Slow heart rate - bradycardia

WandaVaughn
WandaVaughn Posts: 420 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anybody else deal with this issue? I went for my physical a few days ago and my pulse was 40. I'm an almost 53 year old woman, at a healthy weight, and a runner. It still seems very slow to me.

Replies

  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    If you just went for your physical, your doctor must've weighed in on this? I would go with what he says about it. Bradicardia is not unusual at all for people in good shape who are getting regular exercise. My pulse is sometimes in the mid-high 40's at night; never as low as 40, but that's a matter of degree not of kind. Lower at night if I've had a vigorous workout that day - the connection is pretty clear.
  • CardinalComb
    CardinalComb Posts: 66 Member
    Seems really low. Shouldn't you be at about 65 bpm? Are you a top tier marathon runner? What did your doctor say?
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,833 Member
    It's pretty low, but not extremely surprising either for a runner. Only you know if it's unusual or not: is this a new thing, your heart rate used to be higher? Or has it always been on the lower end of the spectrum?

    My HR drops to the 40's during my period and is in the 50's otherwise. And I'm not even very fit (yet), it's just genetic I think. Even obese and unfit my RHR was still in the 60's. Some people just have a lower heart rate, and combined with regular exercice it can lead to a RHR like yours.
  • RunsWithBees
    RunsWithBees Posts: 1,508 Member
    edited October 2020
    My resting pulse rate is 44, I’m a runner and age 46 but have no symptoms of a slow heart rate so it’s just “my normal”. If you do have bradycardia you would have very noticeable symptoms: fatigue, dizziness, lightheadedness, confusion, fainting, shortness of breath, difficulty exercising, etc. Are you having any of these symptoms and did your doctor actually diagnose you with bradycardia?
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,374 Member
    CardinalComb wrote: »
    Seems really low. Shouldn't you be at about 65 bpm? Are you a top tier marathon runner? What did your doctor say?

    No... I am still in the obese BMI range but I ride road bicycle 5 days a week and my RHR is in the low 50's. I expect that as I lose more of the weight, that will come down into the 40's.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    CardinalComb wrote: »
    Seems really low. Shouldn't you be at about 65 bpm? Are you a top tier marathon runner? What did your doctor say?

    How did you come up with 65 bpm instead of some other number?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,216 Member
    edited October 2020
    RunsWithBees wrote: »
    My resting pulse rate is 44, I’m a runner and age 46 but have no symptoms of a slow heart rate so it’s just “my normal”. If you do have bradycardia you would have very noticeable symptoms: fatigue, dizziness, lightheadedness, confusion, fainting, shortness of breath, difficulty exercising, etc. Are you having any of these symptoms and did your doctor actually diagnose you with bradycardia?

    This.

    I set off the bradycardia alarms at an outpatient surgery center a couple of years back (before any sedatives!). My surgeon was actually pretty enthusiastic about it: "It's fitness induced bradycardia! You're probably fitter than the whole lot of us here!"

    IMU, it's still technically bradycardia, but if fitness induced, not a problematic health condition.

    My resting rate per my tracker is usually in the low 50s, but frequently drops into the mid-40s during sleep. I'm active but far short of an elite marathoner. (I'm a recreational rower, usually 30-60 minutes of cardio 6 days a week, right now 3 days of strength training on top of that - nothing extraordinary.) I'll be 65 next month.

    I read a book** about a couple who row/kayak near the arctic circle. The author mentioned resting awake in her tent when well into one of these SS cardio intense trips, pinned down by weather, and finding that her resting heart rate was 36. Healthy, just super active.

    ** Excellent book, "Rowing to Latitude" by Jill Fredston.
  • WandaVaughn
    WandaVaughn Posts: 420 Member
    Thanks for the replies. I try not to worry about the low heart rate. The doctor didn't seem too concerned, so I shouldn't be.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    WandaVaughn wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies. I try not to worry about the low heart rate. The doctor didn't seem too concerned, so I shouldn't be.

    If he had used English and said you have a lower than normal heart rate instead of using the medical term derived from Greek (the brady part means slow and the cardia part means heart) you wouldn't presumably have been concerned.

    There's a world of difference between slower than average HR with adverse symptoms (which your Doctor would have mentioned) and slower than average HR with no symptoms.
  • Onedaywriter
    Onedaywriter Posts: 326 Member
    I have Bradycardia. My resting heart rate is approx 40 - 43 bpm. I had it even when very out of shape. Drs have told me not to worry about it unless it becomes an issue.
    My heat rate seems to rise when I workout, but I do have a hard time reaching “ target” heart rate. No biggie though.
  • Fflpnari
    Fflpnari Posts: 975 Member
    My heart rate will go into the 30's while im awake. cardiology isnt concerned.
  • djaxon1
    djaxon1 Posts: 82 Member
    Only been exercising 14mths resting hr 47-49 , goes down to 42 sleeping . 62yrs , bmi 27
    Youngest daughter's is mostly 90+
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    Runners have lower heart rates and I would expect most doctors know this. Last time I was in the hospital, the lowest setting before it alarmed was 45 bpm and they changed the alarm on the heart rate monitor so that it only went to the nurse station rather than beeping in the room. Otherwise, I was just going to have to figure out how to sleep through the alarm.

    Fun fact: Garmins (or at least the Fenix 3 HR) will not display if your HR is less than 20. It just shows that there is no pulse. I know this from when I was dipping once and noticed it would cut out below 20. Manually checking my pulse came out to 17 bpm as that was happening.

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