Rapid heartrate/high blood pressure after eating

[budgetguy]

For the past several years I have noticed that after eating food (which ranges from just a cup of milk to a full meal) that my heart rate and blood pressure increases significantly about 30 minutes after eating, and it lasts for about  one and 1/2 hours to two hours.  This occurs about 50% of the time after eating.  My heart rate goes from ~75 bpm up to 140 bmp (max todate), and the blood pressure goes from 130/80 up to 180/102 (max to date).  Note: I am borderline hypertensive and take 20mg of lisinopril a day. I have attempted to determine if there is a particular type of food, or food additive that might trigger the symptoms, and have noticed the symptoms always occur when I eat peanut butter or the snack crackers that are sold in vending machines, and will occassionally happen when I eat homemade macroni and cheese.  Other that these foods, I can find no relationships.  I can have a cup of milk one morning and get the symptoms, then have a cup the next day from the same gallon and have no symptoms.  I have had several tests in the hospital - stress test, sonogram of the heart, gastronomic tests - with no results.  Of course the tests were not conducted just after eating, so I was not exhibiting the symptoms.  Do you have any thoughts on what might be causing this?

[AAMH]

Hello! I have just noticed this problem in myself. I am a 21 year old female. I know I am young but a year ago I was rushed to the ER via Ambulance. In the ambulance I was cardioverted. I suffer from Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia. I went into this attack after taking my first dose of lisinopril. Apparently I am severely allergic to it. I was put on extreme amounts of diltiazem. I lived 7200 ft above sea-level. We took a trip to New Zealand and I was at sea level for a month. My heart started doing a lot better. We decided to move from Wyoming to West Virginia. I am now under 1000 ft above sea level. I have reduced the amount of pills I take by 3 times. So I have gotten better but I have now noticed that after I eat dinner, I got into an attack. My heart rate rises and I tach, my blood pressure also rises a lot. I can feel my heart beat in my head and if you look at my shirt, you can see it moving with my heart beat. I suffer from extreme anxiety due to the fact that I was awake when they cardioverted me last year. My heart problems really scare me. Now, my spouse is a CNA and records my bp and hr. They know it is high but she is scary to take me to the doctor as I dont want to be put on more medicine. But this hurts! I have never seen an actual cardiologist. Should I make an appointment with them first?

[reeree63]

You may want to check out " gluten sensativity". Your post seems to relate to food allergy.

[stairman1977]

i've had related issues. it all started about 3 yrs ago when i taken a colon cleanser. my heart rate and bp elevated. i was in and out of the er. with panic attacks. i went to a heart dr and he gave me a few test, ekg, holter moniter, echo cardio gram, blood work then put me on a beta-blocker. this made it worse so i stopped taking them i tried getting in contact with the heart dr and his office pretty much blew me off. either because i was young or i had no insurance.   anyways i went to another heart dr and he gave me stress test and tilt table test. stress test was fine but my tilt table showed that my heart rate jumped from about 73 to 133 in 3 secounds. come to find out i have POTS(postural orthastatic tachacardia syndrome). i think that all this has givin me a panic disorder over all this time not including some of the stress thats in my life.       To conclude i didn't see anything about a tilt table test or POTS  in any of the other post as i was skimming through them, so i thought i would throw this out there. maybe some can relate. good luck to all                                              

[SomeGuyInAz]

I just read your post from last Nov about your high bp and fast hr after eating.

Just wanted to say, I have the exact same problem. Here's some info:

I'm just 34 years old and I'm in good health. I was running 10 miles a week and taking only 2 meds (thyroid and PPI for reflux) and my bp was normally 100/60.

Then one day I bought a blood pressure machine for my wife. I decided to use it on myself to show her. It was just after I had a large meal, and to my surprise, my blood pressure was 200/105. I nearly soiled my pants after seeing this number twice.  
I lived near the mayo clinic in AZ so I drove to the ER as fast as possible (in hindsight this was stupid because panic just made it go higher). They kicked me out of the ER with a beta blocker after 2 hours, and my bp was around 150/95. They said I had anxiety. Actually this incident caused anxiety! The next week I was put on 50mg of Toprolol XL (I'm still taking this and it helps a lot).

Since the first episode over a year ago, I have noticed that every time I eat a high protein meal like chicken, whole milk, eggs, peanut butter, etc, my bp would go high.

I have had a $30k checkup including adrenals, two MRIs (abdomen, brain), CT scans, x-rays, stress tests, ultrasounds of aorta and carotids, echocardiograms, so many blood tests I could have filled a donation bank's freezer, and after all this I was left wondering - after seeing four cardiologists, 8 emergency rooms, etc., WHY THE HECK was my blood pressure going through the roof after big meals. I actually developed a panic / anxiety issue BECAUSE of this! Now I'm on beta blockers primarily because of the aftereffects of this mess.

I have spent so many hours in front of the computer trying to research this, it is crazy. I have no medical background so it has been really tough to sort through all the info, but I think there is a connection with the vagus nerve, reflux, etc. and some of this is just normal. Some medical books say it is normal for BP to go up even 50 mmHg after eating a meal for some people.

Things I have found that help, are:

1. Take a PPI like Aciphex.
2. Eat small meals frequently and don't eat after 7pm.
3. Reduce stress and anxiety or don't eat when stressed.
4. When your stomach is fired up, drink Ensure for a week with no solids, to rest your stomach (worked for me twice).
5. Don't eat food too high in fat or protein.
6. Keep your thyroid in check (TSH). When my TSH is high things get worse.
7. Drink plenty of fluids during the day.

I don't know if it is dangerous to have BP being up to ~190/100 or so for a couple of hours,... it causes me a lot of anxiety just thinking about it and my cardiologist had no opinion on this question. I guess its normal for some people, and I know that weight lifters get up to 300/200. So anyway.. I guess if everyone checked their BP after eating there would be more posts here :-)

[Rob1970]

Milk, eggs and peanuts are all in the top 8 foods that cause allergic reactions.  Chicken is not though.  Some people who are allergic to milk are also allergic to beef.

Also, allergies add up, [1].  It is possible to react to a food at one time but not at another (or not so you'd notice) because of other allergic reactions going on at the same time.

Also, mold turns up in the weirdest places.  Vinegar, smoked food, dried fruit, some coffee, some chocolate and of course blue cheeses.  Mushrooms can be an issue for the mold allergic.  They certainly are for me!

While the classic description of anaphylaxis involves hypOtension, in fact this only happens about 1/3 of the time, [2].  In what may be the first study of its kind, published in 2016, 12.9% of anaphylaxis cases were found to involve hypERtension, [3].  

It is important to note that the diagnostic criteria for anaphylaxis include only hypOtension, not hypERtension, so hypERtensive cases have to qualify solely on the basis of other diagnostic criteria, such as flushing, itching, swelling, hives, shortness of breath, etc, [2,4].

I'm not a medical doctor, just a science guy with a lot of allergies who had a reaction to a single bite of mushroom last night.  I became very dizzy, close to passing out I thought, which is why I called an ambulance.  The paramedics arrived in less than 10 minutes and measured my blood pressure at 179/80 (usually 117/70) and pulse at 106 (usually 50).  The paramedics did other tests while my blood pressure and heart rate slowly fell, and although they didn't dismiss my suggestion of anaphylaxis they also suggested it could be a panic attack (which I've never had before). Flush-itch symptoms showed up 20 minutes after the paramedics had left (80 minutes after ingestion).

As a research scientist (in a completely different field) I have to wonder if there is systematic under-reporting of hypERtensive allergic reactions due to the fact that the diagnostic criteria for anaphylaxis do not currently include hypERtension, and there is no corresponding diagnosis for "allergic reactions with hypERtension".

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15842228
[2] https://www.aaaai.org//anaphylaxis-hypertension
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articleshttps://adclick.g.doubleclick.net/pcs/click?xai=AKAOjsu-g8r9oCGLf_6njwHG4_aGrWpGS6lki5aFnN4siJnBoaXMNMQL2pqXIN-w29ERqi87R_8eETYWSyIEsFwMG-v_wWWwnWEBHtqAFk6yxFG__XHBW8ziKboCSEFAkgHUyio9lpBvB0oSUOEtDDTou7Tg4fRX06l28iYgAhGudOAXOHcSAavZDQK4IE2JEasHtE_YpFth3_xME4r14gNZzJGDI6Ug6AP2xi51bRF5SxX6HI1pTGOBbC_T6pnbX3DNFELYPRrEp3-6GbWwUaSO5KK0Op3rT5d_mI96e6qKceuM8EbFqGuLbrLePgA-d4LTj-vKz9Dx2qn6O-c7-goNk61saLXdicdp0RaprjMlYta85bbEDS1ma42BFBcA-RndvmSIo5OZPrqUTfQAuHWweTxf5igWXNJcJrqkvjfDCnDI_XgO3SgXHA-rUa4ZTgDLVCH8sPkQoyOBwRU-RviFLeUKzV_abBVP89hYnkdbebYciLJlKE8_SQEzZsBs6t4vbCz1IhDodzTbLXZ46baGbT1K0lFgUDebldioRkVs8l8XijvoBJtROxcfOv17HrF6KsjmI8jx8--Zae3sFcYSI1drF4KmQiHglamH4ZUvnJptuu3rdm0e70sEBk6zx1-QNtkwmiQUcRvr_-42g1fhb6hykyKgdyDgohbRumJpc-Kh9Dwk7gh_jUzTSrmcGX7Tj4RPEJ3G0Yr3Gq0ujuudCZ5aCzpvmVZsIicMwVml2OKx8HAoHpgsRi3fwzMSR6JTaI7-jdUMc_2vUK4s7DrDobwNSJL1P9li9svsFjaFWV3MgwYDA9fqPvjz4zyEwphm7gclSNWZTTGY96FnJYCtRjdHONpb35cCTsz1nona1UrJTewPphEm0oLnu1i_SY6mdRTF6SkWwApVTZORq1C6jcShKv9xijuxFg&sai=AMfl-YTEOaUrxQEadUNP-vgW006wGO1-puv81_-ReTl7s8HIMnp__-jvr_dzmSHGo0x2w3C3KV794FuWmzXql45BY3-4rcjZpQpX2qEbgsumCaYDDj90SpDCJKh2Zx9hylX-RpW8&sig=Cg0ArKJSzDhCyyMaeTee&urlfix=1&adurl=https://www.zyrtec.com/savings%3Futm_medium%3Ddisplay-static%26utm_source%3Dcadreon%26utm_term%3D211144858%26utm_content%3Dzyrtecdsave4spring2018%26utm_campaign%3Dus_zyrtecd_2018zyrtecd/PMC4970985/
[4] http://www.eaaci.org/attachments/Anaphylaxis%20guidelines%20Draft%204.5%202013%2006%20.pdf

[Rob1970]

Reference [3] is PMC4970985.  I don't know why all that extra gobbledegook got inserted.  Reference [2] is missing a term too, but Google what's there and you'll find it.

[Bloke1981]

Hi!

If someone were to present to me with these symptoms (I work in the field of emergency medicine) I would certainly not be concerned with your relationship between eating and a raise in BP / Pulse.

When you eat food, the organs involved with digestion (the stomach, intestines etc.) require considerably more blood than normal. This of course diverts blood away from other major organs (the heart, brain and lungs etc.) Because of this the body has to work harder to meet the bodies demand for oxygen and increases the BP and pulse to account for it. This is why after eating a big meal people often fall asleep becuase the extra energy demands on the body cause tiredness.

You say that it can last up to two hours? This is about the same time as it takes for the stomach to do its bit and allow the food through to the intestines, so that reinforces my thoughts.

Some people may notice no change.... But then these people dont necessarily take their BP and pulse after each meal! Second to that, the differences in pulse / BP after eating will vary from person to person and since you are borderline hypertensive, I would say it all sounds pretty normal.

I would imagine that the tests you've had done have been carried out in relation to your general hypertension and not specific to your observations regarding eating.

I'll finish off though as always do by saying I hope this puts your mind at rest somewhat, but if you're concerned, pop back in to see the Doc!

[Huck007]

After several trips to ER, seeing several specialists, and having lots of blood tests, the medical community came up with nothing.

Here's what works for me:
    . Cut saturated fat down to max 20 g/day. Poly and monounsaturated fats OK.
    . Eat baked potatoes with low fat topping several times/week (enzyme in potato lowers BP)
    . If BP and HR spike after meal, take Vit C and E, Betaine HCL, Digestive Enzyme, Beet Root, Potassium
    . Other supplements that may help - L-Arginine, Magnesium, low dose aspirin
    . I take an antacid when burping accompanies. PPIs have side effects
    . Should get doctor approval

[Huck007]

Lots of sugar or wheat plus saturated fat makes problem worse, but saturated fat alone can cause my problem.