Heart rate is the rate at which heart beats in one minute. You might have heard that a healthy heart beats around 72 times per minute. However, a normal heart rate ranges from 60 to 100 beats in a minute. What affects the heart rate? Exercise, noise, fear of being caught, failing in the exam or losing someone dear can increase or decrease the heart rate. If I say, temperature also has a role to play, do not be surprised.
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Environmental factors, or a medical condition can increase your body temperature and hence, the heart rate. When you are exercising in the gym, there is a sharp increase in the body temperature. Similarly, suffering from high fever, or sitting in a hot and humid environment makes our body temperature rise. This increase in the body temperature eventually leads to increased heart rate. Let us now try to find the reasons why and how the heart rate increases with an increase in body temperature.
The effect of Temperature on Heart Rate
When you are out in the sun, there is an increase in the body temperature. The body in such a condition has to maintain equilibrium despite the hot conditions. Otherwise, there are chances of suffering from heat stroke.
Many of you might not know that the amount of blood that circulates through the skin decides on the amount of the heat that flows through the body. Therefore on a hot day, to maintain equilibrium, the body, specifically the heart has to work hard to expedite for the heat loss. The peripheral blood vessels of the skin thus dilate, allowing a greater amount of blood to flow through the skin. The heart, in such a situation, has to pump out more blood to make up for the increased blood circulation. Moreover, with the dilation of blood vessels, the blood pressure lowers. Therefore, for restoring the blood pressure to normal, the heart pushes out more blood than normal through the blood vessels.
It is he reverse when you are out in a cold environment. The main aim now is to reduce the heat loss from the body. This is done by constricting the peripheral blood vessels. The constriction eventually helps in reducing the blood circulation thus, lowering the heat loss.
The effect of external temperature on the heart rate
As we have already discussed, external temperature does influence the heart rate. You might have noticed that the heart beats faster when you run in the afternoon than in the morning. The difference though is not significant, but it proves that temperature affects the heart rate. So, the same physical activity can give varied heart beat count during hot and cold weather.
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