A person’s resting heart rate, or what is more commonly referred to as pulse, is the number of times his or her heart beats for every minute.
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“The risk of all-cause mortality increased significantly with increasing resting heart rate, but a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular mortality was observed at 90 beats/minute”, the researcher added.
Dongfeng Zhang of the Medical College of Qingdao University said that the association of resting heart rate with risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality was independent of traditional risk factors of cardiovascular disease and suggested that resting heart rate was a predictor of mortality in the general population. In addition, this study does not prove the heart rate has actually caused any premature deaths.
To come to their conclusions, Dr Zhang and his team assessed 46 studies involving 1.2million patients and 78,349 deaths from all causes.
All-cause death risk increased 9 percent for each 10 bpm increase in resting heart rate, while risk of death from heart disease went up by 8 percent.
The researchers found that the higher a person’s heartbeat per minute, the greater their chance of death became.
A study by Chinese researchers has claimed that high heart rate may increase risk of early death. The researchers think heart rate could be considered as “death test” to learn how quickly an individual is going to die in next two decades.
The team stressed that their study findings highlight the importance of monitoring the pulse and the significance of exercise to decrease resting heart rate. They also found a few patients started taking heart rate-lowering medications between their first visits and follow-ups. For every 10-beats-a-minute increase in resting heart rate, risk of dying from any cause rose 9 percent, and risk of dying from cardiovascular disease increased 8 percent. The study doesn’t not establish the pulse as a risk factor but suggests it is an indicator of poor health.
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“People should pay more attention to their resting heart rate”, said Zhang. The report was published online November 23 in CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association. This condition, called tachycardia, could hint at serious cardiovascular issues.
