Is High Heartrate Dangerous?

[HopeSprings]

I'm sure this has been asked before. Does anyone know if it's dangerous (or damaging) at all to have these high heartrates everyday? I haven't done anything to address this symptom (other than as much avoidance as possible) because I'm still looking for a real diagnosis and the right medication. But in the meantime... is it ok to let this go on?

[lieze]

My feeling has been that I didn't want to for instance work when it caused my heart to race the entire time. I guess I had the luxury to make that choice.

The intermittent around the house stuff or periodic elevated rates during the day really don't worry me too much.

One sign might be how symptomatic are you?

If you feel okay I wouldn't worry too much just

take lots of breaks and let your heart rate come back to normal or resting periodically for rest periods throughout the day.

At one point when mine were fairly high and I was symptomatic I made a goal to be up and doing for about 20 minutes out of the hour.

I think I would do at least 3 rounds of that and then based on how I felt either give up and just rest or be up as desired depending on how the day went.

[surfgirl14]

That is a good question, and I always wondered this. I asked my cardiologist, and he said that it is not dangerous. He said POTS will not kill you so therefore you heart rate being high is not dangerous. He said that us potsies dont have a heart problem so it is not something to worrry about. However i have a hard time believing that. Sometimes it gets sooo high that I have passed out becuz of it. I am not really sure i believe him about it. I am planning on asking my other cardiologist at Duke Childrens the same question. I can let you know. Wish you the best.

[lieze]

When you think of conditions of the heart where people have SVT's or afibb I have heard time and time again it's not dangerous and in most cases people convert on their own. I was ranging between 170-190 and it was so frightening it felt like my heart was just going to stop.

People have these conditions and live with them.

My ablation was effective in eliminating my SVT's but I was told they could come back.

[lgtaylor100]

I was told that it was not dangerous unless the heart rate went to 150 and stayed there.

[kayjay]

High heart rates are not dangerous if they come down. I found out when I was in the hospital that even brushing my teeth my hr was over 170. Over time your heart can become enlarged from working too hard. even after at least 13 years of this ( I think maybe even since I was a teen) my heart is healthy. It will beat too hard and lots of "skippy beats" but it usually is low when I am laying down ( adrenal surges aside lol). Generally speaking the younger you are, the more your heart can tolerate fast beats.

[MomtoGiuliana]

From what I understand sustained tachycardia (eg 120 bpm) could be damaging over a long period of time, which is why for example hyperthyroidism is a problem and should be treated. But most POTS patients have variable heart rate, eg when we sleep, lie down, etc we do not have tachycardia.

[sandymbme]

I too, have been told not to worry about the high heart rate. And I too, am a bit skeptical. I don't see how they can really say one way or another, given that long-term data on POTSies is relatively limited. It just has not been studied (relatively speaking) very long. Most of the data goes back, at the most, 20 years. Looking at my family tree, it seems people either drop dead really young, (under 50) or live into their late 90's. So I haven't a clue!

Sandy