Tachycardia in relation to PTSD

[cuppanina]

Is anyone else constantly at a high heart rate because they're hypervigilant or in fight mode all the time? Even when I'm relaxing in bed my heart rate is high. Doctors have found nothing to suggest a heart condition.
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[Workingonit]

Sounds like anxiety maybe.

 

[Tinyflame]

Idk but I was trying to find this thread because I realized something. I have a scientific/ analytical mind, and whether it's about ptsd or not, for a little while now I ask myself, "What is possible, but what is probable?" Only you know your lifestyle, state of mind, whether it's affected by body position, nicotine or alcohol, etc. Not meaning at all in judgment, but rather to find the answer.

I was thinking of this with drs: my dad had been a drinker, (good) dr assumed cirrhosis. My mom said, he's been sober 14 years, are you sure? Dr raced off and came back eventually with a primary cancer location. My aunt started to act like stroke symptoms, they said COPD. We said, she has been around 2nd hand smoke, but never smoked in her life, are you sure? We demanded more tests and they came back with treatable bacterial pneumonia (1 gallon of fluid in the lung). Same aunt had one of several joint replacement surgeries, they said she's afraid to walk more than 3o feet. We said impossible. Took a week of demanding (since based on pain reports we said she'd never give), and sure enough one of the other artificial joints was completely dislocated. My mom was diagnose with arthritis, vey good dr knew she had quit smoking 3 years before, and checked for lung cancer. A person had trouble with her eyes, feared early onset/ medical emergency glaucoma (genetic history), but they were inebriated. (It passed with sobriety). And things not even discovered yet.

An odd example, when my or others hair goes dry as straw out of the blue- I see they or I will test positive for Covid in a few days, though no symptoms other than maybe exhaustion or short in patience will be present then. But all the hair conditioner in the world wouldn't help.

My point is, (just saying for me, ptsd included), I say now to myself, x. y or z occurs, could it mean or should I fear l, m,, n, o, p? And I say, knowing facts is it possible? Yes. Probable- maybe not at all. Whether it's physical (including genetics, they can be overweighted to the moment), ptsd, trust, perspective, or cognitive distortions. (Just saying for me only).

Be careful, and be curious, and hope you can get resolve. Just disregard this if not helpful. You know you, your body, your norms, your habits, your mindset, your thoughts, perspective and stressors better than anyone else. Welcome to you.

 

[Workingonit]

I read somewhere one of the potential complications of ptsd is hypochondria. Its good to be aware and look out for yourself and loved ones. The doctor definitely won't be when s/he is driving home in their porshe paid for with kickbacks from pushing opiates and experimental/untested vaccines. Just make sure to temper it with a healthy skepticism of your ability to pass med school.

 

[Friday]

Is anyone else constantly at a high heart rate because they're hypervigilant or in fight mode all the time?

Constant? Nope.

I’ve had some rather prolonged episodes, but that’s all they’ve been. Episodes.

If something is constant it’s more likely in the realm of a cardiologist or endocrinologist (because hormones regulate… everything… esp homeostasis).

Whilst most panic attacks last minutes to hours? I DID have one panic attack that lasted for a few months. That was trippy as all hell (160bpm even when sleeping) and doing normal things was super crazy for the first few days after I finally got up and got on with shit… medically? I was “just” having a panic attack. Benzos would knock me back to 50bpm, but even in my sleep when they’d wear off? (Which was under medical supervision, I wasn’t spinning myself up. I was just “stuck”.) BAM! Back to my heart beating like a rabbit, & adrenaline flooding my system (and all those cheerful side effects).

It took a MAJOR shock to my system to knock me out of it. But once it did? Back to minutes or hours at most. Rather than 24/7.

 

[DarkVixen]

Is anyone else constantly at a high heart rate because they're hypervigilant or in fight mode all the time? Even when I'm relaxing in bed my heart rate is high. Doctors have found nothing to suggest a heart condition.
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If you have a smart watch that records your heart rate. You can look at your heart rate when you are sleeping and if it is higher then your lows when you are awake, that's what anxiety looks like apparently. It even gets you in your sleep.

 

[Flying Dove]

I have a smart watch with ekg app on it. My heart rate can go up with anxiety fear stress sensory overload. The ekg app picks up abnormal beats as well. I had an ekg when this was going on at Dr's office. It was normal.

 

[DarkVixen]

I have a smart watch with ekg app on it. My heart rate can go up with anxiety fear stress sensory overload. The ekg app picks up abnormal beats as well. I had an ekg when this was going on at Dr's office. It was normal.

You are right, don't expect the world from these devices. That's not good to get false information from a device. That would make you more anxious thinking something is wrong, when it's not,

I'm actually in IT so I also research everything till it's a dead horse when its comes to technology. I researched before I bought the fitness watch that I have now. There's no major artery in your wrist that a sensor on a watch could sit comfortably to be worn on a daily basis, so that's why fitness bands that are worn on your wrist would mostly be inaccurate for blood pressure. Ekg can't be measured if you are not measuring from the heart itself. What electrical impulses could possibly be in your wrist, right? I can get a companion device that is like a strap that goes around the chest. That would do ekg but again it's a strap that goes around the chest not the wrist but it connects to the same app my watch does. It's an entirely separate device. I could get it I suppose but it's pretty pricy and I was more worried about my heart rate cause I could feel it was fast.

So, I intentionally did not get a wrist band that claimed to do either blood pressure or ekg because I learned these require a device to be placed somewhere other then on your wrist.

As for heart rate and blood oxygen you only need a vein to be able to test these so fitness watches are usually pretty accurate when it comes to those 2 things. They use laser light to measure the changes in a vein, but again you can also get a wrong reading if you wear it too loose, too tight, have disappearing veins, work in an environment that would cause a lot of dirt to build up and obscure the lasers, get a really cheap one that is basically a toy, but a good fitness watch should be able to do those two things pretty accurately for the majority of people because they only need a vein. More complex things really should get a specialty device that does that exclusively, like a blood pressure machine but especially something as complex as ekg but again these can be pretty expensive running into the thousands, so not really something a watch will ever be capable of doing. It's not physically possible, Maybe blood pressure if they really figure out the sensors but ekg thats way beyond a watches capabilities unless you stick sensors all over your chest I guess but they already have a band that can do it so why reinvent the wheel.


But you made me curious so I'm going to study up on the technological side of ekg's and learn a bit more about what sensors it requires and why.

 

[PerfectEmpire]

Have you had a tilt table test or otherwise been assessed for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS)? It is a form of dysautonomia (autonomic neuropathy/dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system) that is often missed by cardiologists and neurologists, but awareness has been increasing due to its association with COVID. The diagnostic criteria can be found at dysautonomia.org and the American College of Cardiology, and is essentially an increase in heart rate of at least 30 bpm (or more than 120 bpm) when transitioning from lying to standing.

There is evidence that POTS is an autoimmune condition as patients have been found to have autoantibodies against specific nervous system receptors. Basically, the autonomic nervous system (fight/flight) cannot function properly and get the blood vessels to pump blood back up to the heart and brain, so the heart beats faster to compensate.

Given the research into childhood trauma and its association with autoimmune diseases in adulthood and other research on PTSD and autonomic dysfunction, it would make sense for it to be possible that there is overlap in these patient populations.

More importantly, POTS is often misdiagnosed as anxiety. One study showed that when mental anxiety was measured independently from physical anxiety, POTS patients actually scored lower (!) on mental anxiety than the non-POTS patients. But they physically present as more anxious due to a dysfunctional autonomic nervous system.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that if meditation, therapy, and other stress reduction techniques are not working, this may not be in your mind, and you may want to be assessed for autonomic dysfunction, specifically POTS.

I was misdiagnosed for a long time as we assumed my issues were all PTSD related and more controllable in my head, and many doctors just didn't have the awareness to assess and diagnose me properly and/or were misogynistic. My head got a lot better and even during periods where my PTSD scores were consistently low (remission), I still was very ill with POTS symptoms, including the tachycardia for which the condition is named.

 

[Charbella]

So, I intentionally did not get a wrist band that claimed to do either blood pressure or ekg because I learned these require a device to be placed somewhere other then on your wrist.

I’m not sure where you’re research comes from but there are many blood pressure cuffs that are made for the wrist and as I have strangely shaped arms that make cuffs fit odd even the doctors office uses his small cuff on my wrist. I have a wrist blood pressure cuff and it must have no problem taking blood pressure since I’ve had it checked at the doctors office multiple times. It even has to be worn a certain way or it will not read.

Also my Apple Watch has matched when the doctor has done an ekg. Not sure I’d rely on it but curiosity is a powerful thing. It does require two points of contact as you have to have your finger on the crown as well as have it on your wrist to read. Which does mean I’d have to think there was a problem and test it to be sure.

I have a relatively high heart rate that my watch does pickup on and it does match at the doctors office, for me though anxiety plays a part, mine is generally because of severe anemia. Severe enough that I have pulsatile tinnitus which means I can count my own heart beats when it starts racing. As much as I hate paying any attention to my breathing if I can slow and steady it my heart rate comes down. I assume your doctor already ran blood tests? Standard blood tests should pickup anemia but I have a friend who had to have her iron and ferritin tested in order to know she was deficient and it was causing a racing heart.

 

[DarkVixen]

I’m not sure where you’re research comes from but there are many blood pressure cuffs that are made for the wrist and as I have strangely shaped arms that make cuffs fit odd even the doctors office uses his small cuff on my wrist. I have a wrist blood pressure cuff and it must have no problem taking blood pressure since I’ve had it checked at the doctors office multiple times. It even has to be worn a certain way or it will not read.

Also my Apple Watch has matched when the doctor has done an ekg. Not sure I’d rely on it but curiosity is a powerful thing. It does require two points of contact as you have to have your finger on the crown as well as have it on your wrist to read. Which does mean I’d have to think there was a problem and test it to be sure.

I have a relatively high heart rate that my watch does pickup on and it does match at the doctors office, for me though anxiety plays a part, mine is generally because of severe anemia. Severe enough that I have pulsatile tinnitus which means I can count my own heart beats when it starts racing. As much as I hate paying any attention to my breathing if I can slow and steady it my heart rate comes down. I assume your doctor already ran blood tests? Standard blood tests should pickup anemia but I have a friend who had to have her iron and ferritin tested in order to know she was deficient and it was causing a racing heart.

That's informative to know. I'm just learning about electricity and circuits but I am guessing the two points of contact creates the loop necessary for electricity to pass through.

Right now smartwatches are still not considered accurate enough to measure blood pressure. They don't have the technology yet and a blood pressure machine would be a better investment. A cuff makes more sense thou because it would cover the circumference of the wrist and be able to measure from the artery on the side of the wrist, where a watch face with sensors doesn't sit.

Myself, I've been diagnosed with low iron and I see a hematologist regularly. I rely on my heart rate, in between doctor visits, to tell me when my iron is low and to take iron supplements. For me a normal now is 80 to 100 bpm, but if it starts going over 100 consistency then I know that something is up.

I think its really important for doctors to not dismiss someone's symptoms and to keep trying to find the cause or at least to treat the symptoms' and not leave you suffering.

 

[Sideways]

Heart rate going up due to ptsd is pretty common.

Doctors have found nothing to suggest a heart condition.

If you’re concerned about your heart, the best person to take advice from is a cardiologist.