180 Reading From Pulse Rate Watch

[Godsgal]

I have a Sportline watch just a few weeks old and it seems to work correctly most of the time. I have noticed some strange readings and was curious if anyone else had problems with their pulse rate watches. Today I was out and my heart rate was jumping around from 70's to 110's to 60's to 90's and I was just sitting in my wheelchair. I wasn't feeling well and tried to ignore it. The watch then showed me my heart rate was 180. I took my bp and it was 130/105 (which is high for me). I usually run 100 to 120 over 60-85. I got this all over hot pins and needles type feeling almost like I had a surge of adrenaline from the anxiety I felt when I saw 180.

Later, I saw 180 again on it and my heart didn't seem to be going very fast.

Questions:

So has anyone experienced their heart rate watches having problems?

And my heart rate has been in the 150's before and my heart felt like it was racing and very uncomfortable. I'm wondering if it could be 180 and me not feel like it was going that fast.

Does anyone get the all over hot pins/needles rush type feeling when they get nervous all of a sudden?

THANKS for responding!

[lieze]

My husband's polar watch was how we detected I was having SVT's and I didn't always feel them unless I went onto a run of SVT's.

But I would get a blip up to anywhere around 170-190 just out of the blue.

I didn't usually get anxiety with them unless they lasted for a while.

I was told they are totally harmless.

My husband was able to hook his watch up to his computer and it showed what my heart was doing.

I then wore an event monitor that did show my SVT's.

If you are feeling bad and you are sitting or standing try to sit or lie down and get your feet up and take the load off your heart.

You should be able to somewhat recover within a 15-20 minute time period?

With what you are seeing I wouldn't really push it.

When your body is fatigued rest-when it is ready for more activity try to do a little.

I usually see better tolerance in the evenings for some reason.

This is just what has worked for me-you'll just have to figure out your own strategy based on your own comfort level.

[yuliya]

unfortunately those type of watches aren't as accurate as they lead us to believe they are. If you didn't pay at least $1000 for a medical grade monitor, most likely its not going to be that accurate. This is the main reason that keeps me from spending $200 for one of those types of heart rate watches.

[Brye]

Mine reads double time at the airport. I checked my pulse when it was showing 170 and it wasn't!

Brye

[roxie]

Hey godsgal! ?I got a sportline monitor last summer & noticed the same thing happening to me. Out of the blue it's shoot up to over 200. Really really scared me. Im going to guess that once you got scared seeing your hr it made your Bp go up?

As lieze said it's probably SVT. ?There's a lot of extenuating circumstances for me right now but I am going to go to a cardio to have it looked at it be safe.?

Anyways, SVT is a common thing in POTS patients as seen in this article

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1501099/

It talks about getting it checked out just to make sure it is nothing more serious but most of the time it's only SVT & more of an annoyance than anything else.

I also have a problem where it'll all of a sudden go blank. Like I get those lines when it's trying to read, so I think I also get irregular beats too.?