fast heart rate

was seeing a new doctor last week and the nurse mentioned that my heart rate was fast (120bpm)... and she asked if that was normal. It's not... my heart rate has always been around 60-80bpm. However I did remember one appt in May my heart rate was 112bpm... so this prompted me to look at all of my recent reports (after all of my appts I get a print off w/ my bp, pulse, weight, meds and follow-up instructions).

From about April this year I have almost always had the higher heart rate... 110-125. There are a few appts during that time that were normal (65, 72)... but they were almost always higher above 110. When I went further back before April it was the opposite... a few above 100 and most in the 60-70 range. I've also had a couple friends of mine (who are nursing students) take my bp and pulse at different times in the day and I couldn't find any pattern and that was the same as the dr appts.... most were fast with a normal bp and less were normal w/ a normal bp.

During all of these my bp has been normal 120-125/60-80.

The only symptom that I have that I would think could be related to this would be fatigue... (even w/ good sleep habits and getting 8-9 hours a night I'm still tired) and not just sleepy... I'm physcially tired as well. I also do randomnly get dizzy/lightheaded.

So my question is... since I'm not really having any symptoms that let me know that my heart is beating that fast does this need to be checked out?

I'm on no medications, 20 year old female

Any ideas on what this could be?

[Cleveland Clinic]

The question you should be asking your doctor is what is the rhythm: is this an arrhythmia or is it sinus rhythm. If the former then you may need medications or an ablation. If the latter there may be other systemic causes including adrenal disorders or thyroid disorders.

[rojo2516]

It could be simply stress, or "white coat syndrome." Many people run higher pulses and bp's while at the Dr's office.
It could be fatigue, it could be dehydration... it could be lots of things that are no real big deal.
If your pulse is normal at most other times, then I wouldn't worry too much about it.
If you find that your heart rate is high like that at other "random" times, then you might ask your doctor for a Holter Monitor which would measure your heart rate for a 24 hr period.
I think younger people tend to have more "dynamic" heart rates anyway... so it's normal to see younger people have times where their heart rate goes up like that.

[jeric]

"white coat syndrome" occured to me but my pulse has been found to be increased at other times as well... and it's never be increased like that before at dr appts...

[jeric]

Thanks for the advice!

It's interesting... I recently made the connection of a lot of random symptoms I have had over the last two years to Cushing's syndrome/disease... so if I'm right about the Cushings... then it probably wouldn't be too far off that this fast heart rate is a side effect of cushings... especially if it was the adrenal type. interesting.... well my dr is ruling out all the more common stuff first... TSH was already checked and it was fine.

Thanks again!