Jul
16th
2023
Working too long in high heat causes bad things! :P · 7:25pm Jul 16th, 2023
So I've been doing a lot of heavy manual work in the summer heat, and apparently my body was very unhappy about this.
My normally mild hypertension skyrocketed to just below a hypertensive crisis (which would be 180/120, and if it had hit that I'd have gone straight to the ER), along with heart palpitations.
It's very annoying. Even though I'm in fantastic physical shape otherwise, something is making my cardiovascular system go berserk to strains many other people can manage without a problem, including people far less healthy otherwise than me. :P
My sister is going through something similar. She exercises constanly yet when she tries to run in the summer heat her heart spasms. Doctors can't figure out why; she looks healthy on the inside.
5738163 There are quite a few possibilities, narrowing it down is the difficult problem. And since I already have modest hypertension, that's almost certainly contributing to it. I just have to take it very very easy until I can get to the doctor tomorrow.
The unpleasant thing for me is that it's not going away. This could mean there's been permanent damage.
5738163 After an ER visit and extensive tests, it seems it was simply overstressing my muscles in the heat. I probably bruised/tore some abdominal muscles and inflamed my colon from the heat stress combined with over-doing heavy lifting. It likely created a feedback loop of inflammation, which then irritated the vagus nerve that affects the heart rhythm.
I'll probably have intermittent bouts of this until the muscles heal somewhat and the gut settles down.
Feeling better yet?
5738723 Yes, I took a combination of antiinflammatories to deal with the combined strains to the gut and muscles, and the BP stabilized fairly quickly. Now that my system has all calmed down, I can feel where the pulled muscles are much more clearly... I pulled a crap ton of muscles. Like, most of my left side. That would explain all the symptoms. Just a flood of inflammatory cytokines pouring into my blood stream, agitating everything.
5738769
Glad to hear it
5738782 The colon is still unhappy. It tends to get like that whenever anything else is inflammed. It'll take a couple weeks of a very mild diet, LOW in fiber (for sporadic IBS, high fiber during episodes is actually BAD because it makes the already spastic colon MORE active) and LOW caffeine, little to zero alcohol, and also avoiding spicy foods.