The Student Room Group

Heart troubles

First off, I have been to the doctors about this, twice. I think it's a problem but I'm having trouble getting through to the doctor at uni.

My resting heartrate is pretty high, when I'm sitting it's somewhere between 90-110 usually. I'm 22, not overweight and i was going to the gym a few times a week until this started to scare me. When I was on the bike, or going on the crosstrainer my heartrate would reach 200 without me even trying very hard. After a few months of this not improving (I thought it was just because I was really unfit or something) I went to the doctor, who told me not to exercise so much. I tried to tell her that I wasn't going flat out, I was going slower than anyone else there but she didn't listen.

This week I bought a heartrate watch monitor thingy and have spent a couple of days seeing what it's like throughout the day. So yeah, I'm usually about 95bpm when sitting watching tv, if i'm just walking through the house it's about 120 and if I go up the stairs it's 160. My housemates thought the watch was faulty until they both checked my heartrate themselves and now they say I should go to the doctor again asap.
I told my mum all this and she told me that a lot of my dad's side of the family have had heart problems, my dad included who died of a heartattack at 42. So now I'm really worried but I get really stressed going to the doctor about this and pretty much being told I'm fine because my resting heartrate's under 100. When I went to my doctor at home they told me it was my asthma pump, but I haven't taken that for weeks to see if it made any difference and it hasn't.
So should I keep pushing at the doctors or am I just being silly?
Reply 1
Average heart rates can be between 60-100 and above 100 can lead to the medical diagnosis of a problem. So it sounds like you're borderline...try going to a different doctor, telling them about your concerns and family history, and hopefully they'll give you more information. In the meantime try not to think about it too much, because anxiety will naturally increase your heart rate!
Reply 2
Its probably not an issue, mine was a resting heartrate of 120-140 for a while after i had a motorbike accident and there was nothing wrong with my heart - and no damage done. Its now down to about 60-80. Firstly, if you can't get through to the doctor it might help to know the term, its called tachycardia (tacky-cardia if you're wondering how to say it). If i were you i'd go back and tell him you're experiencing this and ask to have an ECG - it'll be able to tell if theres anything wrong with the rhythm of your heart. But, most of all, don't worry, a fast heart-rate does not imply your heart is damaged or that there is anything wrong with it.

I would suggest that its down to fitness, but if you're quite fit then that may not be the case. When i had the high resting heartrate any exercise would send it into the 190+ range, after doing more cardio work it now doesn't go above 170ish, even when i'm caning it.
Reply 3
Get it checked out. I collapsed at work the other week and have been told it's likely to be down to a heart murmur and irregular heart beat, which were only discovered during tests when the doctors realised my heart was going at 150bpm at times!