Hypertension Anxiety Dizziness Blurry Vision Neck Pain Heart Palpitations Irregular Heartbeats Medications Are Not Helping
It is likely that if you are reading this article you may have been prescribed medications for your hypertension and hypotension blood pressure swings and that you and your cardiologist are finding it challenging to get that correct mix of medicines to help you. A paper in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, December 2019 describes how challenging it is for cardiologists to manage this problem.
Afferent baroreflex failure is most often due to damage of the carotid sinus nerve because of neck surgery or radiation. . The clinical picture is characterized by extreme blood pressure lability with severe hypertensive crises, hypotensive episodes, and orthostatic hypotension, making it the most difficult form of hypertension to manage. There is little evidence-based data to guide treatment. Recommendations rely on understanding the underlying pathophysiology, relevant clinical pharmacology, and anecdotal experience. The goal of treatment should be improving quality of life rather than normalization of blood pressure, which is rarely achievable.
I Was Not Surprised That My Blood Pressure Was Elevated And That I Had Rapid Heart Rate But My Doctor Was
Here is another story:
I started having strange and unexplainable heart attack-like, panic attack-like symptoms. These included chest pains, a rapid heartbeat, and breathing difficulties. Of course, this frightened me, I am young, late 20s, how could I have a heart condition?
I did have the classic heart attack warning signs, pain in my chest, pain going down my left arm, breathing difficulties. One particularly bad day I went to Urgent Care because of chest pain and panic. I was assured that I was not having a heart attack but I should visit my primary care doctor as soon as I could. This visit to the doctor reassured me a little, but not a lot. I had an EKG which was fine. I was not surprised that my blood pressure was elevated and that I had a rapid heart rate. I could tell that on my own.
At my primary care doctor, these elevated cardio symptoms were attributed to panic attacks and white coat syndrome, the anxiety of being in the doctors office and my anxiety about taking the tests. I had had these symptoms before, I did not feel they were strong enough to see a doctor because I was convincing myself they were panic attacks. I was just not sure what caused them.
Lets stop here to explain some points. You may have already performed your own research as we find that people who suffer from symptoms like those above have done extensive reading on the internet. We will do a short summary and a video presentation with Ross Hauser, MD.
Your Mysterious Symptoms And Cervical Spine Problems
Heart Rate Variability has become a new and popular subject for longevity experts and advanced sports science. Simply if your heart is always racing, doesnt rest, if it does not have slow beats with consistent heart rate variable, you are at higher risk for disease and premature death from cardiovascular events. This is not the subject of this article. This article deals with your mysterious symptoms, like those explained above. Dizziness, balance issues, panic attacks, loss of consciousness, possible problems with digestion, breathing, headaches, and other possible problems caused by cervical spine instability pressing on the vagus and cervical nerves.
The stories of racing hearts
I had bulging discs up and down my neck. But it is not significant enough to operate on. For now, I would just have to manage along with my neck pain, shoulder pain, and if my heart raced, I should find a quiet place to rest and avoid caffeine and sugary food.
I have been having neck and shoulder pain going on for one year now. I am young, 25, athletic, do a lot of working out in the gym. I woke up one morning, my arm left arm was numb and I had significant shoulder pain. I thought I slept on it wrong, but the numbness persisted, the pain came and went. After a few weeks, I went to the doctor, had an MRI. The doctor said, nothing wrong here, and that I should come back if things did not get better on their own.
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Shoulder Tendinitis Or Bursitis
Tendons are strong fibers that attach muscles to your bone. Bursa are fluid-filled sacs that prevent friction at joints.
Inflammation of the tendons and the bursa are common causes of shoulder pain, but pain can occur anywhere that inflammation occurs.
The tendons and bursa around your rotator cuff are especially prone to inflammation that causes pain and stiffness around your shoulder.
Real Stories About Experiencing Heart Attack
“I never connect nausea, shoulder pain, heart attack together. However, one day I was cutting the grass one afternoon and walked to the house to drink water and had a sit. Then I felt nauseated and sudden pain that spread to my arm, which then curled up and could not uncurl. I had my grandson call 911 and was flown directly to a cardiac hospital after the ambulance crew said I was in full ST elevation myocardial infraction. I coded 4 times, but I recovered and was released the next day.”
“I am 58 and 3 weeks ago I had a heart attack. For a month I had symptoms like pain in my jaw, shoulder, face, arm, back and a burning in my chest. All these I felt on the left side of my body. The pain would always ease up, but one night I woke up and the pain did not go away. I took aspirin and I started throwing up, i was rushed to ER where they told me I was having a heart attack. I got treated and I now am home.”
“My mother complained about shoulder pain. Not much attention was paid and her joints ached as well but she thought it was flu. The day she experience chest pain was the day she passed out because of a major heart attack.”
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In This Video Ross Hauser Md Highlights Some Of The Most Common Reasons Why Cervical Instability Or Cervical Dysstructure Can Be The Underlying Structural Cause Of Low Vagal Tone And Associated Poor Heart Function Leading To Pots Or Dysautonomia
- POTS symptoms may range from mild and occasional complaints to severely incapacitating disease. Sufferers are commonly misdiagnosed as having chronic anxiety or panic disorder or chronic fatigue syndrome.
- There is a multitude of other symptoms that often accompany this syndrome including pre-syncope, syncope, dizziness, palpitations, headache, fatigue, bladder, and gastrointestinal symptoms.
Taking Control Of Womens Heart Health
The American Heart Association recommends that women check their blood pressure and cholesterol regularly and make healthy lifestyle choices like stopping smoking, eating healthy and exercising.
If you have a family history of heart disease or high blood pressure, you need to take it seriously, says Latricia. Its important to make changes and take control of your health.
Chest pain is still the most common sign of a heart attack for most women. Below are some common warning signs of a heart attack in both men and women.
- Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain the center of the chest.
- Pain radiating to the neck, shoulder, back, jaw or arms.
- Shortness of breath.
- Cold, clammy sweats.
- Nausea, heartburn, vomiting or abdominal pain.
The scary thing about a womens heart attack is that it often doesn’t come with chest pain. Studies have shown that women are more likely than men to have symptoms other than chest discomfort when experiencing a heart attack. In fact, according to the National Institutes of Health, between 30-37 percent of women did not have chest pain at all.
Some of the subtler signs of a heart attack could start weeks ahead of time for women. They are more likely than men to report pain in the middle or upper back, neck, or jaw shortness of breath indigestion, nausea, vomiting or loss of appetite and sudden onset of weakness. Other warning signs more common for women include:
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Summary And Contact Us Can We Help You How Do I Know If Im A Good Candidate
We hope you found this article informative and it helped answer many of the questions you may have surrounding cervical spine instability causing heart palpitations and blood pressure problems. Just like you, we want to make sure you are a good fit for our clinic prior to accepting your case. While our mission is to help as many people with chronic pain as we can, sadly, we cannot accept all cases. We have a multi-step process so our team can really get to know you and your case to ensure that it sounds like you are a good fit for the unique testing and treatments that we offer here.
If you would like to get more information specific to your challenges please email us: Get help and information from our Caring Medical staff
References
This article was updated June 21, 2022
Theme : Manifesting Co
The study also investigated prior conditions amongst the older persons with a positive history of CNS infection and dementia. These prior disease conditions or illnesses that co-existed in the demented persons with positive history of CNS infection illnesses were defined under the theme of manifesting co-morbidities and or their medications. The findings are presented below.
Suffering road traffic accidents
Some of the key informants revealed that the older persons have been victims of road traffic accidents that led to shock and paralysis for some time. And from the accident they started experiencing signs of forgetfulness and memory loss. Traumatic tissue injury from road traffic accidents are often entry point for some of the pathogenic microbes that infect the central nervous system as many of the participants also reported that from the time their relative were involved in two rows of the accidents they started suffering from episode of CNS infection illness. This was typified by one of participants below.
Her condition started after she had suffered an accident and hit her head on the ground. suffered two accidents in a row and after the accidents, hit her head on the ground, she started experiencing memory loss, back and body pain, victim of Goiter, shock, suffered a stroke. Half of her body was completely paralyzed for some time, and she kept suffering from the brain infection which made her forget a lot of things. Keeps getting malaria infections
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What Are We Seeing In This Image This Is A Good Summary Of The Vagus Nerve And The Glossopharyngeal Nerve Monitoring The Blood Pressure And Pulse In The Body
For help with explaining what is happening in this above image, we are going to refer to a 2019 paper in the Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology written by Lucy Norcliffe-Kaufmann of the Dysautonomia Center, New York University School of Medicine. I am adding some explanatory notes to help the general reader.
The glossopharyngeal and vagus cranial nerves provide the brainstem with sensory inputs from different receptors in the heart, lung, and vasculature. This afferent information is critical for the short-term regulation of arterial blood pressure and the buffering of emotional and physical stressors.
Glossopharyngeal afferents supply the medulla with continuous mechanoreceptive signals from baroreceptors at the carotid sinus.
Vagal afferents ascending from the heart supply mechanoreceptive signals from baroreceptors in different reflexogenic areas including the aortic arch, atria, ventricles, and pulmonary arteries. , the atria
Ultimately, afferent information from each of these distinct pressure/volume baroreceptors is all relayed to the nucleus tractus solitarius, integrated within the medulla, and used to rapidly adjust sympathetic and parasympathetic activity back to the periphery.
Lesions that selectively destroy the afferent fibers of the vagus and/or glossopharyngeal nerves can interrupt the transmission of baroreceptor signaling leading to extreme blood pressure fluctuations.
Now lets look at this next segment:
Does Blood Pressure Cause Back Pain
There is scarcely a person alive who hasnt experienced back pain at one time or another. For some, its the result of too much physical exertion and it will usually pass with rest. For others, its a chronic issue that must be dealt with on a daily basis. That said, you may want to consider the possibility that your back pain isnt caused by simple overexertion. In fact, it could potentially be due to high blood pressure, also known as hypertension.
How do you know if your back pain is the result of hypertension? Of course, your best course of action is to see your doctor and have your blood pressure checked regularly. If you have issues with hypertension, your doctor can even teach you how to monitor your blood pressure at home. By the same token, you should have any unexplained back pain checked out by your physician so you can get to the root cause of the problem.
You should also know that having chronic lower back pain can potentially cause hypertension, as blood pressure has a tendency to go up when youre in pain. Unfortunately, being in pain on a regular basis can eventually cause your blood pressure to go up and stay that way.
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How Can You Prevent It
It is better to prevent a hypertensive emergency than to treat an episode after you have already had one. One of the most common causes of a hypertensive emergency is not taking your blood pressure medicines properly. Sometimes this happens unintentionally. For example, your prescription may run out or you may forget to take a dose. But try to stay on your medicine schedule as best as you can. Another cause is illegal drug use, such as stimulants like cocaine.
Cervical Spondylosis And Arrhythmia
Lets turn to a 2018 paper in the Journal of clinical medicine that investigated the association between cervical spondylosis and arrhythmia.
Sympathetic activity, including cervical ganglia, is involved in the development of cardiac arrhythmias. . . study investigated the association between cervical spondylosis and arrhythmia, which never been reported before. What the researchers here found was: cervical spondylosis is associated with a 3.10-fold increase of arrhythmia risk compared to patients without cervical spondylosis, especially atrial fibrillation, ventricular and supraventricular tachycardia.
Autonomic nervous system stimulation could explain the related mechanism of this finding. Clinical evidence had shown that cervical spondylosis can cause sympathetic nerve irritation and associated sympathetic symptoms, and instability at the C4C5 intervertebral space is the most-common type causing sympathetic symptoms. Recognized sympathetic symptoms of cervical spondylosis are vertigo, dizziness, tinnitus, headache, and palpitation . . . studies have shown that an imbalance of the autonomic nervous system and stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system can trigger atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, and ventricular fibrillation. Such findings are thus similar to those of our study: cervical spondylosis is associated with a higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, and ventricular tachycardia. . .
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Scientific Rigor And Trustworthiness
The four principles of credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability of qualitative research were upheld to assure and maintain rigor and trustworthiness in the study. Credibility was assured by restating and summarizing points during the interviews and also by taking field notes from the interviews in addition to the audio recording . Dependability and confirmability were assured by audio-recording of the interviews against which the correctness of the verbatim transcripts, findings, and interpretations were validated . Provision of many direct quotations to support emergent themes also assures dependability and confirmability of the data. Finally, transferability was assured by providing a thorough description of the study setting and data collection methods including the underlying assumption that CNS infection illnesses could be involved in older persons with dementia . We also provided a detailed description of the study area, setting, participants and methods to assure transferability of the study findings.
Gallstones Or Enlarged Gallbladder
Pain in your right shoulder can be a sign of a gallstone blocking a duct in your gallbladder. You may also feel pain in your back between your shoulder blades. The pain may be sudden and sharp.
You may or may not feel the more common symptoms of gallstones or gallbladder inflammation. These are:
- sudden pain in your upper right abdomen
- pain in the center of your abdomen, below your breast bone
- nausea or vomiting
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Take Charge Of Your Heart Health Know Your Numbers
The American Heart Association and the Cardiovascular Institute of Carolina at Aiken Regional believe that it is crucial to get regular preventive screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose and BMI. Keeping these numbers in check can help reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease.
Blood Pressure
- Desirable: Less than 200 mg/dL
- Borderline: 200-239 mg/dL
- High: 240 mg/dL and above
Blood Glucose
- Normal: Under 99 mg/dL and below
- Prediabetes: 100-125 mg/dL
- Diabetes: 126 mg/dL and above
HDL Cholesterol
Less than 40 mg/dL is a major risk factor for heart disease
LDL Cholesterol
- Optimal: Less than 100 mg/dL
- Near Optimal: 100-129 mg/dL
- Borderline: 130-159 mg/dL High: 160-189 mg/dL
- Very High: 190 mg/dL and above
High Blood Pressure Symptoms
If you are struggling with chronic back pain and believe it is affecting your cardiovascular health and causing high blood pressure, then it is essential that you recognize hypertensions signs and symptoms. Unfortunately, high blood pressure isnt always accompanied by symptoms. However, some signs to look out for include:
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What About Upper Back Pain
Upper back pain can sometimes be more concerning, as it is potentially linked to high blood pressure and other issues with the heart. This is especially true if youre experiencing pain directly between your shoulder blades or you have pain that radiates to either arm. You might even feel pain that travels back and forth between your upper back and jaw. This indicates that you may be having a heart attack. Prompt medical attention is absolutely necessary. In addition, its important to know that persistent or severe upper back pain could be a sign that your blood pressure is far too high. If you cant readily identify a recent injury to the area, its a good idea to get it checked out before other potential complications arise.
You may also notice other symptoms associated with high blood pressure. These symptoms can include, but are not limited to: