Are you looking for a good indicator of your fitness and heart health? One that is also inexpensive and easy to measure and track? Look no further. Your resting heart rate ticks all those boxes. Keep reading to find out if your pulse is normal and to learn more about low and high resting heart rates, their causes, and their health effects.<\/p>\n
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Your resting heart rate, or pulse, is measured when you are still, calm, and not partaking in any physical activity<\/strong>. It is calculated as the number of heartbeats per minute<\/strong>. It is easy to measure, inexpensive, and can tell you a lot about your health.<\/p>\n You can measure your heart rate simply by checking your pulse. Place two fingers either at your wrist or your neck. Once you feel the pulse, count the beats for 30 seconds and multiply by two in order to get beats per minute (bpm). Alternatively, many devices, such as the apple watch, have the option to track your heart rate.<\/p>\n It’s best if you can check your resting heart rate first thing in the morning<\/strong> before you get up. Your pulse is lower when you are lying down compared to when standing up [R<\/a>]. Also later, during the day, your pulse may get elevated because of stress or physical activity.<\/p>\n Resting heart rate normally ranges from 60 – 100 bpm<\/strong> [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n Being normal doesn’t mean you are healthy though. For example, with a heart rate of 90 beats per minute, while you may not have a medical condition, you are definitely not fit.<\/p>\n Usually, the better shape you’re in the lower your heart rate will be<\/strong>. Basically, you train your heart to work more efficiently by working out. For example, a professional athlete can have a normal resting heart rate as slow as 40 beats per minute [R<\/a>, R<\/a>, R<\/a>].<\/p>\n It’s important to know that both high or low heart rate can point to an underlying health issue.<\/p>\n You should consult a healthcare professional if your resting heart rate is consistently above 100 bpm<\/strong>, or if you are not a trained athlete but your heart rate is below 60 bpm<\/strong>. This is especially the case if you are experiencing symptoms such as weakness, shortness of breath, fainting spells, and chest pain<\/a>.<\/p>\n Heart rate below 60 bpm is considered slow. It is medically referred to as bradycardia. Unless you are a professional athlete, low heart rate is a cause for concern – it means your heart is not able to pump blood effectively to all the organs and tissues that need it [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n Your doctor will run tests if needed and will interpret your heart rate, taking into account your medical history, symptoms, and other test results.<\/p>\n Low heart rate can cause the following symptoms [R<\/a>]:<\/p>\n Causes shown below are commonly associated with a low resting heart rate. Work with your doctor or another health care professional to get an accurate diagnosis.<\/p>\n Apart from being a highly trained athlete, a slow heart rate is usually caused by an underlying issue. Work with your doctor or another healthcare practitioner to find and treat the cause.<\/p>\n You have a high resting heart rate if your pulse is above 100 bpm. This is medically referred to as tachycardia [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n In most cases, an elevated heart rate is due to exercising, an emotional reaction, or stress<\/strong>. However, it can also be a result of a serious underlying health issue [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n Your doctor will interpret your resting heart rate, taking into account your medical history, symptoms, and other test results.<\/p>\n When your heart is beating fast it can fail to effectively pump blood to the rest of the body. As a result, your tissues may not get enough oxygen. This can result in [R<\/a>, R<\/a>]:<\/p>\n Causes shown below are commonly associated with a high resting heart rate. Work with your doctor or another health care professional to get an accurate diagnosis.<\/p>\n Faster heart rate is linked to a higher risk of developing hypertension (high blood pressure) [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n In two meta-analyses, researchers found that a high resting heart rate was associated with an increased risk of heart disease, heart failure, stroke, and heart-disease-related mortality<\/strong> (risk of death) [R<\/a>, R<\/a>].<\/p>\n Elevated resting heart rate is related to sympathetic nervous activity (fight or flight response), which is linked to insulin<\/a> resistance<\/a> and increased insulin levels [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n In a cross-sectional study of over 9k people, a high resting heart rate was associated with high glucose<\/a> levels (pre-diabetes) [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n In another study of 15k adults, higher resting heart rates were associated with diabetes and death due to diabetes [R<\/a>].<\/p>\n These studies point to association, but can’t be used to differentiate between cause and effect.<\/p>\n In various studies (2 meta-analyses and a prospective study), higher resting heart rates, especially older adults, were associated with a higher risk of dying (all-cause mortality) [R<\/a>, R<\/a>, R<\/a>].<\/p>\n The most important thing is to work with your doctor to find out what’s causing your high phosphate and to treat any underlying conditions!<\/p>\n Discuss the additional lifestyle changes with your doctor. None of these strategies should ever be done in place of what your doctor recommends or prescribes!<\/p>\n Are you looking for a good indicator of your fitness and heart health? One that is also inexpensive and easy to measure and track? Look no further. Your resting heart rate ticks all those boxes. Keep reading to find out if your pulse is normal and to learn more about low and high resting heart rates, their causes, and their health effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14185,"featured_media":47446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[363],"tags":[279],"yst_prominent_words":[8265,16613,16614,15678,15674,8263,15684,15677,15676,515,529,593,16616,16615,15671,8266,8261,15675,15673,16625],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56950"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91058,"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56950\/revisions\/91058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56950"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfhacked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=56950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Normal Range – How Do You Compare?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>Low Resting Heart Rate<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Symptoms of Low Resting Heart Rate<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Causes of Low Resting Heart Rate<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Ways To Increase Resting Heart Rate<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>High Resting Heart Rate<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Symptoms of High Resting Heart Rate<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Causes of High Resting Heart Rate<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Health Effects of High Resting Heart Rate<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>1) Heart Disease and Stroke Risk<\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/a>2) Diabetes<\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/a>3) Mortality<\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/a>Ways to Decrease Resting Heart Rate<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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