Tachycardia

Shantabulous

Shantabulous

Cathlete
Since I know this forum is a wealth of knowledge, I figured I'd see if you guys had any thoughts on this.

For the last several months I have been experiencing extended periods of tachycardia. By extended, I mean weeks. My resting heart rate has been between 90-100. I had a weeks reprieve from my last episode and now a few days ago it started up again. Today I couldn't even finish Low Max and I'm a seasoned exerciser. I actually threw up. I have been round and round with my doctor about this. I have hereditary high blood pressure that is controlled with exercise, diet and now sadly, two different meds. It has taken my doctor almost a year to and 8 different meds to find the right combo that works. After calling and calling her with my concerns, I finally just said listen, this rapid heart beat really has me scared. She ordered a stress test (just to appease me i think) and my heart beats normal, just fast.

Anyone have any ideas what may be causing this? I'm going to have her do a blood test to see if I'm anemic, because a lot of my symptoms fall into that category, except that my heart rate will return to normal for a period of time, then go back to being rapid. This has been very scary and frustrating for me. About the only thing I can do is lift weights and even that gets my heart rate up.
 
Shannon, it's funny that you should post this because my 13 year-old daughter has been experiencing the same symptoms. We just went to the cardiologist on Monday. I'm surprised your doctor only did a stress test. When I took my daughter to the pediatrician, she immediately sent us to a cardiologist. She said you simply don't mess around with rapid heart rates that are not normal for you.

They did an echo and and EKG which were both normal, so the doctor sent us home with a device called a Life Watch. It's basically a portable EKG machine about the size of a cell phone. Any time my daughter has an episode, she puts the device on her chest and it records for 30 seconds. Then we transmit over the phone to her cardiologist.

My husband had Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome (two open heart surgeries to fix), which is congenital, but we are very nervous that she may have a form of it. We know from her echo and the EKG that she doesn't have the severe form my husband had, so that's good. I'm not saying you have a heart defect!

Anyway, I would make an appointment with a cardiologist and maybe ask for the Life Watch device. You don't want to delay seeing what's going on in there!
 
A friend of our was diagnosed with this last week. In addition to this he also had swelling around his heart. The doctors said it was related to tress and in his case he was told to lay off of all forms of vigerous exercise. He thought at one point he was having a heart attack. If this Doctor isn't listening to you, find another one!
 
Get a different doctor. You need to see a cardiologist. This is not normal. This was the symptom that pushed the doctors to look into my Aunty's heart and discover that she had a heart attack and needed surgery. Please be very careful with yourself. Don't work out until you have recovered. I don't want you to die. I can't stress how important this is.
 
I strongly agree with all the advice you've already been given. Lay off the workouts for now. Go see a cardiologist...a good one! Don't let your primary doc push you around or minimize what you're telling her. You know your body best.

There could be any number of causes for the heart rate AND the high blood pressure.

You could have a hidden heart defect or a heart or blood vessel disorder and you need better diagnostic tools that what you've had so far.

This too from much experience as the mother of a son with severe congenital heart defects. Not to scare you but to offer support. You KNOW something isn't right. Listen to yourself.

Are you in a geographic area with teaching hospitals? They are *sometimes* the best place to seek care.
 
Teaching Hospitals are a great idea! If one is too far from you drive-wise, you can usually do a search with the University's Hospital to find a physician that works with/out of that hospital. When I lived in Detroit, we had several of those universities. Even 150 miles away, you could usually find someone that was affiliated with one of the Universities.

Great idea!
 
I live just outside Indy. I called my doctor and she agreed that I needed referred to a cardiologist. They will be calling me to set up an appointment. I've just been made to feel like I'm over reacting. I'm 37 years old and in the best shape of my life, so I agree with all you wonderful ladies who said I should go with my gut. My gut is telling me there's something more to this...

Thank you all.
 
Yay! I'm glad you are pursuing a cardiology appointment.

I was going to encourage you to give yourself the same care that you would for your kids.

Please let us know what happens.
 
story1267 said:
Yay! I'm glad you are pursuing a cardiology appointment.

I was going to encourage you to give yourself the same care that you would for your kids.

Please let us know what happens.
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I was just going to say the same thing! You would never let this go with your children. I'm so glad you're seeing a specialist. Your little ones need you!
 
Hi.

I have had this seriously when my heart would beat like 170 bpm for extended periods of time. I had to go to the emergency room once and they had trouble lowering it...but they finally did. That was 7 years ago. Since then, I have learned to manage and live with the fact that I am susceptible to this. This is what I have learned:

1. anything under 90 bpm is ok. I went through a period when it was 88 regularly.

2. When I had to go to the hospital it was because I had caffeine and was under super stress. De-stress yourself.

3. Stay away from caffeine.

4. Stay hydrated. Even slight dehydration can aggravate it for me.

5. When I would have my heart start to race, instead of getting neurotic and hysterical (which I used to do), I would self-talk and tell myself it is ok...because getting upset only makes it worse.

6. if possible, lay down breathe deeply and evenly

7. I also went to a cardiologist and she was also non-plussed and unimpressed with what was going on. She was almost insultingly patronizing.

8. I was on a holter monitor a few times to be sure I was ok and I am.

9. I have had ekg's up the wa-zooo. I am fine.

10 I have kept working out and if I feel symptoms I drink oodles of cool water and lay down, breathe deep, calm myself until it passes.

11. I have Cardiologist prescribe Diltiazam which I take if I get an episode which has gotten less and less as I practice de-stressing and continue to faithfully exercise. However, I do not need to take it full-time.

Of course, I am no Doctor, but I have had this for years. At one point, I had gotten myself so frightened about it, thinking that I was dying, that I actually aggravated it and made it worse and then I got more frightened. It was a vicious cycle. Thank God, I stopped that crazy train and it has really become manageable. I can't remember the last time I had a prolonged episode

Of course, see a doctor and do all the tests, but hopefullly, you will be in the same situation as me and be ok.
 
Has your primary care doctor done any blood tests?

I'm thinking specifically of thyroid function testing. I'm not sure what tests need to be done but hyperthryoidism causes rapid heart beat. it's not that uncommon and is fairly easy to fix. you can google "unexplained tachycardia" and go to causes and you will get a good idea of what will need to be looked at.
you might be able to get this done by your primary care doc before you go through an expensive cardiology workup.
 
I have had my thyroid tested numerous times and it always comes back normal. I have my yearly blood tests done and then my doctor will often check my liver function. My heart rate will get into the 110's when I'm standing and then the 130's or higher when I'm just doing laundry or dishes. I also have shortness of breath during these weeks of a tachycardic episode. I wouldn't be so concerned if it only lasted for an hour or so, but it's 24 hrs a day for weeks at a time. Definitely revs up my metabolism. The ONLY upside to this whole situation. I've tried the deep breathing and resting and it helps some. But this is effecting my every day life now. Not just with working out, but such things as grocery shopping and running up and down the stairs at work. I do have a TON of stress with having 4 kids and very demanding boss and a husband I don't get to spend near enough time with. But my life has been this way since the triplets were born 6 years ago. Why is this happening now?
 
Shannon, there are a few ways to bring your heart rate down by stimulating your vagal nerve. Our cardiologist told us to do these: You can bear down, put an ice pack on your face, or compress the nerve on one side of your neck using your fingers. He said those things should bring it down pretty quickly.
 
Shantabulous said:
I have had my thyroid tested numerous times and it always comes back normal. I have my yearly blood tests done and then my doctor will often check my liver function. My heart rate will get into the 110's when I'm standing and then the 130's or higher when I'm just doing laundry or dishes. I also have shortness of breath during these weeks of a tachycardic episode. I wouldn't be so concerned if it only lasted for an hour or so, but it's 24 hrs a day for weeks at a time. Definitely revs up my metabolism. The ONLY upside to this whole situation. I've tried the deep breathing and resting and it helps some. But this is effecting my every day life now. Not just with working out, but such things as grocery shopping and running up and down the stairs at work. I do have a TON of stress with having 4 kids and very demanding boss and a husband I don't get to spend near enough time with. But my life has been this way since the triplets were born 6 years ago. Why is this happening now?
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the only thing that I can think is that the effects of stress do NOT happen now all the time.....if we are under continuous stress it tends to work itself out in our bodies and have a sort of delayed reaction... Of course, I am just speaking about my own personal experience....again I am not a doctor and can only speak of my experience. i was under continual stress for a few years and finally it was as if my body and mind said enough was enough and I was forced to take it easy for at least two months and then gradually worked my way back but slowly and differently so as not to get myself in the same situation.

(I had my thyroid tested, my blood tested...it seems like everything tested too.)

I hope you are ok. Please take it easy and slow down and enjoy life and do not worry about things. This is what I had to learn because this is what was aggravating my condition. (Of course, this may not be your situation)
 
Another thing...I have a girlfriend who is older than me who has gone through this too and one thing we both came to realize is that we began to obssess about our heart rate. Of course, there is a balance if something is wrong we need to be aware...but we were making things worse by obssessing over it.

And after reading your most recent post and reflecting....you DO have a lot going on in your life that can contribute to your stress level...you work, you have FOUR children under ten, you have a demanding boss, you don't get to spend a lot of time with your husband.... THAT IS A LOT GIRL!!!!

When I had my episode I had been homeschooling 2 elementary school children, going to school full-time to finish my bachelor's, helping my husband at least 20-30 hours a week in his business and had just sent 2 off to college! Even though I did not professionally work outside the home it was wayyy too much for me.

What I did was radical. I withdrew from school for 2 semesters...We enrolled our 2 daughters in private school and I totally backed off from helping my husband at work...because now it was serious it was my health. And I had to learn how to live sensibly for me.

I learned that it was all right to say and admit..."I can't do it all. I am an imperfect, fallible human being." I was doing so much that it seems that I forgot what it meant to be human. It was as if I was simply a robot performing task after task without really living.

Now, this is not to say this is what you are experiencing. I am simply being honest in hopes that something might help you.

Post-script: I finished my degree. I learned how to live.
 
Generally how doctors approach this kind of thing is to start with a list of all the various potential causes of tachycardia. they will do testing, question you, do various evaluations to rule out all that can be ruled out.
an example is, if all thyroid testing returns "normal" , then that's not the cause of your problem, so it can be ruled out. what they are left with is a shorter and shorter list of what might be causing the problem. they will continue to narrow it down until what's left is the most likely cause. then will try to confirm that if a test exists to prove it's " disease #15" .

If you look up "unexplained tachycardia" on a decent medical site , it will give you an idea of the things under consideration. unless that causes you to worry more, then don't bother.

I'm not suggesting you try to "self diagnose" yourself this way, but it helps understand the process. You will get in to see a cardiologist much faster if your primary care doc does the call and gets the process rolling. good luck to you!
 
They scheduled me to meet with a cardiologist on Aug 21st. Till then I must stop reading the internet. All it's doing is scaring me.
 
I went to many doctors about mine and was constantly told I was fine. But I knew better. I did Ctahe w/o 6 days a week and I had to keep modifying to the point that I did the w/o without a step and still needed to hit the pause button. I finally went to an arrthymia specialist who had me wear and event monitor. The heart monitor is typically 24 hrs and did not show anything during that particular day. The event monitor is 24-7 for 30 days. After wearing it for 3 days it recording my rapid heart rate. My doctor was able to detect the problem and I had a cardiac ablation done. Basically the problem was my natural heart beat often trigger another electrical burst so they ablated that connection. Good luck!
 
Have you looked into your diet at all? I know people who are very sensitive to MSG (an additive in freakin' everything - including salad dressings, sauces, any packaged/frozen, carry-out food, etc). Also, sulfites can do this and are also in tons of foods and beverages (wine, soy sauce, etc.). Take a look at if there are any trends in that space. I know someone who almost went to the ER because they were sure they were having a heart attack, and it turned out they had way overconsumed MSG that day and they were reacting to that.
 
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