Slow Resting Heart Rate
 

Just renewed my class 1 and the cardiogram registered an 'abnormal' as my resting heart rate is 42bpm. Blood pressure is 111/72. I am 41 years old, weigh 13st 9lb and 6ft tall.

Doc says it is nothing to worry about as I am so fit (I am currently rowing 1 million metres for charity!) but the machine flags anything up under 50 as 'abnormal'. My question is twofold;

1. Why is a resting heart rate less than 50 considered abnormal, as the fitter you are the lower it gets right?

2. What exactly does the blood pressure result mean? What are the 111 and the 72? He commented that would be a good blood pressure in a teenager, so I guess it is good, but what is the range of 'normal' figures?

Thanks

PP

It doesn't sound like you have much to worry about PP, but you have raised an interesting point.

If man wasn't exposed to "modern ways" his average resting pulse would be simillar to yours, his cholerol would be about 3, and his bp would actually be lower than yours (about 90/60).

The machine is set to flag up anything outside a "Joe Average" range.

Joe average in your neck of the woods (apart from the Muslei belt of Bowdon), can't cook proper food, is exposed to all sorts of rubbish, texts people instead of riding/running/rowing round to their house, and eats Kentucky Fried Chicken. (They do taste good I have to admit.)

Joe Average doesn't work out and swim/row millions of lengths, it sounds like you're normal and the rest of the world is a bit out of sorts.

Enjoy your longevity, and don't try and medicalise a problem when it 'aint a problem. If your doc says your ok, accept it.:)

PP,

I had a similar problem recently, although my heart rate wasn't quite that low. The doc had me do a bit of running on the spot for 30 sec and then re-checked. Apparently there is a dangerous condition where you can have a low heart rate that doesn't respond to the demands of activity.

The blood pressure is dystolic/systolic (hope I got them the right way around!). The high number is the maximum pressure of your pulse, and the low number is the pressure between heartbeats.

Keep rowing!:ok:

It's called "heart block", and occurs in several very different forms.
The range of severity is from totally trivial to life-threatening. The
more serious varieties require a pacemaker to be fitted to keep the heart
beating fast enough.

Hope the rowing's going well Pete ! Several leaflets have been picked up !

"If man wasn't exposed to "modern ways" his average resting pulse would be similar to yours,.............."

And figuring in a pediatric death rate of a generous 1 in 3, his life expectancy would be around 35....

:ok:

PS: Ya need to be a bit careful with very fit young people with low resting heart rates. Under anesthesia, manoevres that increase vagal tone (like eyeball pressure when reducing zygomatocomalar fractures) can lead to extreme bradycardia or even sinus arrest with brown trousers for all.

Forewarned is forearmed (with a bit of atropine or glycopyrrolate)!

:E

Nothing to worry about if you are a C2 rower! I am 45, resting heart rate 40, C2 marathon time 2h48m20s. Any other C2 rowers out there? Maybe we could start a pilot rowing group on the C2 website?

Pilot Pete

You are obviously very fit, and in the absence of any other significant medical history, there is nothing to worry about at this time. Its not like its medication induced, in which case your cardiac reserve would be depleted.

You are maintaining a great blood pressure, with what sounds like great stroke volume ie your heart whilst it is beating 'slower' actually has more time to fill with blood between beats. Its called 'Starlings Law'.

There is evidence that later in life this can pre-dispose you to "athletes heart" and potential electrical conduction abnormailities of you myocardium (heart muscle) usually in the form of Sino-atrial arrest (pauses). But whilst you are still young - enjoy.:)

Yeh fair comment, can't help wondering if all this running around lowering peoples bp's and lipid levels, is just replacing one cause of death with another.

T'was always thus.

Generations ago, people died from TB, pneumonia, and infection, then antibiotics improved longevity so that many died from heart attacks in their late fifties or sixties, then bypasses and lipitor kept them going until the cancers kicked-in in their seventies.

I suspect when a cure is found for prostate cancer then we will have wards full of Alzheimers patients in their late eighties. There is no easy answer to this one.

yeh, my comment was a bit tongue in cheek, I guess all we can do is shift the Bell Curve.

Although that in itself is ok.

an alternative . . . . . .
 

My plan is to live until somewhere in my late eighties too . . . . . but I'd like to be shot by my younger lover's jealous husband ! :D

He he he ! !

whilst out jetskiing.:}

Gotta say, I was always one of these "don't wanna live tillI'm 80" brigade, until an elderly chap once piped up, "I'll ask you that when you're 79"

I'd love to tell you more about one of my fittest patients, confidentiality rules dictate I can't, I just hope I'm up to his tricks when I'm his age...:\

(He's 86 and fitter than me)

Pete. I'm late forties and very fit. I had my medical recently and had very similar readings. The AME quipped that some people pay lots of money for blood pressure and heart rate like yours.