Causes of rapid heartbeat with normal blood pressure, does it need to be treated?

What heart rate is considered high?

First, about the standard indicators. In adults at rest they range from 70 to 85 beats per minute. When swimming and running they reach 120-210. Slowing down to 40-50 during physical activity is an indicator of a trained heart.

Pulse is characterized by:

• tension, defined as resistance when trying to press on an artery;
• regularity, that is, heartbeats at certain intervals;
• synchronicity, implying pulsation in two symmetrical places.

Heart rate (HR) decreases at night, reaching a maximum towards the end of the day. In older people it is constantly elevated. The reason is wear and tear of the heart and other chronic diseases.

What to do at home

You can try to lower your heart rate at home, but only with caution: complications of the condition are possible. How this can end has already been said.

Attention:

Indicators of 90-120 beats per minute are acceptable; anything higher requires an urgent call to the ambulance.

The algorithm is as follows:

• Make the patient sit down. Place a soft cushion of blankets or a pillow under your back. The main thing is not to lie down, otherwise blood circulation will be uneven. On the one hand, this will cause an even greater acceleration of the heart rate, on the other hand, breathing will be impaired, and the risk of pulmonary edema will increase. It can all end in the death of the patient.
• Breathe slowly and evenly, holding your breath as you exhale. This will not only normalize your heart rate, but also bring your blood pressure into order if the numbers creep up.
• Before the doctors arrive, no unnecessary movements, just rest and measured breathing. You should not take drugs like Bravadin. It is not known what the origin of the pathological process is. You can only make things worse if you act on your own.
• If your pulse is high, you can take one tablet of the beta blocker Anaprilin, 50 mg, no more. With a slightly pronounced heartbeat (up to 110 beats per minute), half is enough.
• Additionally, you can drink motherwort (1 tablet) or valerian (1 tablet).
• The following composition of folk remedies is allowed: yarrow herb, calendula, anise and peppermint are mixed in equal proportions and poured with boiling water (500 ml). You can drink in any quantity.

If after 20 minutes the heart rate has not decreased, you need to call an ambulance. There is no point in hesitating or hesitating, health and maybe even life are at stake.

When the team arrives, the issue of assistance on site and transportation of the patient to the cardiology hospital is decided.

If hospitalization is not possible, it is recommended to consult a cardiologist as soon as possible.

In the long term, it is possible to reduce a high pulse without lowering blood pressure only by using a certain combination of drugs. The selection of medications and dosages is the prerogative of the doctor.

What you should not do: drink medications other than those described, douse yourself with cold or warm water, eat, turn to other folk recipes. Many are downright dangerous.

How to calculate your heart rate

Before going to see a doctor, you must first measure your heart rate and do it correctly . Pulse waves can be clearly felt on the ulnar, temporal and carotid arteries. On the neck, their rhythm changes somewhat due to the effect on large blood vessels.

Heart rate measurement can be classical or palpation at rest in a sitting position. Press the fingers of the right hand (2,3,4) to the left wrist. Count the number of beats in 10 seconds and multiply by 6. Check with the norm. More accurate results can be obtained using electronic devices consisting of a sensor and a meter itself. The first is attached to the chest, the second is worn on the wrist.

Blood pressure and heart palpitations

Every person who has experienced increased stress, anxiety, or fear knows an increased heart rate. Usually there is no need to get rid of palpitations; it goes away on its own. Common causes of heart palpitations with normal blood pressure include exercise, where the heart beats faster to supply more oxygen to the muscles. This condition is not dangerous. But sometimes a rapid heartbeat with normal blood pressure may indicate the presence of a health problem.

The heart usually beats at a rate of 60–100 beats per minute. Tachycardia (rapid heartbeat) with normal blood pressure, hypertension or hypotension is a disorder of cardiac activity when the heart rate (pulse) can increase to 100 beats/min or higher.

External factors

Why does my heart beat faster? The pulse is the reaction of the walls of the arteries, which fluctuate with each injection of blood from the heart. In other words, this is heart rate - heart rate. It depends significantly on age. Thus, in infants under 1 year of age, a pulse of up to 140 is considered normal, in young people - up to 80, and in the elderly - up to 95 beats per minute. In addition, gender differences, the general condition of the body, and the degree of its fitness have an effect.

A low pulse with normal blood pressure usually occurs in thin, anemic people of short stature. However, they are not hypotensive. A rapid pulse indicates that the heart muscles are contracting much faster than usual. Why does the human “motor” begin to pump blood intensively? There are two large groups of factors that cause a high pulse at normal pressure: external and internal.

Before taking measures to reduce your heart rate, you should figure out whether this is necessary. It is important to understand what causes a high pulse with normal blood pressure. In both a healthy and a sick person, the heart begins to beat faster due to the following external factors:

• stress, depression;
• excessive physical activity, sexual acts, sports;
• overweight;
• eating fatty foods in large quantities (especially at night);
• chronic lack of sleep;
• strong coffee and tea;
• alcohol and nicotine;
• drug overdose.

Pregnancy should be considered as an external cause of increased heart rate. Although this condition of the female body is an internal factor, it, of course, does not apply to diseases. For pregnancy, an increased pulse with normal pressure is a physiological norm, since as the fetus develops, increased blood flow is necessary, and the heart contracts more and more actively.

There is an opinion that the moon also affects heart rate: a lower heart rate is observed on the days of the full moon, and an increased heart rate during the period of the nascent Earth satellite. People involved in sports should know what heart rate is considered the maximum permissible during exercise. Everyone can easily determine it using a simple formula: 220 minus age. So, at 20 years old the maximum heart rate is 200, and at 40 years old it is 180 beats per minute.

• atherosclerosis, ischemia, vegetative-vascular dystonia;
• diseases associated with heart valve pathologies (angina pectoris, arrhythmia, heart failure);
• hormonal imbalance (often due to thyroid disorders);
• rapidly developing infectious diseases;
• pneumonia, bronchial asthma, pulmonary insufficiency;
• feverish conditions;
• anemia.

Heart rate is normal

Indicators of 60–85 beats per minute are considered normal. For the fair sex, these numbers are higher than for men. Older people have a slightly lower heart rate. Newborns have a very high heart rate, which stabilizes at a certain age (14–15 years). A heart rate of 90 beats per minute is also common; doctors attribute this phenomenon to the individual characteristics of the body. A pulse over 90 beats is considered rapid and indicates the development of tachycardia.

Let us consider in more detail in the form of a table what heart rate is considered normal for different age groups.

Minimum acceptable heart rate

Average heart rate

Maximum allowable heart rate

Typically, blood pressure and heart rate are interrelated. An increase in one of them provokes an increase in the other. But sometimes the pressure remains normal, and the pulse increases noticeably. In this case, you need to visit a cardiologist or therapist.

Why does the heart rate increase at rest?

One can understand the increase in heart rate when walking, running or strong emotional shock, but why does the heart rate increase even in a relatively calm state, for example, after eating. This is due to increased blood flow to the stomach, which, after filling, begins to digest food.

In such cases, the heart rate exceeds the norm by no more than 5-6 beats per minute. If after eating the indicators are significantly increased, then you should immediately consult a doctor to undergo a thorough examination.

When tachycardia finds a teenager in a calm state, this is a sign of the possible presence of the following diseases:

1. thromboembolism,
2. abnormalities in the development of the cardiovascular system,
3. chronic kidney or liver disease,
4. hyperthyroidism,
5. anemia, etc.

105 heart beats when the norm is 80 at rest is a serious reason to send a teenager to a specialist. Against the background of impaired blood circulation, the child may experience dizziness, headache, shortness of breath or tremors in the limbs.

1. thromboembolism,
2. abnormalities in the development of the cardiovascular system,
3. chronic kidney or liver disease,
4. hyperthyroidism,
5. anemia, etc.

High pulse with normal blood pressure - reasons

Isolated cases of this combination of symptoms do not require medical attention. Specialist intervention will be needed if such a condition occurs spontaneously and frequently.

At normal pressure

An increase in heart rate by ¼ is called tachycardia . Its physiological variety arises under the influence of a number of external and internal environmental factors, including:

• nicotine, caffeine, alcohol;
• emotional overload;
• excess salt in food;
• relaxing baths;
• period;
• hunger;
• intimacy;
• consumption of hot foods and drinks;
• prolonged exposure to the cold or, conversely, in a hot and stuffy room;
• intensive training.

Factors that cause a pathological type of tachycardia to occur include:

• disruptions in the functioning of the nervous system;
• chronic anemia;
• poisoning by alcohol, drugs, medications;
• breathing disorders;
• heart and vascular diseases;
• anemia;
• tuberculosis;
• hypertension;
• pheochromocytoma;
• infection accompanied by fever;
• Itsenko-Cushing syndrome;
• thyrotoxicosis;
• bronchial asthma;
• heart valve insufficiency (aortic);
• cardioneurosis.

There are also many medications that provoke an increase in heart rate at normal blood pressure:

• Dinexan, Lidocaine and other drugs used for arrhythmia;
• Digoxin and other cardiac glycosides;
• Lasix, Diacarb (a group of diuretics);
• antidepressants: Elivel, Saroten;
• Naphthyzin, Tizin, which have vasoconstrictor properties;
• drugs, aphrodisiacs, hallucinogens.

The indicator is less than 60 beats/min. (bradycardia) is also a deviation from the norm. It may have a physiological nature, as a result of myocardial training (observed in athletes), hypothermia of the body, or the action of a genetic factor.

A low pulse of a pathological nature is a consequence of poor conduction or hypertrophy of the heart, or a heart attack. Bradycardia occurs after taking antagonists of calcium salts and beta blockers. A connection with a strict diet, infectious diseases, mineral metabolism disorders, hypothyroidism, intoxication with nicotine, lead and other heavy metals cannot be ruled out.

Symptomatic therapy, which gets rid of the symptom and not the cause of the disease, does not end with the patient’s recovery. A favorable prognosis awaits those who turn to specialists in a timely manner to make an accurate diagnosis and develop an adequate treatment regimen.

With high blood pressure

The combination of symptoms is characteristic of a number of conditions, including:

• pathologies of the coronary system;
• anemia;
• tumor processes;
• breathing pathologies.

Tachycardia in combination with hypertension increases wear and tear on the entire body.

With low blood pressure

Hypotension, accompanied by a high heart rate, is a compensatory reaction in response to oxygen deficiency in tissues and decreased blood circulation. This tandem may be associated with a person’s adaptation to temperature changes, with a reaction to antihypertensive drugs, and is observed in vegetative-vascular dystonia (VSD) of the hypotonic or mixed type.

The condition belongs to the category of vagoinsular crises. Accompanied by unexpected weakness up to fainting, darkening of the eyes, sharp noise in the ears, low blood pressure, pale skin, intense heartbeat, and cold sweat. A high pulse against the background of hypotension manifests itself in severe bleeding, shocks of a cardiogenic, infectious-toxic and anaphylactic nature. Typical during pregnancy, associated with the effect of the hormone progesterone. In expectant mothers, pumping the increased volume of blood requires increased work of the heart. Sometimes iron deficiency anemia becomes a provocateur.

When a high heart rate is combined with hypotension, patients “hear” the heart in different parts of the body, complain of ripples in the eyes, and dizziness. The field of vision pulsates, a lump appears in the throat, heaviness in the stomach, pain in the chest area. The person begins to panic, his limbs become cold, fear and anxiety prevent him from breathing. Such a clinical picture is a reason to reconsider the lifestyle, in which there should be no bad habits and stress, and a work-rest regime should be observed.

Video on the topic

Cardiologist about increased heart rate:

Heart rate is very important for monitoring the condition of the expectant mother. And it will be better if a woman learns to measure her pulse herself and keep the attending physician informed of its possible deviations.

The information on the MyMedNews.ru website is for reference and general information, collected from publicly available sources and cannot serve as a basis for making a decision on the use of medications in the course of treatment.

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Why is high heart rate dangerous?

A dangerous condition is considered to be one that is accompanied by irritability, fatigue, drowsiness, decreased performance, shortness of breath, unreasonable panic, and constant anxiety. Without timely and adequate treatment, it leads to hemodynamic disruptions in the body, violations of the integrity of blood vessels, and an increase in their permeability. As a result, the load on the myocardium increases.

Symptoms after which you need to sound the alarm:

• confusion, convulsions, fainting;
• Heart rate 150-200 beats/min;
• dyspnea;
• thirst;
• special weakness;
• excessive shocks in the sternum, a burning sensation;
• causeless attack of tachycardia.

The condition may result in ventricular fibrillation, heart attack, or cardiopathy. In such cases, any therapeutic measures are carried out under the supervision of a doctor to avoid complications.

Who to contact

The help of a vertebrologist will be needed if the pulse quickens in certain body positions. The condition is accompanied by a feeling of stiffness, pain in the cervical or thoracic spine. The doctor will prescribe treatment to relieve signs of osteochondrosis.

When an increased heart rate is combined with decreased potency, irregular menstrual cycle, and stool disorders, the cause is sought in the functioning of the thyroid gland. Contacting an endocrinologist will help answer the question “why is the pulse high at normal blood pressure?” The prescribed medications will ensure normalization of hormone levels in the blood and relief from unpleasant symptoms.

To eliminate insomnia, anxiety, irritability and other signs of neurotic conditions, you need to visit a psychotherapist.

Causes not related to pathologies

There are not many physiological factors for the development of tachycardia. But they exist and are detected in 30% of cases.

Among the stated reasons are:

• Use of certain drugs that have a hypertensive effect. Among them are Atropine, corticosteroids, including Prednisolone, Dexamethasone and others. Also, long-term use of diuretics, which, when used frequently, give the exact opposite effect.
• Unfavorable climatic factors. Particularly hot weather and stuffy air provokes a decrease in the concentration of oxygen in the blood and its thickening. Hence the need to more intensively pump hematological fluid throughout the body: otherwise hypoxia will occur. This is a well-thought-out mechanism, although dangerous for the person himself.
• Significant emotional stress. They are associated with the release of catecholamines and corticosteroid substances. Including cortisol. Both positive and negative emotions are equally dangerous. There is no big difference from a physiological point of view.
• Consumption of active substances with tonic properties: tea, coffee, energy drinks.
• Smoking. Causes generalized hemodynamic (blood flow) disturbances and stenosis (narrowing) of blood vessels. Tachycardia is often observed against the background of normal blood pressure or a slightly elevated level.

• Physical exercise. From minor ones, like climbing stairs, brisk walking, to significant ones, like working out in the gym. Everyone has their own norm for physical activity, their own limit.
• Substance use. First of all, alcoholic beverages (ethanol puts a lot of stress on the cardiovascular system). Especially narcotic drugs and their analogues. Cocaine is particularly active in this regard. It causes persistent and prolonged tachycardia, it is not controlled by classical drugs and is difficult to eliminate even in a hospital setting.

Physiological factors are limited to this. If the pressure is normal and the pulse is high, you also need to look at pathological causes, they are more likely and are diagnosed in 70% of cases.

First aid

If your increased heart rate is caused by stress, then first you need to drink water and try to calm down. After a quarter of an hour, measure your pulse using any of the possible methods and compare it with normal values ​​characteristic of a particular age.

If tachycardia does not go away, take the following actions:

• Wash with cool water.
• Take a deep breath, preferably fresh air.
• Perform a neck massage, working on multiple receptors in the area of ​​the carotid artery.
• Press on the eyes with your fingers for 20-30 seconds (Aschner's test).
• Lie face down on a flat surface for half an hour.
• Take a “mother hen” position, for which you need to strain yourself by squatting.
• Cough, induce vomiting, hold your breath, tense your abdominal muscles.

In more complex situations, you will have to resort to a number of drugs, such as:

• Valocordin;
• Validol;
• Corvalol;
• Magnesium B6 (tablets) and other sedatives for emotional control.

If the etiology of the condition is associated with iron deficiency anemia, it is necessary to include in the diet:

• spinach;
• apples;
• dried fruits;
• beans, nuts;
• liver;
• cereals, especially buckwheat;
• meat (chicken, beef).

Attacks of tachycardia will be less frequent when using traditional medicine . True, in emergency cases they are useless, but in all other cases they will have a mild therapeutic effect. Among the most popular compositions:

• A decoction of equal parts of oregano, St. John's wort, motherwort, valerian and mint. Take half an hour before meals. For the second option, you will need a mixture of dill seeds, hop cones and lemon balm.
• An infusion of calendula flowers and motherwort herbs for daily use or of hawthorn fruits, 20 drops 2-3 times a day.
• Green tea with milk to stabilize blood pressure and reduce heart rate.
• Honey (1 tbsp) for daily use. It can also be used to massage the base of the neck.
• Vitamin drink made from rose hips.

Blackcurrant berries, fresh or in any other form, are useful.

Tablets and drugs to lower heart rate

Important! Before you start taking medications to reduce frequency, you should definitely consult a specialist.

At home, the rhythm can be reduced with mild sedatives:

• valocordin;
• validol;
• Corvalol;
• tinctures of motherwort or valerian.

If your heart rate increases, you can take glycine.

A cardiologist will be able to select suitable tablets for regular use.

Tablets that stabilize frequency include:

• membrane-stabilizing synthetic drugs (Propafenone, Ethmozin, Lidocaine, Aymalin, Difenin and others);
• beta blockers (bisoprolol, metoprolol, anaprilin, concor, practolol and others);
• calcium channel and ion blockers (dofetilide, ibutilide, amiodarone and others);
• cardiac glycosides (digoxin, corklicon, celanide).

Before use, be sure to read the instructions for the drug! A pregnant woman should not take any medications; it is recommended to drink soothing herbal teas.

Preventive actions

To prevent tachycardia from causing overstrain of the heart and blood vessels, it is necessary to follow a number of rules and recommendations:

• Do not abuse alcohol and caffeine-containing drinks.
• Get enough sleep.
• Quit smoking.
• Limit the content of table salt, butter, canned food, smoked meats, flour, fried, fatty foods, as well as sweets and foods high in cholesterol. The pulse may increase if you overuse spices or spicy foods, which have a stimulating effect on the nervous system.
• Normalize weight.
• Include foods high in iron and potassium in your diet to strengthen your heart muscle.

And finally, solve dental problems in a timely manner, treat urethritis, cystitis, and colds.

Tachycardia does not forgive a frivolous attitude towards oneself. A high pulse is not an independent disease, but can play the role of a trigger for severe pathological conditions such as arrhythmic shock, cardiac asthma, and stroke. If there is a strong change in heart rate, you should immediately visit a cardiologist. Timely identification of the cause of the condition will help normalize heart rate and prevent early wear and tear of the heart.

Pathological causes of cardiac origin

More numerous and variable in character. Among the immediate pathologies that provoke the development of tachycardia are:

• Heart defects, both congenital and acquired. They are diverse in their manifestations and degree of danger. But, as a rule, pathology is eliminated only by surgical methods.

• Inflammatory diseases affecting the structures of the heart. Myocarditis, endocarditis and others.

They pose a colossal danger to life and health and can result in acute necrosis of anatomical structures or a sudden stop in the functioning of an organ with rapid death.

• Heart attack. Acute malnutrition of the myocardium with subsequent death of organ tissue. This is an extremely dangerous condition.

Even if help is provided in a timely manner, a person risks becoming disabled: functional muscle tissue is replaced by scar tissue that is not capable of contraction (post-infarction cardiosclerosis).

Hence, a decrease in the efficiency of the heart muscle, circulatory disorders of all organs and tissues, heart failure and the possibility of “going to the second round” with the development of a second heart attack. Lethal this time.

• Chronic congestive heart failure. Disease of old age. Is it always like this? No. In recent years, there has been a tendency towards rejuvenation of the pathological process.

Its essence lies in the development of a decrease in cardiac output. This ends in acute ischemia or, in other words, infarction. Without proper treatment, it's a matter of time.