming that just 'grandma and grandpas' have pacemakers.