r/HeartHealth

Today my hr has ranged from 76 to 159. The most strenuous thing I’ve done today was walking and I didn’t feel tired or anything.

How do Ik if I have tachycardia or if I’m just out of shape?

Edit: I didn’t post this initially because I don’t want any comments about my weight. I’m aware my BMI puts me in the overweight category. I have body dysmorphia because of this, but visibly I do not appear overweight. I am a 20F and 5’1.5” and 140 lbs.

I also am experiencing non-medication induced akathisia. And I have been experiencing non-POTs symptoms for dysautonomia.

Hi, I am a 29-year-old man, healthy and fit. I follow a mediterranean diet, consuming many healthy fats (olive oil, nuts, avocado, seeds) and occasionally 'bad' fats in moderation (cheese, cured meats). I engage in light physical activity, specifically power walking (about 5–6 km, 3–4 times a week). I have a family history of cardiovascular disease; my father has a Lipoprotein(a) level of 150 mg/dL. I recently had blood tests to assess my cardiovascular risk with the following results:

• Total Cholesterol: 176 mg/dL
• HDL: 48.5 mg/dL
• LDL: 113 mg/dL
• Lipoprotein(a): 34.6 mg/dL
• Homocysteine: 14.5 µmol/L

I am very reassured by the Lp(a) value, but I am concerned about the HDL and LDL levels, which have remained similar in previous tests. What should I do?

My doctor is recommending that I have a Reveal implanted heart monitor put in. For those of you who have one, what is your opinion of it? Also, was yours implanted in your Dr office or in a hospital facility? Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone. I’ve been dealing with symptomatic bradycardia for quite some time, mainly during wakefulness and at rest. What draws my attention the most is that whenever I stay around 3–4 hours without eating, the bradycardia seems to become much more pronounced and I start feeling lightheaded, mentally “foggy,” mildly dizzy and generally unwell, especially around 11:15 AM and again near 4:15 PM. I’ve noticed this pattern repeatedly over time.

I’m 33 years old, weigh 104 kg, and train at the gym around 3 times a week. Despite being overweight, I still seem to have relatively preserved exercise tolerance. While running on the treadmill, my heart rate can reach 165 bpm without major limiting symptoms, so chronotropic response during exertion appears to be intact. The issue is mainly at rest, especially during fasting or when my stomach is empty.

At rest, sitting or standing still, my heart rate may stay around 55, 53, sometimes even 47 bpm while awake. It’s not constant, but it happens frequently enough to concern me. I already underwent two Holter monitor evaluations, and both confirmed sinus bradycardia. During sleep, one Holter recorded my heart rate dropping to 30 bpm.

Another important aspect is that I seem to have significant gastrointestinal hypersensitivity. When my stomach is empty, the bradycardia and malaise worsen noticeably. On the other hand, when I eat too much or have large meals, I start experiencing bothersome premature beats/extrasystoles. There seems to be a very clear gut–heart interaction in my case, which makes me suspect a strong autonomic/vagal component.

I’m also tapering off escitalopram after approximately one year of treatment. Throughout the treatment period, I subjectively noticed the bradycardia becoming progressively more evident. I don’t know whether this is causal or coincidental, but I believe it’s relevant to mention.

Another strange symptom involves peripheral circulation sensations. Sometimes it feels as if my extremities are not receiving adequate blood flow. For example, when measuring blood pressure, if the cuff compresses my arm for a short period, it becomes numb and uncomfortable very quickly. I often experience a sensation of “weak circulation,” although I understand subjective perception does not necessarily reflect actual hemodynamics.

What worries me the most is the psychological burden this has created. I constantly monitor my heart rate and keep trying to correlate symptoms with food intake, fasting periods, posture, gastrointestinal activity and autonomic fluctuations. At this point, I genuinely don’t know whether this is primarily a functional/high-vagal sinus bradycardia amplified by anxiety, hypervigilance and gastrocardiac interactions, or whether there could be an actual autonomic dysfunction, conduction abnormality, metabolic/endocrine component, or even something partially related to escitalopram use/withdrawal.

I would appreciate technical opinions, especially from people who have encountered similar cases involving resting sinus bradycardia associated with fasting, gastrointestinal hypersensitivity, postprandial extrasystoles and possible autonomic/vagal dysregulation.

My Dad was very healthy. He ate a completely clean diet, never smoked, seldom drank, healthy weight, cycled everywhere, swam 3 times a week, hiked and ran often. He retired early and suddenly went into cardiac arrest shortly after. He suffered severe brain damage from it until he eventually died a few years later.

He had 2 notable symptoms before he died. The first was chest pain at rest which was attributed to heart burn after ECGs were performed and blood tests were taken which were all clear. The second was fainting, including once while sitting down, which was dismissed as benign after nothing of significance was found on his echocardiogram.

Post-cardiac arrest, a CT angiogram (I believe) revealed something like 4 of his valves were blocked. It meant that he would need a quadruple bypass, which he could not have due to the brain damage.

I'm mid-20s female, 164cm (5'5") / 56kg (123lbs). I'm less fit than my dad was; I've been improving my diet (I now eat more nutrient-dense, less ultra processed foods - in my late teens / early 20s I ate a lot of sugary foods) but I don't really exercise, partially on account of feeling so weak a lot of the time. I also don't drink or smoke and I'm a healthy weight.

I've been getting quite severe symptoms for over a year now. Including: severe weakness, fainting (including passing out while sitting down), palpitations, severe chest pain (also attributed to heart burn like my dad, although my endoscopy came back as normal), nausea.

I mostly experience the weakness, fainting, nausea, and palpitations separately to the chest pain, just like my dad did.

I had an ultrasound of my gallbladder during an episode of chest pain and no gallstones were found.

I've had many ECGs including 5-day holter monitors. Only occasional ectopic beats and a fast heart rate (resting 90s) were found, according to a doctor.

I've had an echocardiogram and various blood tests, all clear.

I'm suspected to have POTS but I can't help but worry something else is going on. I haven't had any more tests than my dad had before his cardiac arrest and all the tests before then were clear for him.

If it matters, my average HRV has diminished from high 60s to mid 20s ms over the last half a year.

Heart disease does run in the family and is thought to be genetic, especially due to the fact my dad had a very healthy lifestyle. His brother also had heart condition (I don't know the details but he had a cardiac bypass in his 40s) and my dad's dad died of a heart attack in his 30s.

I've asked for a lipoprotein(a) test but I need to wait a while for it.

Is there anything else I can ask for in terms of tests? Am I overthinking things?

Hello everyone, I am a 41 year old female. I have a 8 week old baby and a 3 year old toddler. I’ve been stressing so much recently and I have no village to help. It’s been pretty rough. I recently checked myself at the ER because I felt like my heart was being squeezed! My jaw and gums felt sore I just felt very unusual. EKG was abnormal and my blood work indicated that I might have had a NSTEMI. But They did further testing, angiogram, ultrasound and ct scan with ink and everything looked good, no blockage to my heart. They diagnosed me with Coronary Artery Spasm due to stress and most likely a postpartum thing? They sent me home with blood pressure meds (beta blockers and calcium channel blockers)

It’s been a week and I can’t tell if I’m having anxiety. But every little twitch I feel in my heart scares me. My shoulders feel heavy/sore. My arm starts to feel tingly. Thankfully no heart pressure or anything like that but can’t help but to think that the meds aren’t helping and I’m gonna have another spasm 😔

Can anyone relate?

I’ll try to make this as short as possible but long story short I’m 25F I don’t drink I don’t smoke or do drugs I am an athlete who was working out twice a day and play beach volleyball. I ended up getting Covid in February for two weeks and tried to go back to volleyball even though I still felt sick. In the middle of playing I fainted and had an SVT episode mind you I was 110% healthy before this never had any heart issues or medical issues in general. I woke up in the ambulance and they had to use adenosine to restart my heart because my heart rate was stuck at 220bpm. Eventually went to cardiologist and electrophysiologist and I was told I have to get an ablation. I got the ablation April 8th. It was a successful and I had AVNRT they said they were able to abate it. I just got cleared finally to workout and play sports. So I’m about 4 weeks post OP and I’m feeling tired and dizzy and when I play I’m getting palpitations which I’ve never had before that episode of SVT. Is this normal ? Is this expected ? My heart rate is also super high when I’m moving around which is jumping like 30-40 beats. I’m really nervous I won’t be able to play volleyball again or workout like I used to. It’s my entire life and all I really ever look forward to. And I can’t emphasize enough that I literally had no issues before covid.

If someone has NSVTs documented while exercising with a congenital heart disease with scarring are they usually offered an ICD by their cardiologist?

is my friend describing a panic attack?

honestly where do i even start.

since beginning of april my friend first experienced her first ''attack''ill call it that for now on.

she was doing her usual game video making on her pc, no stress no worries that day at all, daily routine nothing special. and suddenly bot her hands went numb, like when you sit weirdly on your limb, she got scared as it happened and first thing she did is checked her pulse, she can do that at home she has the device. it was 156bpm, blood pressure was 115 or something, nothing worth worrying about, but the pulse.. which is NOT usual for her especially when doing everyday things. her head started to hurt in the front and felt heavy, she felt dizzy like she had drunk alchohol (she doesnt drink alchohol at all!), she had a feeling her throat is tightening like she cant breathe (oxygen levels were fine, she can check that too), shivering like shes cold but she really feels hot at those times. the ''attack'' went away on its own, but only in around 1 or 2 hours, which is unusual for panic attacks because as far as i know they only last minutes not hours!

she felt fine the next week, was happy that it didnt happen again, until...

until it sadly did, and worse aswell. it returned after 1 week of nothing, and now it happens every single day! in different times, doing different things none of which are particularily stressful or differnt from what she did before. it can happen any time when she wakes up till she sleeps (luckily not while asleep).

2 days ago she had pains in her chest, a pressing feeling on her chest, pains in all limbs but no simultaniously, it happens and then goes doesnt hurt long, but changes location periodically. she got very scared, as the symtoms didnt go away in 1 hour as it usually did the days before. she wanted to stand up to get water and suddenly all her limbs went numb, she almost fell.

so she did what she did, called the ambulance.

the EMTs checked her heart rate and blood pressure, did the EKG , asked her questions about her medical history, checked her sugar levels (everything was fine). they said her situation is neither deadly nor a heart disease. it might be a problem from bad back posture or neck posture (i agree, my friend always sits like a shrimp when doing her online work), or a psychological issue (anxiety, panic attack, anything like that, yes she can have anxiety even if she says she isnt having any stress). therefore can only be cured with exercise or stress managment.

thats basically all, well they did give medicine to lower the heart rate in case it spikes again, but thats it, no real ''cure''.

she was embarrased she had to call the ambulance for such non deadly situation but still, it is okay.

just sad nothing can be done for now. but on the plus side, its not deadly, the ambulance doctors said its not gonna kill her no matter the symptoms. especially since the EMTs didnt even take her to a hospital.

forgot to mention, her blood tests are all fine, and she eats well but only weights 38 kilograms due to probably a genetic issue, as there were no belly issues detected last time she went to a hospital last year. she doesnt drink,smoke, drugs, coffee nothing!