Willing Yourself Well

UC San Diego Health patient proves you don't need a functioning heart to function perfectly. Mandy Berzak recalled recently asking her UC San Diego Health cardiologist whether she should wear a heart monitor, to make sure her heart didn't beat too fast during the long-distance cycling events she took up with her husband, Harry, only a couple months after her second heart surgery. Then the 59-year-old San Diego resident realized her error. "Why would I need a device that monitors my heart rate when it's always the same?" she asked. Mandy's heart is triggered by a pacemaker/defibrillator to beat 70 times per minute, regardless of how much exercise she engages in, because it can no longer conduct electrical signals on its own. Four years ago, Mandy felt extremely anemic. After several rounds of tests, the team at UC San Diego Health identified an aortic valve condition called Heyde syndrome.