Elevated heart rate

Sometimes after drinking, working out, or drinking coffee (as little as one cup), my heart beat will become extremely fast and stay that way all day. Is this due to cortisol? With taking most of the regimen I would think that I'd recover faster, but there are some days where it will just stay all day.

This could be for several reasons. I had similar symptoms and still do sometimes especially after working out. I will explain as best I can the more common reasons:

Drinking(alcohol)- Alcohol thins the blood, which will in turn cause your body to increase heart rate in order to get more oxygen to your organs. Also, your body will be losing water i.e urination/breaking the seal and your blood volume will decrease causing your heart rate to increase for the same reason(not to mention vitamin/mineral/electrolyte loss which can cause heart rate changes). If your resting heart rate is 70 bpm, do not be surprised if your heart rate is 90 when your drunk. My resting heart rate is 64 bpm, but when I’m drunk I’ve been up to 88 that’s a 24 bpm increase. Alcohol also changes brain chemistry, mainly GABA activity. However, this has more to do with hangover symptoms of anxiety and depression. It probably interferes with other chemicals in the brain, and yes, cortisol is released. Its also messing up your insulin and other hormones like adrenaline.

Drinking coffee-obviously caffeine. One cup of coffee can contain 120 mg caffeine If I were you, I would stick to green tea(20-30 mg caffeine) or white tea (10-20 mg caffeine). Of if you need a little more black tea(40-60 mg caffeine) oblong tea is in that range too. It also is a diuretic and can make you pee losing electrolytes to cause heart changes. 120 mg of caffeine is too much IMO. although I drink a cup of rich dark black coffee now and then. I enjoy white tea with dried citrus fruit in it, the best.

Working out- Now this one could be a multitude of things.

it simply could be that your fitness level is very low, and your pushing yourself too hard. You need to find a comfort zone, otherwise your body will suffer the rest of the day, and you won't make progress. Get a heart rate monitor and stay in your zone and if you feel uncomfortable you should stop right away. Remember, your not 10 anymore.

Exercise is a powerful route to releasing a flood of chemicals your body. Cortisol is defiantly released, so is adrenaline. But what really can trigger your problem may be lactic acid. Lactic acid(produce when your muscle cells no longer enough energy from oxygen, a good thing for the most part) is known to trigger anxiety attacks, and if you push yourself too hard, you will produce too much lactic acid than your used to handling, and now your going to struggle for the rest of the day with the physical symptoms of anxiety, which is increased heart rate.

What regime are you talking about? You could very well be deficient in some type of nutrient, I assume that your here on this website your pretty good with supplementation, but are you getting all you need? Are you replenishing your electrolytes during and after your workouts? What type of work outs are you doing? Are you male or female, what is your age?

How fast of a heart rate are you talking about? THis could be much more serious than the things I listed. Typically anything over a 100 bpm for a long period of time without stimulus(like exercise) is consider a serious problem. This one time, I sprinted 200 feet (just 200 ft), my heart rate was 104 for 60 minutes after i stopped, this is addition to a multitude of other problems. Walking up a flight of stairs was a traumatic experience for me. Another time I took ONE drag of a light ciggertee and my heart rate was 140 bpm for the next 15 minutes. It was extremely uncomfortable, I couldn't sit still in my seat, and I was sweating and I couldn/t concentrate on the conversation with my friend. That was the tipping point for me. It was then I decided to see a cardiologist for an stress echo cardiogram and ekg, but nothing serious was found. I have made a long recovery.

I believe my problem was caused by a combination of exercise intolerance(low fitness level) and low magnessium/vitamin D levels along with chronic mild dehydration. I Started taking a multivitamin and being more aware of how much water I drink AND exercising more conservatively and I have made huge progress. Although if I work out too hard I will have some very uncomfortable symptoms, like rapid heart rate and palpitations, but my symptoms have improved and at least I know from my cardio stress test there are no Serious underlying problems. I also got tested for sleep apnea, and I am okay. Sleep apnea is no joke either and can cause a multitude of problems.

Kind of a long response, but I can personally relate to your discomfort and have done a decent amount of research on it. Hope this helps.