#28-TACHYCARDIA
Maximum 100 beats per minute
Hey everyone!
I thought I was the only one with tachycardia, and I realize that many people face this problem, either because they have pericarditis or because they have long covid or another disease.
1/ TACHYCARDIA, BRADYCARDIA AND EXTRASYSTOLES
Tachycardia is a heart rate that is too fast in relation to the effort produced. A normal resting rate is between 60 and 80 beats per minute. Bradycardia is a heart rate that is too slow, below 50 beats per minute. I will come back there too.
I never felt like I was taken seriously by doctors about my issues with keeping my heart at a decent rate, and there isn't a huge amount of information out there about it.
Needless to say, advice like “Breathe calmly and de-stress! " are useless…
When you have pericarditis, having tachycardia is both exhausting and painful. If in addition, like me, the tachycardia combines with extrasystoles (the main symptom is the feeling that a heartbeat is missing), then we can say that you have earned your ticket to hell in terms of cardiac pain.
2/ BETA BLOCKER
I am not a doctor, so I can only speak from my personal experience. At first, my heartbeat was going up between 140 and 160 even at rest, and my blood pressure was way too high. The only way to bring them down was to take a beta-blocker called Isoten Minor, 2.5 mg bisoprolol fumarate per tablet, only obtained on prescription from a doctor. From what I understand, people who take this beta blocker are usually on 10 mg. I have never exceeded the dose of 2.5 mg per day, a single dose in the morning with breakfast so that it acts during the day (when I am more active - I specify this because some live at night) because the effect wears off over 24 hours. It takes several days to stabilize this kind of drug, so I applied the 21-day rule. You have to persevere without panicking and, in general, the effects stabilize already after about ten days.
The goal for me was to stop the tachycardia, but also to keep my heart rate below 100 beats per minute, which is recommended by the Cleveland Clinic specializing in pericarditis. As long as it hurts, it's pericarditis, and you absolutely have to stay below 100 beats per minute.
After several months, the 2.5 mg tablet became too strong for me. The symptoms that showed up were blood pressure drops during the day and bradycardia at night when my heart was beating at less than 50 beats per minute. I always have my oximeter with me to check my heartbeats. At night, it sits next to my pillow and all I have to do is reach out to control my heart rate. Because of course, if I get up to get it, my heart rate goes up and the result is distorted. Below 50 beats per minute, my body wakes up my brain. It's as if he were saying something like, "Wake up, buddy, you're dying!" »
In summary, weakness during the day (too little tension), insomnia (bradycardia), and regular monitoring of my heart rate with my oximeter led me to reduce the dose of beta-blocker by half, i.e. 1.25 mg. After a period of adaptation (the 21 days with variations in heart rhythms and blood pressure), I kept this dosage for about 6 to 8 months, until the bradycardia and blood pressure drops returned. I then cut the tablets into 4, i.e. a mini-dose of 0.625 mg (= 2.5 mg cut in 4). It took a friend telling me that you can buy pill cutters at the drugstore for me to start cutting my pills perfectly. It is a small plastic case with a very sharp razor blade to use with care.
I don't hide from you that the doctors really thought I was nuts because they had never seen that before. But they didn't stop me from doing it either, and it worked for over a year. Until, again, bradycardia and drop in blood pressure lead me to change my tune...
3/ PLANTS
For 2 years now, I had to stop beta blockers. I take a food supplement in capsule form (garlic-mistletoe-hawthorn from Lepivits). You can take up to 6 capsules per day. For 6 months, I took one in the morning and one at noon. I only take one in the morning. So far below the authorized limit.
I add hawthorn tea in the morning, and chamomile tea in the evening (Salus is my favorite brand or in bulk, but no blend for me).
I had to stop coffee (which I love to drink in the morning to wake me up) and anything that contains caffeine or theine because it increases pain and causes tachycardia (see my article No Coffee Please).
It has become more difficult to stay below 100 beats per minute since I stopped beta blockers, but I no longer have tachycardia and my blood pressure remains normal. I can't do sports, except calm walking (30 minutes a day) and yoga.
4/ CO-ENZYME Q10
Another very useful dietary supplement is Co-enzyme Q10. It seems that the Japanese take it systematically for heart problems and I don't know why it is so little known in the West. You can test it in blood. I take a ubiquinol supplement (BioActive Q10 Ubiquinol from Pharma Nord in 100 mg and 50 mg). There are 2 kinds of Co-Q10, ubiquinol and ubiquinone. Be careful to take the right one, ubiquinol. It's a bit expensive, but very effective in my case to stop extrasystoles (the main symptom is the feeling that a heartbeat is missing and you can see a variation on the oximeter trace). At first, I took 100 mg in the morning + 100 mg at noon. Now, considering my weight, I have reduced to 100 mg morning + 50 mg noon. All I can say is that the extrasystoles come back if I go down to 100 mg a day.
I started with ubiquinone (a misdirection by my doctor, haha!). It made me sick because it is very poorly absorbed by my body. So don't throw money down the toilet!
I started the ubiquinol increasing in 50 mg increments. Always take the time to accustom your body gradually.
I hope my experience shows you that it is possible to control tachycardia and extrasystoles. Always ask your doctor for advice. One case is not the other and he will be better able to advise you.
TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.
Pericordially yours,
Vali
