Persistent tachycardia?

I am a 29 year old male, in fairly good shape and not over weight. I have just been diagnosed with a persistent tachycardia by my doctor. I have worn a Holter Monitor and the results showed that during the 24 hour period, my heart beat raised to 197 and the lowest was down to 80.
I have only felt this condition over the last 6 months. At first I related it to caffiene and stop drinking it. It stopped!!! Now it has came back. I have not really excercised over the last 18 months due to working and family commitments (no excuse), but I am looking to try and make this go away naturally. My doctor prescribed me Toprol XL and I am not willing to take this until I have erased every option available to me. I dont want to be taking drugs for the rest of my life if there is an alternative.
It seemed as though she just prescribed me these drugs without really giving me any answers. I had to ask her to refer me to a cardiogist, which I am now waiting to see.
Any one have information?

it depends when/how the tachycardia comes on. i got really tachycardic for awhile based on orthostatics. usually when i stood up. my blood pressure would drop (like when you get a really bad head rush) and my heart rate would jump up to compensate and try to pump blood through my body. doc had me actually increase my salt intake and drink lots of water to try and keep my blood pressure up. usually when you do a holter monitor, they will have you keep a record of what you were doing during the time frame. did you do that? can you correlate the tachycardia to anything. i would definitely speak with the cardiologist. as far as exercising, that could trigger things more. i wouldn't go overboard on that til you do speak with the cardiologist.

good luck.

How is your diet? Are you eating low carbohydrate meals? Our heart needs carbs and moderate fat to run the muscle.

I once went on a low carb diet only to give my heart problems. Racing, and irregular heart beat. It just took eating some carbs with every meal to straighten the problem out.

Do a little research as to what vitamins and minerals benefit your heart. This will lead you to the right foods you need.

If this is a physiologic tachycardia, it will be worsened by exertion, anxiety, caffeine and alcohol. Pathologic tachycardia is generally due to an electrical short circuit in the heart. Life style changes may only affect this modestly if at all but are worth trying. Because you are young and don"t want a lifetime of medication have your cardiologist refer you to a cardiac electrophysiologist. He can access your heart's short circuit with a soft catheter through a leg vein, identify it and ablate it through a variety of techniques. While this technique is invasive side effects are generally minimal and it can be curative with a reasonable chance of success.

I used to get episodes of svt's and had a catheter ablation. (What the previous post is talking about). It has worked wonders and I don't have problems with them anymore. I found that caffeine, alcohol, stress, tight clothes and being dehydrated and/or overtired were the biggest causes of the svt's I would get.

I agree that you should go see an electrophysiologist and be assessed as to what could be causing your tachycardia and your available options.