Elevated Heart Rate Hours After Walking?
 

Hi Everyone. Thanks again for the valuable information that everyone provides. A concussion is definitely one of, if not the toughest thing I have had to endure in my life and this forum at least provides me with a little relief.

I am two months into my recovery after getting hit by an errant tee shot on the golf course. Doctor diagnosed me with PCS because of lingering issues with nausea, headaches, fatigue, etc.

I am curious if anyone else has had this happen to them? I have begun taking small walks and am up to 1/2 hour of walking. I noticed on the evenings I walked I was not able to sleep well, if at all.

I took an afternoon walk yesterday and wore my heart rate monitor, max heart rate was 106. I noticed that my heart rate remained elevated in the 80's for four hours after the walk (I was even resting). I know this is still in the normal 60-100bpm range but this is not normal for me.

My normal resting heart rate, even post accident, is in the low 60's.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is a visit to the cardiologist in order?

Thanks so much and I hope everyone finds peace and health.

Hi kjt1,

I too have had heartrate issues since my concussion (I am 10 months pcs). My normal resting hr is around 70, but I have had times where it has been in the 90s and even 100-110 at rest. Needless to say it concerned me that I felt as though my heart was going to jump out of my chest.

This happened a lot during the first few months, and has occurred on occasion since. However, unlike you, mine was not exercise induced, it just happened at random times. I personally ended up seeing a cardiologist and having an ekg, ultrasound & holter monitor, all with normal results.

I still to this day am baffled by the whole thing. I am glad I got it checked out, if just for peace of mind.

Keep us posted, sending well wishes your way! :)P

Although i am no concussion expert, i am a nurse and would ask if with this increase in HR, did you have palpitations? Where you in pain? Were you well hydrated? Temperature? HR is affected by a lot of different factors and you can see HR increases with pain, dehydration, increase in temperature and even anxiety. If you had an irregular beat or palpitations, i would say that might warrant a conversation with your doctor. I also normally rest around 56-62 and notice that my resting HR during headaches will increase to 80's or 90s. I wouldnt be too worried about it. Im sure before your concussion you were a lot more active which would bring your HR lower while resting and assuming now you are not working out or doing strenuous activities as frequently since your concussion so your resting HR may increase slightly. Hope this helps

Just wanted to chime in that I have had a similar issue with heart rate (not exactly the same). For some reason, my normal at rest heart rate is 80bpm, but when I am standing it shoots up to 100. My neuro discovered this as I pressured him into figuring out why I get extremely dizzy when standing but not when sitting or lying down.

This did kind of worry me that it went up 20 points just from sitting to standing... I know it's still in the range but I was a bit concerned as well as that doesn't seem like it would be something that is normal. I'm not a doctor by any means, but i find it strange that it goes up that high and I also have dizziness when standing...

jingles....have you had your blood pressure taken when you are sitting and then immediately after you stand?? There is a phenomenon called Orthostatic Hypotension. It is where your blood pressure drops when you change positions from sitting to standing. And to compensate, when your blood pressure drops, your heart works just a little bit harder to continue to pump the same volume of blood as it did before so it increases to make up the difference. Try having your doctor do "orthostatics"...he will know what that is. It could explain the increase in HR trying to compensate for a lower blood pressure.

My neurologist did something like that. He didn't say anything about lower blood pressure, but he did note that my heart rate changed when I stood after being in a resting position. Sadly, the neurologist wasn't one that seemed to care about me or anything I was going through so he belittled the change and said it was no big deal... thankfully my primary is different and I'm going to see him on Monday. So hopefully he'll be able to determine if there's something with it. Sadly, I don't know if it was something that happened before, and I am just now sensitive to it, but if it's adding to it, I definitely would like to try and do something about it.

Thanks, for the advice!