Am I ok?

[JN1982]

I am a 27yr old female who has recently been diagnosed with tachycardia. My heartrate on medicaton can go as low as 120bpm but generally sits on around 130 -140bpm. Without meds around 170bpm. The doctor has me on Deralin 80mg twice daily after Metohexal 100mg twice daily had no effect. I am now also on Xanax 1mg up to 10 per day as required. None of this seems to be helping. I am quite overweight and have 2 young children and i am afraid that my heart will not take this for much longer - its been nearly 3 months. Why wont my heart rate go down? Should I see another doctor? Thanks for taking the time to read this

[Jerry_NJ]

Healthy exercise (manged to your ability, and HR) and diet can only help.

At your age you should be able to exercise in the 180 range if walking gets you that high.  That is, if you don't have any medical advice otherwise, I think at least walking, working your way up from slow to normal, short to long and keeping you HR under 180 (a ball park upper number).  Of course if you get dizzy or have other symptoms you should stop and consider further medical examination of your condition.

The only treatments for a high HR that I know of are beta blockers, including some of the higher strength drugs like Class IC Flecainide acetate or Class III Sotalol (trade names Betapace) TIKOSYN® (Dofetilide Capsules) - none of which I am experienced with nor can I recommend, but they may be a subject you will want to discuss with you doctor if that has not already been done.  All of these drug would best be considered in the context of a "repair" such as ablation if that is an appropriate procedure... I have only listed some ideas, not made recommendations on any specific action... indeed, you may recover from this - you are young and the condition came on suddenly with "cause" maybe it will subside

While I don't think AFib is hereditary, especially at your young age (i.e., your mother's condition, but this may suggest you are more likely than average to suffer from that problem).  But, as an AFib sufferer I can say it does in some (me) raise the resting HR, it also makes it irregular, in my case, typical I think.  My untreated resting HR was around 130.

[JN1982]

Hey, I have had trouble with blood pressure before, but this was all brought on by pregnancy.
i just cant understand why this has happened all of a suddden? I was exercising (7km) per day in the weeks before this happened and my resting heart rate was 60bpm. Now, that i am not excercising it has gone funny.
My estranged mother suffers from Atrial Fibleration, but my doctor assures me this is not the same.
I am too afraid to excercise again, but am wondering if it will help get it back in order
I was using Metrprolol in the beginning under the name metohexal, so i dont think this will work for me... :(

[Jerry_NJ]

I agree, your resting (I assume) HR is too high (130+).  This should not damage you heart any time soon, so there should be time to find something that works.  

How is your blood pressure?  Beta blockers usually lower the BP, and for some it is a problem in itself.  BB lowered my BP too much in the beginning, but my body adjusted to it and the BP came back to normal.  I take Metoprolol ER and 100 mg once a day will keep me under 100 resting HR, and if I take more in the evening either 50 or 100 mg my HR will go down to the 80s.  

I don't know if Metoprolol would be any better, but it works for me, not perfect, I'd like to be closer to 70, but I'm in a safe range.  I am much older than you, so my heart can't take as much high running, so again, be optimistic I think you are not in any immediate danger.