When a person’s heart rate hits more than 100 beats per minute, it is termed as Tachycardia. Normally, a healthy person’s heart rate is between 60 to 100 beats in one minute and the pulse can also be felt in other parts of the body like wrist or neck.
Tachycardia is basically abnormal electrical impulse which generally originates from lower or upper chambers of heart. Also known as tachyarrhythmia, in this condition, the normal resting rate of heart exceeds the normal limit owing to many reasons; and excessive caffeine intake is one of them. Tachycardia can be temporary, like in case of exercise when the blood flow towards the heart goes up, while it becomes abnormal when electrical impulse originates from the heart.
Out of so many causes for Tachycardia, it is caffeine, which is the breeding ground for abnormal heartbeat and lasts for longer time than usual. In this guide, we shall talk about the effects of caffeine on the heart rate of a person leading to tachycardia.
Role of Caffeine in Causing Tachycardia
One may find the caffeine and its related products quite cool for the obvious reasons, but have you ever thought of its effects in case of excessive usage? If not, this guide is for you, which talks about the effects of caffeine on people with fast heartbeats. Caffeine affects cardiovascular system and it has been observed that those who take small quantities of caffeine, there is a transient increase in blood flow.
Coffee drinking poses a risk to the cardiac rhythm; however, this becomes a problem in case of excessive usage of caffeine, which needs to be avoided at all costs. It is basically the Xanthine, present in the caffeine which severely affects the blood flow and when caffeine is consumed in excessive amounts then it leads to Tachycardia. When there is a disturbance in the cardiac rhythm then it has a toxic effect on the blood flow, leading to many ailments; but again, this happens only when caffeine is taken in excessively large quantities.
Effects of Caffeine on Patients with Fast Heartbeat
High caffeine intake leads to following effects on human body:
- Stimulates the heart leading to faster heartbeat or tachycardia.
- Stimulates brain and nervous system.
- Raises blood pressure.
- Other physical reactions in the body are increased.
- Dilates blood vessels.
- Cerebral cortex and brain stem gets more activated.
All of the above affects, especially the increase in the blood pressure, makes it more problematic for the person with an already existing fast heartbeat to have a normal heartbeat after taking caffeine. People, who are sensitive to caffeine, will experience an increase in heartbeat (tachycardia) even when taking small quantities of caffeine.
Mechanism of Caffeine Affecting Patients with Fast Heartbeats
This is a general known fact that high caffeine intake leads to rapid heart rate and irregular heart rhythm. Though there are many benefits of caffeine, the side effects of caffeine are more in patients with fast heartbeats. The chances that your heart rate will remain normal in all its aspects after caffeine consumption with an already fast heartbeat are very less. Because of phytochemicals present in caffeine, inflammation in the body can be reduced which is actually a perk of this compound; but if you already are suffering from FAST HEARTBEAT and anxiety, then drinking coffee can be harmful, as it increases the palpitations (tachycardia) causing more anxiety. General advice that you need to follow in this case is to limit or stop the caffeine intake, so that your anxiety-ridden disorder does not hit the high mark.
Your blood pressure gets spiked when you take coffee, but this is for a short duration only. Studies and researches have indicated that people taking more than 4 cups of coffee are bound to face problems related with blood pressure, which creates breeding ground for heart palpitations or tachycardia increase.
You also need to know about your food allergies to prevent you from falling ill and to protect yourself from a rapid heartbeat. If you are a coffee lover and don’t want to quit it, try taking it in moderate quantities so that your body gradually adjusts to lower amounts of caffeine and ultimately stop taking caffeine altogether.
