Tuesday, 16 April 2013

Fast Resting Pulse may Increase the Risk of Death

"Heart rate and risk of death"
The risk of death is higher among people having fast resting pulse rate even if they are physically fit, according to the new study published in the journal of Heart. Researchers concluded that men with “high end of normal” resting heart rate of 90 beats per minute had greater risk of death in comparison to those who have a slower pulse rate.


This study was conducted on 3,000 men from Denmark for a duration of 16 years. There is a need of much more research in order to confirm and understand this link between pulse rate and death risk, said by some experts.

Researchers during this study have only evaluated the medical records of participants but did not determine the level of their fitness. So there is some sort of possible effect of fitness on this study.
It was suggested by study authors that it is a risk factor for a person if he  has fast resting pulse rate when he is inactive for a period of five minutes, regardless of his physical fitness and if the rate of heart during rest is higher it will ultimately increase the risk of death.

It has already been confirmed by doctors that if a patient has resting heart rate 100 bpm or more, can be risky and up the probability of heart diseases.

Doireann Maddock of the British Heart Foundation said: “Despite this research, we don’t yet know for sure if an elevated resting heart rate is an independent risk factor for mortality.

“The research had its limitations because it only looked at healthy, middle-aged and elderly Caucasian men and so the findings may not necessarily apply to the general population in the UK.

“Rather than worrying about these findings, you’d be better off focusing on stopping smoking, maintaining healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels, keeping active and watching your weight.

“Anyone aged 40 or over should also contact their GP surgery for an NHS Health Check, which fully assesses your risk of heart disease and then helps you stay heart healthy.”

Read full article here.

Source: Journal of Heart

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