Your heart is supposed to race at certain times,
such as when you're in love.
such as when you're in love.
But if it's always in overdrive, you could have a health problem. "A well-conditioned heart can pump more blood with each stroke, so the heart doesn't need to beat as many times per minute to circulate blood through the body," says Michael Huff, sports performance coordinator at Duke Sports Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.
A resting heart rate of 60 to 100 beats per minute is considered normal, though highly conditioned athletes may drop as low as 40, says David Berkoff, an assistant emergency medicine professor at Duke University.
A resting heart rate above 100 beats per minute is a potential problem. An elevated rate can be a sign of many things, such as heart disease, infection, and even arthritis. Some drugs, prescription and otherwise, can also raise your heart rate.
The best time to check your resting heart rate is first thing upon waking. Use the index and middle fingers of one hand to find your pulse along the wrist of the other hand, just below the base of your thumb. Count the beats for 15 seconds and then multiply by four.
If you don't have a stopwatch handy, just lie in bed and wait for the minute hand to change on your alarm clock. Then count your heart beats for a full minute (until the minute hand changes again). See your doctor if you consistently count 100 beats or more per minute.
No comments:
Post a Comment