Suggest Treatment For Persistent Fast Heart Rate

Posted on Sun, 12 Feb 2017

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 12 Feb 2017 Answered on

Thu, 2 Mar 2017 Last reviewed on

Question : I have been waking up with a fast heart rate for the last few weeks. At 6 hours sleep... If i go to sleep at 10, i'm up at 4am. Its hard to go back to sleep because my heart rate seems up and i'm wired for sound. If i have a bath and relax for an hour, I can sometimes go back to sleep. Whats troubling me now is that I have a bit of sensitivity to coffee. My heart feels racie after even a few sips of coffee.

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (27 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
I would recommend as follows:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome on HCM!

Regarding your concern I would explain that your symptoms seem to be related to anxiety.

Nevertheless, I would recommend performing some tests to exclude other possible causes:

- an ambulatory 24-48 hours ECG monitoring to exact your heart rhythm trends during the night and exclude possible arrhythmia
- complete blood count for anemia
- thyroid hormone levels for possible thyroid dysfunction
- blood electrolytes for possible imbalance.

If these tests result normal, you should consider anxiety as the main cause of your troubles.

I would also recommend avoiding caffeine intake which can exacerbate this situation.

Hope to have been helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr.Iliri

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad