Diabetes and Tachycardia?

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Austin_98

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[sorry for starting multiple threads today]

My heart rate has always been on the low side of normal, like low-to-mid 60s.
My dad used to have high blood pressure and my niece (6) just discovered it and loves to take all our readings (she wants to be a doctor or nurse) and my blood pressure was fine but in two reading, once today and one two days ago, I got 97 and 101 for my heart rate, which is not normal for me.
Hypo's definitely make it worse as my BG was 2.6 last night and my heart rate was in the 160s (I was genuinely worried about cardiac arrest it was so hard and fast).
I can feel my heart all the time now. I'm currently sitting at rest, been sitting down for a while, not anxious, BG normal (6.2), no caffeine or anything and I checked again because it's going crazy and it's currently 140bpm.
Could diabetes cause this to suddenly happen, or is it unrelated?
[I know you guys aren't medical professionals and I AM calling my doctors as soon as they open 9am tomorrow...but I have bad health in general but ALWAYS know what's wrong when I'm ill...hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia, acidosis, ran out of morphine and in withdrawal, etc....but this heart thing scares me as I HATE not know what's wrong]
 
Sorry to hear that @Austin_98 I believe that hypos can affect the electrical functioning of the heart, but obviously I don’t know if that’s related. I know you’ve said you’re not anxious but even moderate unpanicky anxiety can cause tachycardia. I had this once when I had to call a doctor out. My heart was absolutely racing and jerking almost, but as soon as the doctor said everything was ok, it improved a lot.

Again, not an expert but I would say your 97 and 101 wasn’t very high. I have a Fitbit and I’ve seen my heartrate be that fast before. Often it’s when I’m tired and/or anxious.

You’re doing the right thing speaking to the doctor. They can probably do an ECG at the surgery and hopefully reassure you that all’s ok. Eating well can also help. A friend had tachycardia and it was a mineral deficiency (can’t remember if it was potassium or magnesium).

I know you’ve had an ED. Hopefully that’s all ok but elements of that can also cause temporary heart issues.
 
FFS I deliberately just UNDERDOSED. I calculated 14 units (140 grams of carbs) but only took 10. My BG is now 2.9 and going down rapidly according to my BG scanner.
For several weeks following the 1 unit per 10g was working perfectly for me, but all of a sudden, I'm getting hypos even at lower doses.
 
Inka said:
Sorry to hear that @Austin_98 I believe that hypos can affect the electrical functioning of the heart, but obviously I don’t know if that’s related. I know you’ve said you’re not anxious but even moderate unpanicky anxiety can cause tachycardia. I had this once when I had to call a doctor out. My heart was absolutely racing and jerking almost, but as soon as the doctor said everything was ok, it improved a lot.

Again, not an expert but I would say your 97 and 101 wasn’t very high. I have a Fitbit and I’ve seen my heartrate be that fast before. Often it’s when I’m tired and/or anxious.

You’re doing the right thing speaking to the doctor. They can probably do an ECG at the surgery and hopefully reassure you that all’s ok. Eating well can also help. A friend had tachycardia and it was a mineral deficiency (can’t remember if it was potassium or magnesium).

I know you’ve had an ED. Hopefully that’s all ok but elements of that can also cause temporary heart issues.
Click to expand...

Oh, the electrolyte thing makes sense! When I had an active ED I had to take potassium supplements.
 
Drink something sweet like regular Coke or have some glucose @Austin_98 Sometimes it can be where you inject, especially if you’re very slim. The insulin goes ‘too deep’ and is released very quickly rather than over a few hours.

Set your Low alarm to 5.6 and fingerprick regularly too. I tend to eat a sweet cake as well as glucose when that happens to me, eg a mini cupcake, Cake bar, mini apple pie - that kind of thing.
 
What you could also try is reducing your bolus ratio further and splitting it. Inject in two different places about 30 mins apart. Then if the insulin does work too fast, only half of it will be working at one time. It spreads any drop over a longer period of time.
 
Austin_98 said:
Could diabetes cause this to suddenly happen, or is it unrelated?
Click to expand...
There's apparently a thing called cardiac autonomic neuropathy. Those of us with type 1 are more likely to get other autoimmune conditions, some of which are thyroid related and can cause problems with heart rate.

(I'm still not sure what my tachycardia is caused by. For the moment I'm guessing it's probably not related to diabetes (doesn't seem to be thyroid related), so it's perhaps just that I'm overweight (though not severely so) and getting older and not especially fit. I'll be mentioning CAN (or DCAN as it's sometimes known) next time I see a GP just to see if that's likely. Not sure whether that would open up any treatment options.)
 
Inka said:
Drink something sweet like regular Coke or have some glucose @Austin_98 Sometimes it can be where you inject, especially if you’re very slim. The insulin goes ‘too deep’ and is released very quickly rather than over a few hours.

Set your Low alarm to 5.6 and fingerprick regularly too. I tend to eat a sweet cake as well as glucose when that happens to me, eg a mini cupcake, Cake bar, mini apple pie - that kind of thing.
Click to expand...

I've managed to turn the low alarm on, but does the alarm still go off id the sensor machine thing isn't turned on? I don't have a phone so I use the actual machine thing that comes with the sensor, but it turns itself off if you don't use it for a few mins.
 
Inka said:
Sorry to hear that @Austin_98 I believe that hypos can affect the electrical functioning of the heart, but obviously I don’t know if that’s related. I know you’ve said you’re not anxious but even moderate unpanicky anxiety can cause tachycardia. I had this once when I had to call a doctor out. My heart was absolutely racing and jerking almost, but as soon as the doctor said everything was ok, it improved a lot.

Again, not an expert but I would say your 97 and 101 wasn’t very high. I have a Fitbit and I’ve seen my heartrate be that fast before. Often it’s when I’m tired and/or anxious.

You’re doing the right thing speaking to the doctor. They can probably do an ECG at the surgery and hopefully reassure you that all’s ok. Eating well can also help. A friend had tachycardia and it was a mineral deficiency (can’t remember if it was potassium or magnesium).

I know you’ve had an ED. Hopefully that’s all ok but elements of that can also cause temporary heart issues.
Click to expand...

97 and 101 aren't super-high, but compared to my normal 60-65 it's a big difference. Also, medically, anything above 90 is considered tachycardia and over 100 is clinical tachycardia.
 
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