is it dangerous to have an elevated heart rate while at rest for 12 hours?

[anne1602]

I am a 42 year old female, happily married with three happy health children. I am a personal fitness trainer and it good shape. My resting heart rate is 60 and when I do cadio for 30 to 40 minutes my heart rate is 130 to 140, which is normal. About 2 months ago I woke u  ...  [More]    p in the middle of the night and it felt like my heart did a flip in my chest then I felt my heart take off. My heart rate when up to 150 beats for about 20 minutes then went down to 85 for about 15 minutes then went back up to 120 beats. For the next four hours my heart rate went up and down every 15 minutes between 85 and 100 beats. I had no other symptoms. It continued to happen for the next two weeks almost every night then I went to the doctor. EKG was normal and my blood test, CBC, CMP and  TSH came back normal.  I wore a heart monitor for four days and they said that my heart had a normal rhythm even when my heart rate was elevated. Therefore, they concluded that I was having anxiety. I can go for days with a normal heart rate then I will have 2 to 4 days of rapid heart rate usually at night but also during the day. When I exercise my heart rate is its normal 130-140 beats. I cut my coffee back to 16 0z  and no more after noon. I have stopped having a glass of wine in the evening. I don't take any medications. It does feel like I am getting a shot of adrenaline when my heart rate increases, but I do not feel stressed. I have a cold for about 3 days and my heart has been at 75 to 90 beats for 72 hours. Is this dangerous? What can I do to get my heart back to normal? Do I need any other test?
Thank you,
Anne1602

[Mom2four85]

Cat588 you may want to post in our dysautonomia/ans dysfunction community here if you don't get answers, or even if you do -  it's on the related communites and deals with POTS and other autonomic dysfunctions

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Dysautonomia-Autonomic-Dysfunction/show/266?camp=msc&personal_page_id=861727

[Cat588]

I am just wondering whether it is possible to have POTS with normal or high blood pressure?

[cindy707]

Hi i read your post...i understand your concerns here and i pretty much agree medically speaking with what nurse 2 be had to say.  The only thing that i would caution you on is to make absolutely sure that you are hydrating during your training not just after your training alot of people tend to wait until after and thats not good has to be during.  As far as your heart rate goes you are well within normal limits...for a non athlete a normal rate can run 70-120 at rest and for athletes that are super of nature like Lance Armstrong his resting pulse is in the upper 30's.  The human heart is a funny organ and has a mind of its own regardless of what our minds try to tell it it is very independent of us and the pump for the entire body....i know that before i had my situation corrected my pulse rate raced into the 300's and i am still posting as well as others on this site who have dealt with the same thing...our hearts really don't have the ablility to explode physically and i am sure nurse 2 b simply meant that when a heart rate gets extremely high (many times higher than yours was)irreversible damage begins......there is a saying when a deer gets cornered either by animal or hunter and they are trapped that their hearts begin to beat so fast that they drop and die due to their hearts exploding in their chest...i always found that amazing until i spoke to my heart doc and he explained the process to me...i definately agree w. nurse 2 b that this may be coming on from anxiety but the other thought is that i hope that the doc that you saw is a heart doc not a regular G/P altho good a heart doc has seen everything and practices nothing but the heart....

[Nurse2b1982]

Hello! I was diagnosed with Innappropriate Sinus Tachycardia in 2007 and the criteria are a high resting HR 90-100BPM and an increase of 20 or more BPM on exertion. Im not saying this is what u have but I thought I would mention it. I went through all the tests after my heart was constantly in th 150s when at work and would ocassionally race to 200+, I even had a EP study and they tried to get me to go into an abnormal rythum but couldnt. They did tell me that my heart was sensitive to my own adrenaline. To answer your question, a HR of 60-100 is technically normal but some people run a little higher. There is no danger unless it runs above 120 for years at a time. My EP told me that my heart could go 200BPM for an hour and wouldn't explode, although I would prob. feel like crap. I have always been told that if my heart races at 140 or above for more than 15mins at rest to go the ER or take a beta blocker and if it stays high for an hour but is less than 140 more than 120 to call the DR.   Yours sounds fine in my opinion though. Once when I had the flu my pulse was 170 on standing! I drank lots of water and it improved. It is normal for your pulse to get higher when you are sick and especially with cold meds. Your pulse is not all that high and it very well could just be anxiety, you've been checked so that seems like a good sign. You might have them check your catecholines(prob spelled wrong) in a 24hr urine just to make sure there is not adrenal abnormalities. I hope this helps!