Panic attack as cardio?

[mdproud]

Hi. I suffer from panic attacks and GAD, with the attacks lasting around 30 minutes. Anyway, I woke up in the middle of the night a few hours ago with my heart racing around 140 bpm, and when it was over I wondered to myself, if an otherwise healthy human heart reaches that speed for 30 minutes a day, does it count as cardio?

[amym2002]

Good idea. However, if your heart is taking off in while you are sleeping you need to go back to the cardio and be referred to an electrophysiologist (specialized cardio) and get an event monitor (you press a button when something like this happens) to check for arythmeias. Typical cardio work ups do not look for/catch arythmeias.

[mammo]

You really need to work on getting your anxiety under control, this is not healthy for the heart.  Not trying to worry you more, but hopefully it shows you what a negative impact anxiety has on us. Good luck and do take care....

[mdproud]

I have, they have run everything and aside from occasional PACs its good.

[mammo]

If your heart rate goes this high while sleeping, you need to see a cardiologist.