What Causes High Heart Rate When Diagnosed With Anxiety Disorder?

Posted on Mon, 8 Aug 2016

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

Mon, 8 Aug 2016 Answered on

Thu, 25 Aug 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : I am a 52 yr old woman preparing for bariatric surgery. . I have been cleared by a cardiologist for the surgery. She had me wear a heart holster for 24 hours and said my resting pulse averages about to 90. I do have an anxiety disorder and it does go higher than that, usually in the hospital setting or the doctor's office. This number is not unusual for me, as I remember it being in the 90s when I was in my early 20s. I do ride an exercise bike once a day. I don't smoke or drink alcohol.

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
I would explain as follows:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome and thank you for asking on HCM!

Your basal heart rate is a little high. This could be related to anxiety or thyroid dysfunction. But it may also be just physiological heart rhythm.

I recommend performing some tests:

- complete blood count for chronic anemia
- thyroid hormone levels for possible thyroid dysfunction
- blood electrolytes for possible imbalance.

If all the above tests result normal, you have nothing to worry about.

The ambulatory 24 hours ECG monitoring has excluded possible cardiac arrhythmia.

There is no contraindication to the surgery.

So there is nothing to worry about.

Hope you will find this answer helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr. Iliri

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar