Posted 6/8/2018 9:26 AM (GMT 0)
(Not sure if this would be more appropriate for the heart disease forum, but this place is a lot more active)
Hi, I'm a 24yr male. I have no past health issues that I know of, though I've certainly convinced myself otherwise in the past. For example, I posted on this site back in 2016 because I thought I was getting a brain tumor. So, needless to say, I'm pretty prone to health anxiety. In the last week, I've started monitoring my pulse frequently. No particular reason nor any symptoms that caused this, I just kind of randomly began worrying that I wasn't paying enough attention and my heart may be having problems I wasn't noticing. Anyway, I've noticed some trends that I'm finding unusual and would like to run it by with people here. I'm not in panic mode over this, but history suggests that this could snowball into that with time. I'll just ask about two things in this post.
1. When I'm resting, usually shortly before bed or in the morning before I've really started the day, I notice my resting heart rate is often in the low 60s. And I imagine it gets lower when I'm not taking my pulse and likely raising my anxiety. I know the average range is 60-100 bpm, but I don't feel like I should be teetering at the bottom of the range, possibly going below. This is because I'm really not fit at all. I have a pretty poor diet, and while I don't think I'm notably inactive, I don't really exercise (something I hope to change soon). So my mind determines that it can't be this low because my heart's particularly strong, so it has to be some problem. I don't have major symptoms accompanying this, though I know I've had some mornings in the past where I've woken up with a sense that I haven't been breathing enough. Not sure if that's related. Additionally, I have no problem getting my heart rate up and it usually stays up pretty high throughout the day assuming I'm not just laying around. In fact, this sort of plays into my next issue.
2. When my heart rate is on the lower end, usually 60s or 70s, it feels like it's way too easy to change my heart rate. If I try to take my pulse, it feels like it's often speeding up and then slowing down. Checking my hr repeatedly may make me nervous and anxious, which could be playing into this, but should my hr really be THIS easy to influence. I also find that rather small movements will send my heart rate up a considerable amount, though it's usually quick to go back down. For example: Tonight while lying in bed my hr was in the 60s. I was using an app on my phone to check my hr. I turned over in my bed, and suddenly it was reading my hr in the 90s, even up to 100 briefly, and notifying me of arrhythmia likely due to how quickly the rate had changed. I didn't feel like it took any notable effort to turn over, so this seems like a bit much. For someone who's pretty out of shape, is this something that is otherwise worrisome?
That's all I'll ask for now. Sorry for the long post. I've checked plenty of other topics, but many of those had more extreme symptoms and it was hard to pin down something akin to what I'm experiencing. I'm probably on the path to convincing myself that I'm having atrial fibrillation or something, and while that's not immediately harmful on its own, I'd be further convinced that it would be caused by some heart disease. Any insight would be appreciated.