I recently had a terrible disagreement with someone and everytime I think about it I start shaking and my heart starts pounding from adrenaline, which according to Google is unhealthy. But our hearts are accelerated when exercising, which is supposed to be a good thing – so what is the difference?
In: Biology
Haven’t read all the responses here so forgive me if I’m repeating others, but on some level, fast HR and high BP are not *inherently* harmful, if we are just merely talking about the numbers themselves. There are certain mixed messages out there about numbers themselves being harmful in the absence of other risk factors, e.g. “you’re going to die if your systolic blood pressure is over 180,” this is mostly untrue and misleading. (within reason of course, I’m sure there are ridiculous numbers you could throw at me that would be exceptions)
The problem is constant and sustained HR and BP which cause damage to the heart over time. The damage to the heart itself is the critical variable here. This is what leads to critical cardiac events and eventually possible injury or death.
I know I didn’t quite answer your question about the difference between different causes of BP/HR spikes, I’m sure there are differences. In the big picture though, the goal isn’t to maintain a low blood pressure 24/7, it’s to keep the resting blood pressure low, and to ensure the overall curve isn’t too high.
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