If you're of a certain age, you might like listening to Gerry and the Pacemakers on your MP3 player. But don't let your own pacemaker listen in.
In research presented today at a major heart conference in New Orleans, Harvard University scientists said headphones, most commonly used for digital players, can interfere with implanted pacemakers and defibrillators if placed in close proximity.
"It's a pretty common interaction," says Dr. William Maisel, senior author of the study and director of the Medical Device Safety Institute at Boston's Beth Israel Medical Center.
"Basically, 23 per cent of the (60) patients had an interaction with at least one of the (eight) headphones we tested."
Pacemakers would fire even if the heart is beating in its proper rhythm, Maisel says.
"It can cause the heart to beat erratically, it can cause palpitations, or things like that."
A defibrillator could be shut off, even if the heart required it to slow accelerated beating.
"We took the headphones ... and we placed them on the chests of patients with the pacemakers and defibrillators while we monitored them," Maisel says.
"Certainly if you picked up a headphone and put it over someone's (pacemaker) there's a really good chance that it would interact."
But outside of a three-centimetre radius there were no effects on the devices, he says.
And in almost all cases the heart device returned to normal function as soon as the headphones were removed from close proximity.
Maisel is scheduled to present the research at a meeting of the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2008.
He began the research after a study last year showed that digital devices such as iPods do not interact with heart devices.
"But we became interested because we knew headphones contained magnates, which are used to move the speaker back and forth to create vibrations," he says.
Maisel's team found the magnetic field strength of the average headphones – measured in a unit known as `gauss' – is 20 times what is needed to disrupt a pacemaking device.
"You need 10 gauss at the site of the pacemaker or defibrillator ... (to) interact with the device," Maisel says.
The field strength of most of the headphones used in the study was over 200 gauss.
He says the effect of the magnetic field created by headphones falls off drastically as they are moved away from a heart device.
"If you go from one inch to two inches ... the field strength actually goes down by a factor of eight.
"And so when the headphone is on the chest, although it's a small distance from the device it's not certain to interact."
When in or on the ears, Maisel says the headphones would have no effect on a pacemaker.
"The message is: headphones have powerful magnets in them, those magnets can interfere with pacemakers and defibrillators (and) patients should keep the headphones at least three centimetres from their device," Maisel says.
He would not advise patients with the heart devices to stop using headphones, but they should keep them in their ears.
"What people shouldn't do is take the headphones off and put it in the front pocket of their shirt," he says.
"They shouldn't take them out of their ears and drape them over their chest ... and they shouldn't have a loved one or a friend rest their head on their chests when they have headphones on."
Toronto Star
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17 comments:
That is very interesting how headphones can effect a person with a pacemaker cool article.
Thank you very much for posting this, I learned alot
thanks i learn't a lot too
This is quite an interesting thing to know not only will this allow me to tell my sister I am smarter than her and bring up random general knowledge but now I can do it to my brother as well. I am joking. It is great to know that these scientist might have saved the lives of the upcoming generation of hip grandparents.They will be using i pod's and they will be using head phones. They won't be spared from the usage of pace makers and other similar devices. That will mean that if this finding wasn't made it would have been possible for many people to die. This is something I think should be made an issue of public health. Informing everyone about this is one small step toward side stepping what could have been a fatal usage of headphones.
That is crazy that headphones can effect a pacemaker if it comes close to one. I think that the pacemakers should get some research done on them to see if this can be fixed.
This is very interesting i learned that ipod headphones and other headphones can effect a persons pacemaker.
It is very interesting how such small headphones can affect a pacemaker and also accelerate the constantly heart beats
holy! thats scary to know. I'm gunna tell my grandparents not to use headphones from now on. Go speakers!
I do not really agree with the article writer. The author says that you should keep the headphones in your ears instead of in the top of your shirt or on your chest. From what I know, if you keep headphones in your ears too much and too loud, there are high chances of you becoming deaf and laying it on your chest for a long time out loud would not do anything to your chest, your ears nor any other body part. I think it is better to risk hearing the music quieter that to end up deaf. It is also better to put it through your shirt and not in your ears because if you are walking down the street and someone is sneaking up behind you, you would not be able to hear them; if you have your headphones anywhere but your ears, you will be safe and not get any closer to deaf from the headphones ever.
it's so scary, i use headphone every day! i won't use it from now on.
I'm not interested in this topic because usually people that have inplants don't use headphones. for example my grandfather. He never hears music, not even from the radio. I'm not saying that it isn't true but that simply didn't persuade me in beliving that headphones can kill you.
This is really intersting becasue ipod headphones can cause pacemaker. Amazing article.
This is really intersting becasue ipod headphones can cause pacemaker. Amazing article.
It's crazy that in other countries there are a lot of geritricians and in Canda there are very few interested in the job.
The balance of patients and doctors is ridicoulous.
This research that has been done about how headphones can shut off heart devices, has probably saved thousand of lives. I believe that the Apple company profit will decrease due to less iPod sales (people with pacemakers won't buy iPods after they have heard about this). Headphones and music players are extremely popular these days, and people with pacemakers should avoid listening using headphones at all costs due to the high risk.
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