# How fast/slow is your heart rate? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 4, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738 "2023-03-04T22:45:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2023, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/21 "2023-03-05T16:19:50Z")
I’m in the 60s bpm range. (my watch says average resting heart rate today is 59) My wife is in the 80s and 90s. Her doctor is completely unconcerned. Everyone’s different, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2023, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/22 "2023-03-05T17:28:27Z")
I think so! Still bottom line is basic. > [@](#): > > At present, there is not enough information to justify treating individuals who have sinus tachycardia without evidence of underlying disease in order to slow the heart rate. It is reasonable, however, to instruct ‘healthy’ individuals with a fast heart rate to avoid stimulants such as caffeine, smoking, alcohol, etc. Regular aerobic exercise and maintenance of normal body weight also is suggested (table [2](https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/435947#T02)). In patients with an underlying disease and a fast heart rate, management using current knowledge, mild-to-moderate regular aerobic exercise, and common sense are important. My WAG is that fast heart rate itself can have some negative impacts but that it is more reflective of negative factors (baseline inflammation, fast metabolism, poor fitness …). On the low side, absent caused by disease state or induced, low heart rate is reflective of some fortuitous genetic factors, allowed by maintaining reasonable conditioning, and the lack of negative conditions. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2023, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/23 "2023-03-05T17:37:44Z")
I just checked mine and it’s at 78, but I just got up and took cookies out of the oven, so that’s not resting rate. Since there’s been a small outbreak of covid in the building, exercise classes have been shut down. That’s problematic for older folks who really need to be moving around. Hopefully things will resume in this coming week. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2023, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/24 "2023-03-05T21:23:39Z")
Like many Dopers I am always above average. (that is a joke). RHR was just 95, usually around 100. Don’t worry, I am under treatment for atrial fibrillation and systolic heart failure. I was just minding my own business this summer but having trouble sleeping. I attributed it to the graveyard shift I was working and the overly hot summer we were having. Couldn’t sleep more than an hour and when I woke I had to, had to, sit up. Turns out this is a symptom of heart failure. My PCP doctor was winding up his practice and retiring so I didn’t want to be one of those patients that can’t let go, so I put off going to the doctor. Finally went in October. He said it sounds like some A-fib but we need to do a EKG/ECG first and my machine is broken, so just go over to the hospital and they will let you just do a walk-in. So that is what I did. The tech guy looked at it and said that he needed another set of eyes to look at it. Came back and told me to go back downstairs, turn right, and there is a big entrance that says EMERGENCY, go in there. I felt fine but they kept me for a couple of days, did some tests, charged me a fortune for whatching reruns of Bonanza, the usual hospital experience. So anyway my treatment is working fine, lost 21 lbs probably mostly water weight, just wore a Holter monitor for a couple days this week to track heart performance. Next up is another echocardiagram. I still feel just fine. Losartan potassium for blood pressure. Also lots and lots of Metoprolol. Rat poison (Warfarin) for blood thinner. Torsemide to make me pee every 5 minutes all afternoon. And something called Spironolactone which is supposed to keep the water pills from washing out too much potassium but just makes everything, everything taste bitter. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2023, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/25 "2023-03-05T21:56:23Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > RHR in the 40s? Amazing. Maybe it’s genetic? I don’t think I’m genetically atypical, but I got my resting heart rate down to high 40s in my youth with a serious regime of endurance training for competitive cycling (several hundred miles a week). But world class cyclists with both genetic gifts _and_ serious training regimes have reported values in the 20s. It’s unclear, however, to what extent such extreme values were also a result of EPO abuse. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2023, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/26 "2023-03-05T22:22:28Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > I’m almost 63 and my resting HR is 50-52. That’s fantastic. Curious, do you drink caffeine? ---
**Author:** ![EnglishGrey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/englishgrey/32/14111_2.png) [@EnglishGrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnglishGrey)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2023, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/27 "2023-03-05T22:30:01Z")
61yo, resting heart rate over last 7 days (according to my watch) is 53. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2023, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/28 "2023-03-05T22:36:56Z")
Just in sodas. 2-3 a day. I ride my handcycle 140-160 miles/week and lift 5 days/week. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/29 "2023-03-06T02:32:22Z")
So playing on Google Scholar there are all sorts of interesting associations. [In a large population](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=20&q=resting+heart+rate+averages&hl=en&as_sdt=0,14#d=gs_qabs&t=1678067855500&u=%23p%3DewaXj4-dF3gJ): > [@](#): > > Participants had mean ± SD age of 58 ± 6 years; 56% were women, 24% black. Average RHR was 66 ± 10 beats/min. Over a mean follow-up of 20 years, those with RHR ≥80 beats/min had greater global cognitive decline (average adjusted Z-score difference −0.12 [95% confidence interval −0.21, −0.03]) and increased risk for incident dementia (hazard ratio 1.28 (1.04, 1.57), compared with those with RHR \<60 beats/min. In conclusion, elevated RHR is independently associated with greater cognitive decline and incident dementia over 20 years. > > Further studies are needed to determine whether the associations are causal or secondary to another underlying process, and whether modification of RHR can affect cognitive decline. On the other hand not all studies have the lowest group with the best outcomes… highest group more later diagnoses of anxiety, OCD, and schizophrenia, but lowest more substance abuse disorder and violent criminality. > **[Resting Heart Rate and Blood Pressure and Subsequent Mental Disorders](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2569454)** > > This longitudinal, population-based study investigates whether differences in cardiac autonomic function as indexed by resting heart rate and blood pressure are associated with psychiatric disorders during the lifetime of men in Sweden. That future tendency to violent crime has been [replicated](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C14&q=resting+heart+rate+adolescent&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1678069766839&u=%23p%3DCenGJlyAO5gJ) and extended to females too. Huh. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/30 "2023-03-06T02:33:28Z")
I’m typically around 70/72. Only time I’ve been in the 60s (or dipping into the high 50s) was when I was running a serious 30-40 miles per week, about fifteen years ago. Even when I ran track in high school, resting rate was around 70. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/31 "2023-03-06T09:44:35Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Couldn’t sleep more than an hour and when I woke I had to, had to, sit up. Turns out this is a symptom of heart failure. This describes something that happenend to me when I was 20. In the summer of 1995, I woke up several times about 1h after falling asleep, feeling dizzy and distressed, exactly like you describe. It was so sudden and got so bad that I actually went to see a doctor and was prescribed beta-blockers and an ECG test. During the latter, I remember that machine made a weird noise at one point, prompting the technician to mumble “Hmmm, unusual” but when I asked what was up he told me not to worry. The beta-blockers really helped and the symptoms stoppped after a couple of months. Could it be that I’ve been living on borrowed time for the past 28 years ? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/32 "2023-03-06T10:17:49Z")
My watch gives a 1-year average of 57 bpm (resting), though some months it’ll be at 62ish, and other months less than that. The total range was 44 to 194 (the 194 was when I went ice skating around Christmastime). I might average a bit less if I stopped drinking coffee… but I don’t want to. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/33 "2023-03-06T13:47:44Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > When should you worry? When the people around your hospital bed yell, “CLEAR”. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/34 "2023-03-06T15:13:39Z")
I’m female age 61. My resting BPM is 57. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/35 "2023-03-06T15:34:12Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > RHR in the 40s? Amazing. Maybe it’s genetic? We should mention that this could imply something else about @DSeid. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Hannibal/comments/5kpnck/i\_think\_hannibals\_most\_interesting\_trait\_is\_his/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Hannibal/comments/5kpnck/i_think_hannibals_most_interesting_trait_is_his/) ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/36 "2023-03-06T16:00:36Z")
I do love fava beans. And coffee beans!! Not that anyone asked me but I drink lots of coffee. But it does speak to the last set of studies I linked to, the association of low heart rate with future violent criminality, especially when it is not a result of being very athletic. To be sure a 20 to 30% increased risk still means that the vast majority are not violent. Still. Hypotheses include that high parasympathetic tone (low arousal) increases a tendency to be arousal seeking, or that it results in less fearfulness, or less awareness that there is something to fear, less warning from our bodies of maybe think about this … who knows though? Unstudied is if low heart rate is also over represented among those who choose to do something heroic when put in that place. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/37 "2023-03-06T16:16:36Z")
Mine’s around 50 since I lost a bunch of weight. I suffer from occasional BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo), and last time I went to doc for an episode, she had me do full cardiac workup, including week-long wearing of monitor (not a Holter, but a more modern version). Which I did, despite it costing me a few $hundred, since it had been a while. All was fine; next time I saw her I said, “That was just defensive, right?” and she said “Yeah, pulse below 60 PLUS vertigo means I kinda of have to send you for workup, even though you’ve been bradycardic for years and have had BPPV off and on for longer.” Gotta love American medicine+law. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/38 "2023-03-06T16:27:41Z")
> [@phs3](#): > > Gotta love American medicine+law. I’m not sure what your compliant is. I assume the standard practice (even if “defensive”) is designed to save lives. It should be expected that not everyone who takes a particular test will have concerning results. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/39 "2023-03-06T16:29:38Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > It should be expected that not everyone who takes a particular test will have concerning results. Also, the patient is always free to decline whatever tests their physician recommends. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738/40 "2023-03-06T16:33:13Z")
As I understand it, heart failure or poor heart function can cause flluid to build up in your lungs when lying down resulting in a strong urge to sit up and sometimes to seek fresh air by opening a window. For me the Metoprolol (beta blocker) and the water pills have taken care of that and I now sleep just fine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-fast-slow-is-your-heart-rate/980738.md?page=3)