Stop tucking your iPod headphones into your shirt or coat pocket if you are implanted with a pacemaker. Though not a fatal issue, headphones are found to interfere with the normal functioning of the pacemaker.
At the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association, researchers presented a report from Harvard who detailed the facts regarding this. According to them, the headphones contain magnets which when placed within an inch from the devices, can disrupt functioning of the cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) implanted or the pacemakers placed in the heart.
They add that while this may not be a problem which is life threatening, users are advised to keep headphones more than an inch away from pacemakers and ICDs. Others present agreed upon their concern.
Dr.Peter Cheung from the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine, who is also a renowned Scott & amp White Hospital cardiologist, it is better to keep headphones away from the torso. He suggested they could instead be kept in the purse, or even the pant pocket instead of hanging them from the neck or shoulder.
Ochsner Health System, New Orlean’s staff electrophysiologist Dr.Daniel Morin said certain other devices apart from the MP3 should also be kept away from pacemakers. This includes the theft detection devices and microwaves.
This conclusion was arrived at after tests were conducted on sixty patients with pacemakers and defibrillators using iPods and MP3 headphones of different types. Results showed at least 30 percent of patients with defibrillators and 15 percent of those with pacemakers were found to respond to the magnets.
