Grab your heart and hold on to the chair
The higher the pulse at rest, the higher the risk of premature death
The increased heart rate observed at rest indicates a high risk of premature death even in physically active people. Previously, it was believed that this relationship is observed only in those who rarely exercise. The results of the study are published in the journal BMJ: Heart (Elevated resting heart rate, physical fitness and all-cause mortality: a 16-year follow-up in the Copenhagen Male Study).
The heart rate at rest is determined by many factors – the degree of physical fitness of a person, hormones circulating in his blood, the work of the autonomous nervous system. A pulse from 60 to 100 beats per minute is considered normal for a state of rest. In more trained people, the pulse at rest is usually lower than in untrained people. However, the effect of heart rate at rest on the risk of death, regardless of the level of physical fitness of a person, has not yet been studied by scientists.
The authors of the work resorted to the data of a large Danish study Copenhagen Male Study. It was launched in 1970-1971 in 14 large firms in Copenhagen to monitor the health of the cardiovascular system of male employees. For their study, the authors selected data on 3 thousand men, whose observation lasted 16 years. At the beginning of the study and throughout it, doctors assessed the health of men using bicycle ergometry at 3 load levels, measured their height, weight, pulse, blood pressure, glucose and blood lipids.
16 years later, in 2001, the authors of the study collected information from Danish registers about which of these men is still alive. It turned out that 39 percent of the participants (1082 people) had already died by that time. After analyzing their medical data, the researchers were once again convinced that rapid heartbeat at rest was more typical for physically inactive people, and in more athletic men, the pulse at rest was lower. However, the higher the pulse at rest, the higher the risk of premature death, regardless of the level of physical fitness of the man. So, a pulse between 81 and 90 beats per minute doubles the risk of premature death, and a pulse above 90 beats per minute triples it. For people who smoke, the risk is even higher.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru23.04.2013