Jump to content

Why Does My Heart Rate Go Up So Hi When I Inhale? Is It A Normal Vasovagal Response?


RichGotsPots

Recommended Posts

An increase in heart rate upon inhalation and decrease in heart rate upon exhalation is known as a respiratory sinus arrythmia and is completley normal. It is actually a sign that your cardiovagal reflex is functioning normally.

If you ever had formal autonomic testing and you had to take a series of slow deep breaths, this is what they were testing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes to all that flyingsquirrel said. My POTS neuro has specifically talked to me about making sure I do not allow my breathing to increase when I start feeling pre-syncopal because it will actually make the tachy worse and becomes a vicious cycle. He said people starting to hyperventilate during pre-syncopal episodes often is the thing that pushes them over the edge and makes them pass out. I told him I do practice meditative breathing when I have pre-syncopal episodes and he said that was great. He quoted a study from a couple of years ago that showed that patients with congestive heart failure were able to stop the progression of and in some cases reverse the damage done to the heart by using meditative breathing. They hypothesized that this was due to reducing the strain on the heart muscle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to barge into this thread like this, but I'm so excited that you brought this up. I've been looking for information on this for years, but I can't find anything to really tell me what it means. My respiratory sinus arrhythmia is reversed. My heart slows down when I inhale and speeds up when I exhale; I remember one of my docs telling me that when I was 14. He was kind of surprised no one had mentioned it to me before and when I started to pay attention to it, so was I. It's really, really obvious.

So, anyone have any info on it? :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

II get that from rolling over in bed, swallowing and other basic things. Mine is IST - inappropriate sinus tachycardia excessive increas in HR with movement. Not sure it's vasovagal, though it is autonomic. 10 bpm sounds minor especially if it comes back down when you exhale. Mine is more like 30 bpm, but since it settles back down I was told not to be concerned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, everyone. I do this, as well. Yogini, you said you get this from rolling over in bed. I do, as well, and then I get all sorts of symptoms, namely a feeling of heat and sweating. Does anyone else sweat and get a feeling of heat just from rolling over, and possibly have all these other symptoms, too?

Lindajoy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi all,

a cardiologist I saw told me this is absolutely normal, particularly for young(er) people. Our hr is supposed to fluctuate slightly while breathing, yawning, swallowing etc.

I don't know what the correct medical terminology is, but I've been told it is completely normal.

Alex

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An increase in heart rate upon inhalation and decrease in heart rate upon exhalation is known as a respiratory sinus arrythmia and is completley normal. It is actually a sign that your cardiovagal reflex is functioning normally.

If you ever had formal autonomic testing and you had to take a series of slow deep breaths, this is what they were testing.

Thanks! I've always wondered why they had me do that during my TTT at Mayo... Now I know! I guess my body responded correctly, just a little overactive, because the woman doing the test said "My your days must suck." while watching my hr.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What does an abnormal heart rate response to deep breathing mean? That your heart rate goes down? Or that it doesn't move much?

A depressed/absent cardiovagal reflex would mean that your heart rate does not change (much) with deep breathing. This can be present if the parasympathetic side of your autonomic nervous system is depressed.

This is one of the problems I have (parasympathetic depression) and I always had minimial heart rate variability. Since I have started taking pyridostigmine (a parasympathomimetic), my heart rate variability has increased tremendously and I have actually developed a healthy respiratory sinus arrythmia.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I enjoyed reading this thread. I am familiar with the heart rate variablity being a healthy thing, mine is excessive, 30 bpm increase or more sometimes, and other times is at an appropriate level. My nurse in the er a while back, looked at me funny from moving my arm from over my head to my side, and in response my hr jumped from 90 to 130. I am correct to assume that this is possiably sympathetic overdrive causing this. I also have a qeustion that seems to related to hrv that is quite irritating. When I stimulate the hrv sometimes (not always) it seems to also increase the force of caridac output. Meaning, if I sneeze or have a coughing fit, sometimes my heart rate increases and I feel forceful beats, when this occurs it takes quite a long time to not "feel" my heart pounding even if the rate has returned to normal, at these times I will get several pvc's. Then there are times hrv increases with stimulation and does not feel forceful at all just quick. Is this at all related to the same mechanism or just another factor possiably involved? I also notice sometimes hrv and force are directly related and worsened by have a full stomach, even a small meal. Thanks for any feedback you can give, just trying to learn lol =)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So nice to hear a few others have the hot flash/ heat thing....usually no sweating for me, just blazing heat when turning over, waking up, and a few seconds after I first lay down. It's like my body can't handle the smallest changes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...