27 replies to this topic

[Jembe]

I'm a 26 year old male and for years I've had a high resting heart rate, around 85-90. This has remain unchanged since getting into way better shape by going from 211 lbs (6'1" height) to my current 185 with more muscle. Sometimes after a lot of activity and less than ideal eating (though nothing crazy these days) I'll keep a 100-110 RHR for the rest of the day, until I get a night's sleep.

I've done a chest x-ray and on the spot + 24h EKG's and supposedly they didn't reveal anything out of order. I also used to get quite severe skipped heartbeats after big meals or at seemingly random times, but since eating better, exercising, and taking magnesium, I only get them during the aforementioned scenarios that kick up my RHR. I don't get them otherwise, and when I do they're lighter than the scary show stoppers of the past.

The high HRH remains, though. I've been going to the gym for quite a while, doing lifting and some occasional running. Any advice on what could cause this and what I could possibly do to lower or control my HRH?

[MrHappy]

Do you get enough magnesium?

[Jembe]

Been taking 400mg magnesium citrate a day since a few months back.

Edited by Jembe, 17 December 2012 - 10:14 AM.

[sthira]

Have you tried slowing and deepening your breathing, eg, your exhale?

[goatz]

I had an operation recently where I was hooked up to a heart rate monitor. The whole time my heart rate was sat at 51, which apparently puts me in the bracket of an elite athlete! my blood pressure on the other hand was a different matter.

I am 32, eat ok (tend to pig out on carbs from time to time), do some cardio (5k run on sand once a week) but mainly my exercise is strength training (squats, pull ups, press, etc)

I think the strength training is what has influenced my good heart rate number.

Edited by goatz, 17 December 2012 - 06:16 PM.

[gn1tmac]

resting heart rate is variable, more so than blood pressure. generally speaking if you are in good health and not on any drugs your resting heart rate should be normal. you can lower it by improving your fitness. my resting heart rate is anywhere from 35-40bpm. if i were to stop training it would be 50-60bpm in 6 weeks

[MrHappy]

This was an interesting read:
http://www.eurekaler...i-ant121912.php

[Jembe]

This was an interesting read:
http://www.eurekaler...i-ant121912.php

Well, I was born in 1986 in one of the regions of Sweden most affected by Chernobyl fallout. An acquaintence in Australia, born in the same year, had thyroid cancer and had to have surgery. Long shot?

[Kevnzworld]

Did they give you an oxygen saturation test? HRH can be a sign of pulmonary insufficiency. I had a pulmonary embolism years ago, and HRH was the first sign of a problem.

[Jembe]

Nope. I did a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VO2_max and it reported "very low". I can work out pretty well but running is difficult. I think 17 minutes on a treadmill is my record, I could push maybe a minute or two more before simply falling off. I can walk quite briskly for a long time though; it seems my capacity goes down very sharply once a certain threshold of exertion is crossed.

[TheKidInside]

without exercise and especially EPOC type stuff and metabolic conditioning, your resting HR will almost never go down. You can meditate all you want in the real world, hustle and bustle of daily metropolitan modern life, it won't work too much.

My resting HR is about 40. Some athletes I work with is about 32. amazing stuff

[Jembe]

Yeah but none of the things I've done has lowered my HRH by a single beat. Working out, losing 40 lbs of fat, sleeping better etc. It seems hardcoded to stay at 85-90.

[TheKidInside]

it depends on the SORT of work outs. I don't think compound lifts will do the job but ballistic and metabolic work outs should...if not there are other hormonal issues at work, IMHO.

[scottknl]

You can still be fat at 185 and 6'2". I didn't get a lower heart rate ~40 bpm until I dropped under 170 or so. Once all the extra fat was gone, so was the high heart rate. I also did lots of running 10K's, so that probably helped too. Lowest heart rate in the morning for me was around 37 or 38. Lately it's in the low 50's.

Edit: I should clarify that if you start thin as a teen and grow up to 185, you're probably not so fat. If you go up to 210 lbs and come back down to 185 and don't have a very well developed muscular physique, then you've probably not hit bottom yet with the fat loss. I topped out at 203 lbs and dropped down to 185 in my own life, then later dropped to 155 with CR. So I've been down a similar road in some ways.

Edited by scottknl, 14 January 2013 - 02:52 AM.

[anatomicalodyssey]

Ive actually been readimg longecity for a bit, but am only now making an account as I have been searching for similar answers.

My restimg heart rate stays at 110; I am 5"7, 103lbs, and a very active vegetatian.I have never experienced any drastic fluctuation in my body weight or diet and eat a fairly balanced diet.

[anatomicalodyssey]

Since I do not having editing capabilities, or else am to ignorant to locate them, I wanted to apologize for the above cell phone errors.

[Eng_Girl]

Is it possible you have inappropriate sinus tachycardia? If you do, it would mean that you have a high resting heart rate (averaging at least 90bpm, over a 24 hour period) and then as soon as you do anything, walking, climbing upstairs, etc... your heart rate jumps up even more.
By the way, it's classified as inappropriate as no normal cause of the tachycardia can be found.

[Jembe]

Is it possible you have inappropriate sinus tachycardia? If you do, it would mean that you have a high resting heart rate (averaging at least 90bpm, over a 24 hour period) and then as soon as you do anything, walking, climbing upstairs, etc... your heart rate jumps up even more.
By the way, it's classified as inappropriate as no normal cause of the tachycardia can be found.

It does rise over 90 when doing anything physical, yes. Thanks for the heads up. I doubt it's recognized in Sweden so I'd need to get diagnosed abroad.

[Eng_Girl]

There doesn't seem to be too much awareness of IST in general yet, unfortunately.

[mikeinnaples]

I lift weights, run, and participate in sports with heavy cardio demand like surfing, flag football, paintball, etc.

My resting heart rate, taken before I get out of the bed in the morning stays between 58-60. I am not an elite runner like I was in high school, but I can still easily do a 5k under 20 minutes. Funny, even in high school when I was doing 16's with an occasional sub 16, my resting heart rate was approximately the same as it is now. Even when I was in the worse shape of my life, my resting heart rate only climbed to 70-72.

[Florent Berthet]

Heart rate variability seems to be an even better predictor of health than mere resting heart rate levels. It can be improved with cardio and deep breathing exercises (at around 4 to 6 breathing cycles per minute, exhaling longer than inhaling). You can find lots of studies on Google Scholar.

[freeman]

I think 17 minutes on a treadmill is my record, I could push maybe a minute or two more before simply falling off. I can walk quite briskly for a long time though; it seems my capacity goes down very sharply once a certain threshold of exertion is crossed.

Sounds like you really need to work on your aerobic fitness, you need to be doing at least 15 minutes 3 times a week. Preferably more and more often.

What's your dietary sodium like? Potassium?

You might consider CoQ10 to give you a little support in getting your cardio in.

[Jembe]

I got my blood pressure measured at 140/60. Thoughts?

[renfr]

I got my blood pressure measured at 140/60. Thoughts?

Not good at all, you have isolated systolic hypertension.
Systolic is the higher number : it should be between 90-120
Diastolic is the smaller number : it should be between 60-90, this one is borderline with diastolic hypotension

Isolated systolic hypertension can be caused by underlying conditions such as a leaky heart valve or an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism).

Isolated systolic hypertension, when combined with other risk factors such as poor diet and lack of exercise, can lead to serious health problems, such as:

• Stroke
• Heart disease
• Chronic kidney disease
• Dementia

I would check your thyroid.

[freeman]

Just to reiterate...

I got my blood pressure measured at 140/60. Thoughts?

Not good at all, you have isolated systolic hypertension.
Systolic is the higher number : it should be between 90-120
Diastolic is the smaller number : it should be between 60-90, this one is borderline with diastolic hypotension
[ . . . ]
I would check your thyroid.

Another thing worth noting here is that your resting pulse pressure (systole - diastole) is super high at 80mmHg, the typical range is 30 to 40mmHg.

A consistently high resting PP is really kind of bad, it basically means you have higher mechanical stress systematically on your veins and organs.

There're a number of things that could be causing your symptoms -- hyperthyroidism being one of them and arterial stiffness being another.

If I were you, I would really prioritize working on this issue with a trustable doctor. If your doc has previously offered you blood pressure medications such as ACE inhibitors I would advise giving serious consideration to that offer.

Also, assuming your doctors haven't given you a good reason not to, I would advise strongly that you focus on cardiovascular fitness over strength training. In your original post you say you're "doing lifting and some occasional running" if it's a matter of time that keeps you from doing cardio on the regular I would say flip that and do mostly cardio and occasional lifting (for now).

How's your dietary sodium intake look? If it's more than about 2-3g a day you're really going to want to cut that down.

How's your dietary potassium (sodium's counter)? Consider stepping it up while stepping sodium down.


Are you taking any supplements other than magnesium right now?

[Jembe]

Daily:
300mg magnesium citrate/malate blend
2mg copper picolinate
B-complex
450/180mg EPA/DHA, 30mg CoQ10
5mg K2 MK4
1.5g vit C
Turkish yoghurt with 4 fresh dates (calcium + potassium)
Sodium I'd say normal, pseudo-paleo diet, some amount of added salt.

Every other day:
10k IU vit D3 (been doing every day during this Swedish winter)
30mg zinc picolinate
1g L-Arginine / 0.5g taurine + 0.5g L-Lysine (alternating)

3mg time release melatonin occasionally.

I mentioned Ivabradine to my doctor and he said that was right out. I'll bring it up again though, because it seems like a good option. I might ask for a referral to a heart specialist center. I'll be doing a 24h EKG test, and today I did blood tests for free T4, testosterone, estradiol and a few other things.

Edited by Jembe, 09 April 2013 - 07:53 PM.

[JohnD60]

Sounds like a job for House, too bad he reitred.
Do you have GERD?

[Jembe]

No GERD afaik.

Update: Lab results and consultation. Doctor is of the opinion that hormone values are irrelevant as long as they stay within the reference range. BS IMO. He also said my 80 pulse pressure is irrelevant. Still he's more thorough than my old one and I'll be doing a 24h ECG and possibly ultrasound. Lab results, translated:

S-Testosterone 24 nmol/L, ref 10-45
S-Prolactin 9.4 mcg/L, ref 3-19
S-FSH: < 1.0 E/L , ref <10
S-TSH 2.12 mE/L, ref 0.20-4.00
S-free T4 13 pmol/L , ref 9-22
S-Estradiol 147 pmol/L, ref <150
S-SHBG 14 nmol/L, ref 11-55
S-Testo / SHBG ratio 1.78, ref >0.45
S-Creatinine 83 micromol / L, ref <100

Due to the doc's views on hormones he said nothing about the estradiol, but it's obviously high. Testosterone is also higher than previous checks, however. I'm gonna shed as much fat as I can, reduce glucose intake, and reduce fructose intake by about 90%, and then do another test.

Edited by Jembe, 15 April 2013 - 09:01 AM.