When should a person be concerned...

[Zhaylin]

about their heart rate? Two nights ago, I was trying to sleep. I was terribly sick with the flu and my pulse was pounding so hard I could feel it throughout my body. I was curious about the rate, so I sat up, grabbed my blood pressure cuff and I was shocked when it said my pulse was 131. My bp was only 112/88 though which isn't bad. I was running a temp of almost 102 that night. Maybe it was that fast because I was sick? Now everything is normal at 126/89 with a resting pulse of 82 (which sadly is "low" for me). I have ALWAYS had a faster than usual pulse. I noticed something interesting while I was my sickest. I was having almost constant "adrenaline surges"- something I associate with anxiety attacks. I wonder if my pulse becomes more elevated during such attacks which lead to the adrenaline rushes? I'm going to have to pay more attention and see... but because I become "cataplexic" during the worst of the attacks, I always assumed everything slowed down greatly. Hmmmm...

[Baron Samedi]

You need to bring your resting heart rate down. You are really stressed out. Exercise, and learning good breathing control will help. When you have anxiety, it gives you adrenaline, because your body is ready to run or attack, which increases heart rate in anticipation. 131 bpm is scary. I might've went to the hospital.

[grasshoppa]

82 isn't bad for a resting heart rate. Your blood pressure seems to get low, but otherwise seems pretty good. Sickness will increase your heart rate. It's actually a good thing because it makes your body hotter, which helps you get rid of what is making you sick even though it doesn't feel good. 131bpm isn't much for an excited/anxious state. My heart rate can spike up to 150+ during an anxiety attack. HRmax = 220 − age So your max heart rate is 185. No need to be worried.

[Dannon Oneironaut]

I have dealt with some serious anxiety attacks that I was suffering from and curiously it was lucid dreaming, specifically the WILD technique that helped me conquer it. Plus I started taking ionic fizz Magnesium powder in my drinks. What I found out is that increased heart rate, palpitations, anxiety and adrenaline rushes are symptoms of a Magnesium deficiency. The way the WILD technique helped me is this: As I was doing my deep relaxation and progressing through sleep paralysis I would get the racing heart and palpitations and the anxiety and a fear of maybe I was dying. But this time I was educated on anxiety and I knew I wasn't dying. I said "Go ahead, heart, skip, race if you must, I will not react, I will keep my mind and my breathing calm. Presently my heart skipped and instead of doing which I normally did, which was tense up and catch my breath in an attempt to jumpstart my heart, I stayed relaxed and let my heart know that i trusted it to do its job. With this I immediately found myself in REM and lucidly dreaming. I realized that my anxiety and fear of dying was actually keeping me from an experiencing expanded consciousness of the dreamspace outside of bodyspace, which mught be the same space as after death. Fevers are an interesting opportunity for experiencing altered states of consciousness, and a rich dream experience. When the body is weak, and with a fever, the kundalini energy can rise easier. Many spiritual seekers go without food for many days, as many as 40 days, in order to weaken the body and let the bodies grip on consciousness loosen.

[Dannon Oneironaut]

Grasshoppa, You are not in WNC, are you?

[grasshoppa]

Wnc?

[Dannon Oneironaut]

Wnc? Nevermind.

[grasshoppa]

Nevermind. I hate when people do this...

[Dannon Oneironaut]

Ha Ha, sorry! I just saw the Hail Eris! and the 23 Skidoo! (What ya gotta be? I gotta be me!) and since both those things are popular round here in WNC I thought you might be a neighbor. Think NC and then add the W.

[Dannon Oneironaut]

But, sorry, back to the topic of the thread. Any luck on the ol' ticker and anxiety?

[Zhaylin]

Thanks for all the replies. I've had anxiety problems "forever" and I KNOW I'm not dying or having a heart attack. Meds have been invaluable to me because if my anxiety becomes too severe I "pass out" (no change in my breathing and I would know what was going on). I despise my anxiety unmedicated. It never made sense to me. I would will them to happen while awake so I could try to control them better- with no success at all. I've had extensive blood work done and no deficiencies were discovered, but I'll try magnesium anyhow. At least IT makes sense lol. My pulse has always been high. Even when I was my most active, it would shoot up to 130 just walking down the halls in Middle School (but I was anxious and just didn't know it at the time, so *shrug*) My high pulse was always written off by doctors as a side effect from my Ehlers Danlos Disease. Thanks Grasshoppa for doing the math. And When my pulse reaches 150 during exercise, I feel physical pain. I can't imagine it spiking that high. My resting pulse is normally in the 90's. 130 is my walking around rate. I was concerned the other night because 130 was my resting rate. But I guess it was from being sick.

[grasshoppa]

I just looked into Ehlers Danlos Disease. That seems really weird, I don't understand how it affects heart rate though...It just seems like double-jointedness and extreme flexibility?

[Zhaylin]

Yeah. That's basically it with me. But when I was a kid EDS was just starting to be better known. A lot of it was guess-work IMHO. I have unmistakable Type 3 (hypermobility) but because both my bio-dad and his mom had brain aneurisms (sp!!), Vascular Type is a possibility.