Resting Heart Rate Increase has been Linked to a Higher Chance of Death

A study conducted at the Medical College of Qingdao has shown that resting heart rate increase has been linked to a higher chance of death. By having an increased resting heart rate, the chances of death due to both heart related or non-related issues grows exponentially.

The study was comprised of 46 individual assessments containing almost 1.3 million patients, out of which 78.349 people who died of various health problems and approximately 850.000 patients with 25.800 deaths due to heart diseases. By comparing all the cases that were studied, researchers have attained an interesting piece of information.

With every increase of about 10 beats per minute in resting heart rate, the chances of death occurring from either cardiovascular related problems or all causes in general increased by 8.5%.

The resting heart rate refers to the amount of beats per minute that a heart has when the subject is not subjected to any physical effort. The average rate of an adult ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute, and it defines how efficient the heart is and the fitness of the cardiovascular system. For instance, an athlete who works out daily may have a heart rate close to 40 beats per minute.

Because of its association with both cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular morality, by checking the resting heart rate periodically, people will be able to tell if their physical condition is up to speed or not. One of the ways through which one can lower their resting heart rates is working out a couple of times a week or attempt to have a more active lifestyle because sedentarism will eventually raise the resting heart rate. Even by simply walking longer distances every day, the heart will slowly start to regain its fitness and with it, the rate will lower.

Even if this increased chance of mortality might seem high, doctors and researchers involved in this study had claimed that the absolute risk is still small. You will not die from just the increased resting heart rate, it is simply a way of finding out if the heart itself is subjected to strain caused by other afflictions or not. It is merely a predictor of future cardiovascular or non cardiovascular accidents that may or may not happen in the near future.

With the study results which show that resting heart rate increase has been linked to a higher chance of death comes the ever present advice of working out more or ditching a sedentary lifestyle once again, with the hope of lowering the mortality rate along with it.

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