The Beats Per Minute that Show Your Poor Heart Health

The rate at which your heart beats when it is resting is a determinant of your physical fitness and also indicates how your hormones and nervous system are operating. A normal resting heartbeat is one that beats 60-100 times per minute and it is accepted medical wisdom that those who are most physically active will have a lower resting heart rate.

New research in Denmark has now revealed that the risk of death is higher the higher the resting heart rate, no matter how fit an individual is. Researchers examined the data of around 3,000 men who had been participating in the Copenhagen Male Study since 1970, which had been established to monitor the cardiovascular health of middle-aged men.

The men’s cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed at their initial participation in the study, while they were quizzed about their health and lifestyle, such as exercise and smoking. A decade and a half later, they were given a further check-up that measured height, weight, blood pressure and blood glucose, and their resting heart rate was also noted.

By 2001, 39% of the men had died and the researchers examined their data to explore if heart rate affected the death rate. Their study confirmed the conventional wisdom that the men with a high resting heart rate were less physically fit than others, had higher blood pressure and were heavier, while men who were physically active had lower resting heart rates.

What their study did reveal was that regardless of fitness levels, a higher resting heart rate brought a higher risk of death. A resting heart rate of 51-80 bpm (beats per minute) brought a 40-50% increased risk of death. At 81-90 bpm, the risk of death doubled when compared with the men who had the lowest rate of bpm.

The researchers concluded that ever 10-22 additional bpm in a resting heart rate will increase the risk of death by an overall 16%. Smokers face a higher risk when compared with non-smokers.

The study suggests that a high resting heart rate is not simply an indication of a person’s poor physical fitness but should be considered as an independent risk factor for death.

The Beats Per Minute that Show Your Poor Heart Health

Categories: blood pressure, health, Heart Rate, high resting, higher risk, physical fitness, physically active, researchers examined, resting heart, resting heart rate, risk

Exercising: How to Know When Enough is Enough

With spring finally here, you’re only a hop, skip and a jump away from summer. This can make you want to ramp up your fitness training, in order to get beach body-ready, what if you’re putting your wellbeing at risk? How can you tell if your exercise regime is doing more harm than good to your wellness?

Exercising for up to 90 minutes several days a week is usually a good thing for most healthy people, but you are an individual and you need to take into account your fitness level and how your body responds. Overzealous training can actually weaken your immune system and increase your risk of injury and illness, so when you see the following signs, it’s time to ease off the exercise.

Firstly, are you feeling exhausted, rather than energized? You know you’ve gone overboard when you leave the gym ready for a nap. Are you also tucked up in bed because you’re feeling under the weather? If you get ill a lot, this could be a sign that you’re overtraining. When you exercise too much, your immune system becomes suppressed, and this makes it harder to fight off cold viruses.

However, when you are laid out on the sofa, it’s a good time to check your pulse. If your resting heart rate is higher than usual, this is a sign that you need to give your body a rest. Even if you have a mere 10% increase in your resting heart rate, it can signal that your body needs time to recover. Do your legs feel heavy? If a lead feeling in your legs has taken the spring out of your step, they may need a rest. During the recovery time, try stretching, self massage with an arnica anti-inflammatory oil, and warming the muscles with heated pads.

Finally, are you sore all the time? It’s usual, and even a good thing to experience muscle soreness after exercise – how else are you going to know you’ve worked your muscles? However, if you stay sore for more than 48 hours after a workout, you’ve overdone it. You need to ease into exercise, and spend weeks – not days – slowly adding distance or intensity to your workout.

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Exercising: How to Know When Enough is Enough

Categories: body, exercise, feeling, Heart Rate, immune, Muscle Soreness, Overtraining, resting heart, time