RAISED HEART RATE

[Mrs bikemonkey]

Hey guys

I am so totally fed up of feeling tired I have decided to try and sort this out!

I have been wearing a heart rate monitor for the last two days and it is really weird.

My heart rate at rest is 60-70bpm. As soon as i stand up it shoots up to 100bpm and then if i walk up the stairs it shoots up to 146bpm. The only way it normalises is if i sit or lay down. If i stay standing it carries on going up! No wonder im knackered!!
Even stiring soup sends it over 110bpm.

Does anyone else have experience with this? If not please try this yourselves to see if its just me  

[bunnygirlxxx]

i've noticed my heart goes for it like i've just run for a bus when i do (what should be) easy things. or even just randomly when i'm not doing anything as well!!!

I've got a heart rate monitor round here somewhere.... i'll try and find it and post what i find!!!!

[linda]

Hi Bikemonkey.....

Yes, I have experinced that also.....

I took a few days readings down to my G.P...  and to be fair she really did not show any interest in what I had to say......  :(

Bikemonkey, there have been times that the palpitations have been that bad that Colin has watched my throat area pulsing.....

My blood pressure and heart rate are all over the place.....

At the mo... they are at 109/73 heart rate 89... ~just leaned over to get my machine~

But hey... lets all take readings 4 times a day for those that have the machines... and post our readings to compare.....

Perhaps 1st reading about 9.00am.... then 4 hourly....

Might show some similarities....

~HUGZ~

Linda xx

[Mrs bikemonkey]

Cool thanks guys

I agree we should take it at intervals. For me tho just sitting its steady. As soon as i stand or do anything it races!!

Wanted to know what it is like for example when your brushing your teeth etc

Mines 120 when im brushing, 140 up stairs!

Also its the recovery of it. I literally have to sit down in order for it to drop!

 :-/

[kitkat]

my blood pressure is always low and it always has been.

since i started taking amitriptyline my heart RATE has shot up. my resting rate is never below 88 and has once been 120 whilst i've been lying down.

i reduced my amitriptyline because of this and my resting rate went down to around 70. but since i've had to put my amitriptyline back up and hence my heart rate has gone crazy again.

are any of you on medication that does this? or are you experiencing this without any obvious cause?

[Mrs bikemonkey]

Hi kitkat - my bp is also always low. I think your heart rate problems are the meds - if you look in wikipedia the meds your taking having the side effects that you are experiencing - you should tell your gp. Are you on this for any heart related problem? Or is it just the blood pressure the reason for them?
I have worked out that mine is because I have a mitochondrial dysfunction - my energy cells are toxic and wont work when i do anything so my heart beats faster to help but nothing happens. I think my CFS is a result of a tropical disease that has caused this and the mito problem.
I think we all have this problem for different reasons and therefore the treatment is different - getting to the cause isd the real frustration!!
Good luck and defo talk to your gp about the meds.
H

[kitkat]

hi mrs bikemonkey! i am on the meds to help with muscular pain and sleep problems i have been experiencing due to the cfs.

i have been to my gp and he did want to reduce them but as i did this i felt so awful he decided it was better for me to experience the high heart rate than to feel as bad as i did.

how did you find out you had mitochrondrial dysfunction? i have read a bit about that, have you read the book called "from fatigued to fantastic"? there is a section about it in there and the author (a dr) recommends taking d-ribose to improve it, have you heard of this?

sorry for all the questions!! thanks for replying so quickly too

[Mrs bikemonkey]

Kitkat, glad to help
I went to a private clinic in Chudleigh Devon - look at my post in alternative medicine on ATP Profile test - it gives a lot more info - D ribose among many other supplemts are helpfull and yes expensive - but we all have an individual choice as to what And what we buy out of our budgets! Sorry for the aggression - it really annoyed me that they closed the post!
Back to you....The drug you are taking is an anti depressant which has the raised heart rate side effect, its best not to get it confused with a painkiller to help with muscle pain, this has bot been proven.
You need to find out what reason YOU have for having CFS symptoms - and when you work that out it will help you to focus getting better. Did you go abroad and come back poorly? When was the last time you felt good? Did you have a cold/virus/flu/infection? Think what triggered it! If nothing did then private tests to see if anything genetically wrong is a problem (yes i know it is expense but the NHS will not offer you anything other than bog standard tests, anti'd and graded exercise oh CBT if your lucky).
Being proactive in your own health care is the only way to even have a chance of getting better - It is NOT normal or unlucky so just put up with it - we shouldn't feel this way! Hx

[bawolf]

I know no one has posted to this topic for a while, but I suspect there are still a lot of us with a combination of unexplained heart rates, palpitations, and blood pressure readings, so there may be others, like me, who read this old topic to see what's up.

When I was a teenager (40 years ago!) a doctor told me I had "bad circulation" because of spots on my lower legs when I'd been standing for too long.  No one thought anything of it at the time (and I certainly haven't brought it up to any of my docs in the past 20 years since I started having symptoms), but I now see that it is linked to my CFS.  I believe the things I've read about Orthostatic Intolerance and Neurally Mediated Hypotension - that standing for too long makes [me] weak.  I can walk my neighborhood, but not for more than 30 minutes.  Cooking for more than 20 minutes sets off an episode.  I sit crosslegged most of the time, and move my legs a lot.  I read laying down.  I watch TV with my legs up - either crossed under me, or in a recliner.  And I am pretty convinced all of this is to move the blood from pooling in my legs. 

When I am having the worst kind of episode, my breathing accelerates, my heart rate goes up, palpitations increase, and my legs (sometimes arms) ache.  (It goes without saying that I also have brain fog and total depletion of energy...but for this topic, I am just focusing on the issues of blood and heart.)

(As an aside, heat does the same thing to me...too hot of a bath, or too hot of a day!)

An acquaintance with CFS told me 10 years ago that she'd read the Johns Hopkins study about NMH & blood pressure and CFS.  She started taking beta blockers and felt significantly better.  In 20 years, I've had one doctor who was just a smidge good at listening and being open minded about CFS, but she did not buy the beta-blocker theory.  (She put me on trazadone to get better quality sleep, and I will have to say that made a significant difference for me.)

This all came up for me again recently when, during an episode, I caved into a craving for Chex Mix - I ate about a half of a bag, and within a half hour, I felt significantly better.  Clear headed, and energy!!!  Now, I would never recommend Chex Mix - or any highly processed high-salt food, but it does bring up the subject of blood pressure.  From what I've read, many of us suffer from insufficient blood flow, so we need MORE WATER and a little more salt. 

It is too sad that I have noticed many, many times that not having enough water has made a difference in how I feel.  (It is sad, because it is easy to do, and still I forget, or don't bother.)

Anyone else notice this kind of effect?

[Lucinda]

I do not measure my own heart rate or blood pressure, but during my illness I have been told at different times that my blood pressure is low, a little high and normal. Which is…weird. My heart rate has always come out as high though. I saw a consultant not long back who took my heart rate and said it was around 130, then I had an echocardiogram and it was the same (the woman doing it told me to calm down as she thought I was worried or something – but I wasn’t! ! I was just really fatigued; getting ready to go to the hospital was too tiring), and then I had a 24 hour ECG and the results came out that my heart rate was always elevated. My consultant concluded that he thought I had an anxiety disorder, more specifically, OCD. Only thing is, I don’t have OCD! Nor do I believe I have an anxiety disorder; my body just seems to panic a little when forced to do things it's too tired to do.

I have heard an increase in salt (sea salt) recommended for CFS sufferers in a couple of places though bawolf. I’d never considered why this was before though.

[roger]

You might find this interesting, Luc - benefits of REAL salt

And this is a good source - the natural salt seller

[agapanthus]

(smugly) I've been using this one recently for the same reason ... have never had my heart rate done but I do have low blood pressure:
http://www.cornishseasalt.co.uk/

they sell it in the local shops here.

[roger]

Well well done you, Little Ms Smuggy 

Is it grey?

And weren't you supposed to be having a day off 

[Trees]

My GP keeps telling me my heart rate is to high  she wanted to send me for more tests but I said a few years ago (her being a new and different doctor/surgery) that I had been tested because they thought I had a heart problem but passed 101% as the hospital said - and then said it would be unlikely that I have a heart problem now or in the future.

Not bad really because I have poor circulation? Raynaurds and the list could go on 

[Beowulf1976]

My blood pressure has always been fine when it is taken (every three months when I have the depo injection) but my pulse has varied and sometimes my pulse has been known to miss a beat.

When lying down in bed at night I feel the pulse getting strangely faster and stronger so much so that I can actually feel the pulse in my neck against my pillow (I position my pillow like the memory foam pillow shape for full support of my neck as I suffer with neck pain and stiffness and tension)

I have often had a wooshing sound through my ears, and have realised that it is the blood gushing through without a specific pulse, thankfully this does not happen too often (it's not tinnitus as I also have tinnitus so know what that feels like/sounds like)

I was put on a heart rate monitor after I had what they believed was a minor heart attack and the results strangely enough came back as normal.

So I have a fast pulse, which is un-naturally fast as if I've just done physical activity yet it's normal? :S

[Thumper]

Both my BP and my heart rate is erratic. My cardiologist today says he wants me to wear a Holter? Monitor for 24 hours so he can have a look at whats going on.

I have my own blood pressure machine which I love and here is what I recorded for 1 day last week, thought you might find it interesting.

Just woken up in morning, still lying in bed - 108/64 BP 67
Got washed dressed, made a cuppa and retired to sofa - 126/77 BP 96
Made a list of things to do, got quite stressed and anxious - 117/68 BP 124
Had lunch and did a small bit of housework - 106/61 BP 99
Sat on sofa been on the PC and watching TV for an hour - 112/65 BP 86
Had dinner, did the washing up, now retired to watch more TV - 122/66 BP 96
Just spent 15 minutes in hell trying to squish a MASSIVE spider (big phobia) - 147/82 BP 146 (the machine beeped at me which said in the book "heart rate dangerously high, consult physician"
Went to bed and read a book - 106/65 BP 86

So as you can see, my blood pressure and my heart rate are all over the shop throughout the course of a "normal" day.

Beowulf, I am also on the depo which has been known to lower blood pressure. My pulse misses lots of beats as I have a heart mumur but I have been told by a cadiologist today that it is nothing to worry about and even people with very healthy hearts will sometimes skip a beat.

I also suffer from severe tension in my neck and shoulders and I get the pulse in the neck feeling and also the whooshing. I saw my cardiologist today and brought up all these things and he reassured me that everything is fine and normal. At night you are "at peace", unfortunately this means any worries you have being stored in your mind will start to appear and this will cause your heart rate to get faster.

To combat this I have soft relaxing music playing in my bedroom, quiet enough so that if I fall asleep with it on it will not wake me up. I also love reading and I often read myself to sleep, it is a fantastic way of diverting your mind.

Sorry for the long post, hope it helps to reassure some

[danielle]

I have just had a load of tests as my heart is always racing and then missing a beat. The first doctor took my pulse and agreed that it was very fast so ordered a load of tests (ecg, 24 hour ecg and bloods) but these have all come back as normal.
 I also go through periods where I can't lie down as it causes shortness of breath and I have low blood pressure. I feel like I am going mad as I know that this is not normal but I don't know what to do. My doctor blames it all on anxiety but I am seriously not anxious in the slightest. He has signed me off work for a month but put it down to just pvf. I don't know what to do anymore 

[roger]

Hi Danielle,

This is just a thought, but as the tests all came back clear, and as they're pretty good at this stuff these days, maybe your doctor's right. Certainly, anxiety does produce horrific heart type symptoms as well as severe shortness of breath. I'm hoping this link might be a bit reassuring for you -

http://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-symptoms.shtml

I'm not of course saying that anxiety IS the problem, but maybe it's as well not to dismiss the possibility out of hand.

Whatever, good luck - I hope things improve soon.

Roger.