An increase in your heart rate and your breathing can be caused by myriad conditions, ranging from anxiety and excitement to physical problems such as atrial fibrillation and asthma. Understand that your heart rate is simply the number of times your heart beats per minute, which is not the same as your blood pressure, which is the force of your blood against the walls of your arteries.
Common Causes
If you have never been diagnosed with any cardiovascular problems, a sudden feeling of your heart rate increasing could be due to something as temporary and immediate as a lot of physical activity or excessive alcohol intake or as complicated as an arrhythmia or thyroid disease. Experiencing increased breathing, usually observed in shorter, deeper breaths, can be due to anxiety or a panic attack or a serious physical ailment such as heart failure.
Exercise
Getting on a treadmill or playing some serious tennis or basketball can boost both your heart rate and your breathing, which makes exercise a prime suspect if you start to have those heart-and-lung symptoms. During exercise, your body needs more oxygen, which will boost your breathing rate to accommodate that need. Your muscles also crave more oxygenated blood, which means your heart will beat faster to meet that demand.
Elevated Heart Rate Over Time
Research shows that having a sustained elevated heart rate for a period of years can significantly raise your risk of death. A study published in the July 2, 2010, issue of "European Heart Journal" found that adults who had a sustained heart rate of at least 84 beats per minute had a 55 percent higher risk of cardiovascular death and a 79 percent higher risk of death from all causes within five years. The individuals in the study all had hypertension.
Serious Conditions
A rapid heart rate and shortness of breath are symptoms of numerous conditions and are often experienced in tandem, particular with some form of heart disease. That's because a heart that is insufficiently pumping blood throughout the body will not supply enough oxygen to muscles and tissue, and will therefore result in shortness of breath. Those cardiovascular conditions include coronary artery disease, heart arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, as well as other conditions such as pneumonia and emphysema.
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