Is Your Hr Constant Or Changing If Lying Or Standing In Place?

[POTLUCK]

I was using a BP cuff to measure and it seemed my HR was rather constant but now using finger pulse meter it seems to bounce up and down a lot. Like lying HR can be 70, rise up to 85, go back down part way etc. with no clear pattern so I cannot really say what my HR is.

Does the same thing standing. Tonight standing (I am being treated on B-blocker -Propranolol low dose as always) was 102, numbers dropped to 95, then rise again to 109 and drop down again. I cannot really even say what my rates are as they are changing moment to moment.

Is this the way other POTS patients measure on a finger meter. I mean if I have written a range here on the web site or to tell my doctor, for my HR I usually meant on different dates and times, measuring my HR. Moving while you watch it, especially while lying down is new to me.

Years back when I had tilt test, off all meds, I remember my HR was bouncing (i.e. it would go way up-as high as 156 I believe, and then down and then back up, probably in about a minutes time. It just continued this bouncing, while tilted upright.

Are any of these things normal for POTS patients? It is frustrating because the articles I read on POTS talk of averages etc. but not what a real patient looks like in front of you.

Another weird thing-normally my lying and standing HR are high, but I have these rare nights where they will drop down to below normal ( or maybe that is normal, but for example a drop to 61 that stayed there for several minutes between 61-63, before going back up. This is on low dose propranolol but without recent dose change etc.)

[rgny]

My understanding is that to be diagnostic for POTS, your heart rate has to increase more than 30 beats per minute within five minutes of standing from a supine position. I don't think minute to minute variances in your heart rate, which even healthy people experience, is as crucial. When I keep records for my cardio, which I'm doing right now, he is most concerned with what my pulse and b/p are like when I am lying down and what happens to it when I stand. At night, my pulse rate when supine is around 55-70 and it bounces up to 110 within seconds of standing up. I don't measure my heart rate at other times because I would drive myself crazy.

[Potsy420]

Yeah, my HR changes rapidly with my breathing. You can always average it out, but like rgny said, if you get a 30+ bpm increase in HR within a few minutes of standing up (10 minutes I think), you qualify for POTS. Some doctors may want a sustained increase, but with the HR changing constantly, they might average it out? I dunno, maybe others can clarify. On my TTT my supine HR was 70s-80s range with a standing HR of up to 150 bpm with it going up and down, but still being sustained at 30+ bpm difference in HR from supine to standing position.

[Goschi]

According to frequent measuring, my HR can both be constant or changing quite a lot, being in the same posture.

However, in almost every occasion I quality for POTS with a rather fast increase of 30bpm or more from lying to standing.

But recently I started to measure less often, as I understood (as so many here do!!) that my HR does actually not relate at all how I feel in general.

Since 1 month I take Bystolic (betablocker) and my HR is generally lower than before, and even the rise when getting upright is less (before 50-60bpm, now "only" 30-35bpm).

When I first realised that, I was very happy! Frustration kicked in when I understood that despite this "success", I can't do more physically in every day life.

Thus, I am changing my "paradigm" right now and ask my docs not to concentrate on the HR at all, but to think about any measures that can give me more life quality - even, if the price would be a higher HR!

[Potsy420]

According to frequent measuring, my HR can both be constant or changing quite a lot, being in the same posture.

However, in almost every occasion I quality for POTS with a rather fast increase of 30bpm or more from lying to standing.

But recently I started to measure less often, as I understood (as so many here do!!) that my HR does actually not relate at all how I feel in general.

Since 1 month I take Bystolic (betablocker) and my HR is generally lower than before, and even the rise when getting upright is less (before 50-60bpm, now "only" 30-35bpm).

When I first realised that, I was very happy! Frustration kicked in when I understood that despite this "success", I can't do more physically in every day life.

Thus, I am changing my "paradigm" right now and ask my docs not to concentrate on the HR at all, but to think about any measures that can give me more life quality - even, if the price would be a higher HR!

^This...

I have the same problem of feeling sick, even when my HR is in the 60-100 bpm range.