Elevated pulse after first Reta dose?

[Valyra]

Hi everyone, I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who's feeling pretty anxious right now.

Her boyfriend began Reta at 1 mg several days back and has had no issues — his appetite is already down and he appears to be doing well overall.

My friend took her first dose yesterday. Even before she injected, it was clear she was very stressed and on edge. I should note that she has an anxiety disorder. After taking 0.5 mg, she dealt with reflux and then couldn't sleep that night because of pressure in her chest.

Her pulse now looks fairly elevated — roughly 70 bpm at rest, and as high as 130 bpm when she's up and moving around. She's really concerned, and I wasn't able to find any threads where people described similar symptoms.

Because of her anxiety, my feeling is that she probably shouldn't keep using Reta at all. That said, has anyone else had symptoms like these after a first dose?

 

[woundcarping]

Her anxious state acts as a confounding factor, and it looks like it outweighs whatever effect Reta might or might not be producing.

Even when symptoms stem from the mind, they are still genuine physical symptoms.

 

[Valyra]

woundcarping said:

Her anxious state acts as a confounding factor, and it looks like it outweighs whatever effect Reta might or might not be producing.

Even when symptoms stem from the mind, they are still genuine physical symptoms.

My own thoughts went the same direction, and the friends I have who are also using Reta reached that same conclusion. Still, I figure hearing it from other people in this community would help calm her down — confirmation that she isn't going to die and that the drug itself isn't the cause of what she's feeling

 

[woundcarping]

Valyra said:

My own thoughts went the same direction, and the friends I have who are also using Reta reached that same conclusion. Still, I figure hearing it from other people in this community would help calm her down — confirmation that she isn't going to die and that the drug itself isn't the cause of what she's feeling

There's no question she's going to die someday, and accepting that sooner rather than later is what lets a person get on with a life that actually means something. If she believes Reta will cause a problem, or believes it won't, either way she'll be right.

Age 40, 186lb, taking 20mg of Reta each week.

Just another Friyay at the office.

 

[ladyj779]

For certain users, reta causes an increase in resting heart rate as well as heart rate during workouts.

For those who deal with anxiety, it can push hr up too.

I'm a 46yr female, and my rhr went up by ten on reta (low 60s to low 70s). Then at around four months in, it began to come back down.

 

[BNLFL]

My own reading climbed roughly 8 BPM. Once I had been using this for 33 weeks, that effect disappeared. The anxiety factor makes sense to me too.

Retatrutide side effects: what the trials show and how to manage them

Retatrutide's main side effects in trials: nausea (43%), heart rate increase of ~6.7 bpm, and dysesthesia (20.9%) at the 12 mg dose. Not yet UK-approved.

www.secondnature.io

In the Phase 2 trial, resting heart rate rose in a manner tied to dose. The average rise at 12 mg came to about 6.7 beats per minute, with a peak near week 24 that then eased back toward baseline between weeks 36 and 48.1

That bump in heart rate exceeds the figures reported for Mounjaro (roughly 2 to 4 bpm) and Wegovy (roughly 1 to 4 bpm).4

What probably explains it is retatrutide's glucagon component. Resting energy expenditure is increased by the glucagon receptor, and that generally pushes heart rate upward

 

[Hueco]

There are many things that can make your pulse go up, so suggest she pick up a blood pressure cuff — you can find them for cheap on amazon.

Since pulse is only half the picture, she should find out what her systolic and diastolic readings actually are; a low BP, for instance, will drive pulse upward and can make anxiety worse too.

Not drinking enough fluids is something seen often in people using reta and in those who are overweight, and it raises pulse as well — how much depends on how severe it is, and it can push it quite high.

If she has long-standing anxiety, then that is pretty clearly the likely culprit.

A rate of 130bpm during very light physical activity is somewhat high, though that also comes down to her fitness level and, of course, her anxiety.

Given her anxiety, I'd say Tirzepatide is the safer option here.

 

[lessthanhalf]

A resting pulse of 70 shouldn't worry anyone in the slightest. When you're active, heart rates swing widely, and the main factor is how fit your cardiovascular system is — but 130 while just walking around doesn't sound problematic. That figure is roughly what mine hits when I walk at a moderately brisk pace, and it's clearly above average or ideal for simply walking, pointing to poor fitness, though it isn't dangerous. All of this assumes there's no diagnosed cardiovascular disease and the person isn't elderly. Since the dose is only 1mg, anxiety alone could be the entire explanation rather than the reta.

Where reta and anxiety intersect is that it does have a tendency to raise heart rate, and to a greater extent than the other GLPs. A faster heart rate — or, more significantly, palpitations, where your heartbeat becomes noticeable — is itself an anxiety symptom, and it tends to feed back on itself, ramping up both anxiety and heart rate further. How much anxiety the person deals with, and how severe the current issue is after that first reta dose, determines whether switching to tirz is worthwhile. Telling them the present heart rate isn't dangerous and is highly unlikely to cause any problems may help them stop fixating on it. But once that cycle gets going in someone prone to anxiety, it can be difficult to break — in which case tirz is probably a simple fix. And it's certainly the better choice if medication is required to bring the anxiety down.

 

[Redz]

Mine actually went down with Reta. As for my wife, she hasn't seen any rise either — her pulse basically held steady rather than dropping.

 

[noria18]

I was sitting still and my pulse was running between 90 and 110, so I ended up stopping.

 

[littlerestraint]

ladyj779 said:

For certain users, reta causes an increase in resting heart rate as well as heart rate during workouts.

For those who deal with anxiety, it can push hr up too.

I'm a 46yr female, and my rhr went up by ten on reta (low 60s to low 70s). Then at around four months in, it began to come back down.

My heart rate is also elevated on Reta, roughly 8-10 beats higher.

On top of that, I dealt with acid reflux when I started.

 

[RubbaDubba1]

Taurine, which you can buy OTC, may help take the edge off a heart rate that has gone up. It's one of the ingredients added to certain energy drinks. My own routine is 2 grams daily, and I'm taking 3mg of Reta per week.

AI slop:

What Research Shows

A large scientific review, described in Insights into the cardiovascular benefits of taurine and listed on PubMed, reported consistent findings: [1, 2]

• • On average, heart rate fell by 3.6 beats per minute.
  • Systolic and diastolic blood pressure went down a little.
  • These effects showed up in healthy adults as well as in people with heart failure. [1, 2, 3]

 

[Flash-BCR]

I check my BP and pulse a few times each week, and I was doing that long before starting reta at the end of July....Right now I'm on 5mg reta, and neither my BP nor my pulse/HR has moved....That said, I largely agree with woundcarping that anxiety can be what drives HR up, the whole "I just took a drug that is know to cause high HR.." thing, and that extra anxiety gets the heart going, whether there's a drug involved or not....and while it can differ from one person to the next...a .5mg dose doesn't look like something that would produce much of that on its own...

 

[Troglo]

One morning mine climbed past 100. I woke up with a headache, had some Liquid I and a Greek yogurt (20g protein), then walked it off. I couldn't recall anything from the night before that might have triggered those symptoms, though I'd been dwelling on combining reta with tirz, so most likely I slipped into a brief low bp plus anxiety spiral lasting a couple of minutes. Years back I dealt with anxiety, and this felt somewhat different yet familiar.

I held off on one reta dose, and at this point I'm weighing whether to stay on tirz or make the switch to reta.

 

[Valyra]

Hey everyone, I really appreciate all the replies. Reading your messages definitely helped her feel less alone. For context, she stands 172 cm (5'8) and her weight is currently 69 kg (152 lbs). Biking is a big part of her routine and she stays fairly active, so being out of shape or carrying extra weight was never the issue for her.

All in all, things have settled down for her quite a bit, and she realizes that a portion of what she went through might have been in her head. As of right now, she plans to give it a few more days and monitor how she's doing before making up her mind about whether to keep going with her reta journey or call it quits

 

[woundcarping]

Valyra said:

Hey everyone, I really appreciate all the replies. Reading your messages definitely helped her feel less alone. For context, she stands 172 cm (5'8) and her weight is currently 69 kg (152 lbs). Biking is a big part of her routine and she stays fairly active, so being out of shape or carrying extra weight was never the issue for her.

All in all, things have settled down for her quite a bit, and she realizes that a portion of what she went through might have been in her head. As of right now, she plans to give it a few more days and monitor how she's doing before making up her mind about whether to keep going with her reta journey or call it quits

What's the reason a 5'8" Nordic woman with a normal BMI, who rides a bike, and is full of anxiety would be using Reta?

 

[BNLFL]

Anxiety like that is no small matter — it can easily push your heart rate up.

 

[Mavari888]

During my first month, the higher heart rate made me anxious, though things settled once that month passed — and some bread with Nutella helped too (lol). Whether it was my body adjusting over that month or the carbs doing the calming, I can't say, but either way I'm happy with it I also like pinning in the morning rather than at night.

 

[Wakesetter5477]

Mavari888 said:

During my first month, the higher heart rate made me anxious, though things settled once that month passed — and some bread with Nutella helped too (lol). Whether it was my body adjusting over that month or the carbs doing the calming, I can't say, but either way I'm happy with it I also like pinning in the morning rather than at night.

Mavari888 called it before anyone else - the answer to all your problems is bread with Nutella!

 

[Flash-BCR]

Normally I don't feel at ease around folks who deal with heavy anxiety and maintenance...which honestly doesn't do much to explain why the woman I share a home with fits that exact description...the heart wants what the heart wants......still, I understand the OP's predicament more than I'd care to say....