Tachycardia

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.

Your post brought back horrible memories. DH went through the same thing few years ago. One of the lovely BP medications sent his resting heart rate in the upper 90's. This is a guy who ran everyday for decades. His resting HR was well below 50 when this happened. I don't remember which class of drugs it was anymore but I tossed it out after 1 week. We got him to a specialist and everything went back to normal in exactly 3 weeks. I wished we saved ourselves the headache from the start.

There is a very good chance this is what you are dealing with. You need to contact your doctor and ask her if your elevated HR could be due to the drugs you are taking. You are probably on 1 diuretic and 1 other drug that can fall in any one of many categories. I used to know all the details but not anymore. The diuretic is probably fine. It is the second drug that could be the culprit. You may need to cut it out to see if your HR goes back to normal. Don't do that by yourself. You need to do it under Dr's supervision.

Elevated BP can be due to 2 primary causes, elevated renin a protein secreted by the kidneys (70%) (renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis) and salt sensitivity (30%). There are some indications that fructose is also a culprit in some people. The nicer one is the sodium salt sensitivity because you can cut out the salt. The renin axis is a lot more complicated because it doesn't just affect your BP. It affects every organ in your body from your brain to your kidneys. There are newer drugs to deal with it but I don't know much about them.

We had DH's renin levels tested with our primary physician. She didn't want to do it but we insisted. I think you need to get that test also to help you decide on the right medicine. DH had the sodium sensitivity variety and that is where we focused our efforts. DH gave up all sodium and all eating out.

I don't know if your doctor went over the DASH diet with you. If not, look it up. Only use goverment sites for info like the National Institute of Health (NIH) and reputable .org. If you want more information, many medical schools have lectures for the public on youtube. I like the ones from UCTV (UCSF medical school). They can be dry but you will find out about the standard of care today.

You need to get to a nephrologist that specializes in hypertension and preventative medicine (as opposed to kidney stones or renal cancer etc...). Look for one at your local medical school before you put yourself through a lot of questionable tests. In the meantime, make sure you get enough protein and at least some carbohydrate to reduce the load on your heart.
Hope you resolve it soon.
 
Sadly I'm one of those people who eat almost the same thing every day. I thought maybe I wasn't getting enough iron, so I've tried to increase my intake. I've even tried eating more because I thought maybe I wasn't getting enough nutrition. Nothing has helped. Also, if it would have only last a couple of hours, that would have made more sense for a food sensitivity, but this is my 8th day for this episode.
 
I'm bumping this thread up just in case the OP didn't see my earlier post. I think your last post showed up before mine.
 
Your post brought back horrible memories. DH went through the same thing few years ago. One of the lovely BP medications sent his resting heart rate in the upper 90's. This is a guy who ran everyday for decades. His resting HR was well below 50 when this happened. I don't remember which class of drugs it was anymore but I tossed it out after 1 week. We got him to a specialist and everything went back to normal in exactly 3 weeks. I wished we saved ourselves the headache from the start.

There is a very good chance this is what you are dealing with. You need to contact your doctor and ask her if your elevated HR could be due to the drugs you are taking. You are probably on 1 diuretic and 1 other drug that can fall in any one of many categories. I used to know all the details but not anymore. The diuretic is probably fine. It is the second drug that could be the culprit. You may need to cut it out to see if your HR goes back to normal. Don't do that by yourself. You need to do it under Dr's supervision.

Elevated BP can be due to 2 primary causes, elevated renin a protein secreted by the kidneys (70%) (renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis) and salt sensitivity (30%). There are some indications that fructose is also a culprit in some people. The nicer one is the sodium salt sensitivity because you can cut out the salt. The renin axis is a lot more complicated because it doesn't just affect your BP. It affects every organ in your body from your brain to your kidneys. There are newer drugs to deal with it but I don't know much about them.

We had DH's renin levels tested with our primary physician. She didn't want to do it but we insisted. I think you need to get that test also to help you decide on the right medicine. DH had the sodium sensitivity variety and that is where we focused our efforts. DH gave up all sodium and all eating out.

I don't know if your doctor went over the DASH diet with you. If not, look it up. Only use goverment sites for info like the National Institute of Health (NIH) and reputable .org. If you want more information, many medical schools have lectures for the public on youtube. I like the ones from UCTV (UCSF medical school). They can be dry but you will find out about the standard of care today.

You need to get to a nephrologist that specializes in hypertension and preventative medicine (as opposed to kidney stones or renal cancer etc...). Look for one at your local medical school before you put yourself through a lot of questionable tests. In the meantime, make sure you get enough protein and at least some carbohydrate to reduce the load on your heart.
Hope you resolve it soon.

This is one of the reasons it's taken me 8 or more meds and almost a year to find a combo that works for me. Some of the meds just didn't work. One beta blocker slowed down my heart rate so much that no matter what I did, I couldn't get my max heart rate past 135 and I felt like my legs weighed 100lb's each. I experienced my first episode of prolonged tachycardia when she added a thiazide diuretic to my lisinopril. I only took it for 2 days, but it took a good week for my heart rate to come down. Now in hind sight, I think it was just coincidence and I'm not sure if the thiazide really caused my tachycardia because my second episode occurred a few weeks later after I had been taken Sprironolactate for a few weeks, which is a potassium sparing diuretic among other things. My Dr knows that I'm very sensitive to meds. Usually I know within a day how I'm reacting to them. Plus, I have taken the same meds now for almost 2 months and I've had 2 episodes of week long tachycardia. Right now, my HR is normal, but I'm still taking the same drugs everyday. I thought maybe it was hormone related, but for now I'm just going to stop trying to figure it out and see what the cardiologist has to say. I do have a medical background and sometimes I feel like I know just enough to be dangerous :D.

Thank you so much for the information. I will definitely take your suggestions with me.
 
Shannon, I just wanted to say I hope they get to the bottom of it very soon for you! Thinking of you and saying extra prayers that it's easily "fixed"!
 
As a nurse I can tell you that there are many causes to an increased heart rate. Some of those responded to your original post have hit just about all causes. Until you see your doctor, dont do strenuous excercises (try yoga instead) keep thouroughly hydrated and stop taking any "vitamins" - sometimes your supplements may be reacting to your prescribed meds. Please be sure to tell your doctors any and all pills you take when you go.
Are you feeling palpations when your HR is increased? Are you short of breath? Do you have numbness or tingling in your extremities while its increased? Be sure to tell your cardiologist every last detail. He only can treat you by what you say to him!!
 

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