Resting pulse of only 60 beats!

[Rick]

I was taking a first aid class today and they took my pulse:
Only 60 beats a minute resting pulse!
(this is me in my mid 50s)

3 weeks ago it was 72!

A tremendous improvement in cardiovascular reserves in less than 2.5 weeks of getting back "into it"!

 

[backlash]

My resting heart rate is around 48.
It's called bradycardia.

 

[Supervisor42]

My resting heart rate is around 48.
It's called bradycardia.

I thought you were saying brandycardia.
MIL had hers getting down to 30.
(that is, beat, Mississippi, Mississippi, beat.)
This can be serious in older people because if resting, when they jump up, they faint and fall.
They put a pacemaker in her to ping it if it got too low. It rarely ever fires.
I remember one morning she said she was sleeping real good and heard loud musical chimes that woke her up. "Didn't you hear them?"
It has retrained her heart not to do that nomore.
The only downside is, when her time comes, someone will have to switch it off because it ain't gonna let her pulse drop below 30bpm

.

 

[backlash]

A nurse I knew had a 15 year old son. They found him laying by his dirt bike dead. They thought he had died in a crash.
Turned out his pacemaker had a factory defect and it killed him.
Strange thing was they had tested his pacemaker just 2 weeks prior and said everything was working good.
My Doctor said I might have to have a pacemaker if I start having trouble.
So far I'm good.

The problems they told me to watch for was dizziness, especially when I stand up, weakness, fainting and some other things I don't remember.
I told her if I woke up dead I would be sure to call her. She didn't think that was funny.

 

[Supervisor42]

...
My Doctor said I might have to have a pacemaker if I start having trouble.
So far I'm good.

Even a cheap $12.99 fingertip oxygen meter will give you your pulse rate in just seconds...

I think we have 3.
(I could say it should be at everybody's fingertips, but that would be a bad pun)

 

[backlash]

We have 2 or 3 pulse ox monitors. I took mine to work and verified them with my calibrated monitors and they were bang on.
My SIL wound up in the hospital because her o2 level was in the low 80s.
I bought her a monitor so she could watch it closely.

 

[Spikedriver]

This post made me curious so I tested mine immediately after eating. A 15 second count gave me a total of 64. I'll live with that.

A year and a half ago when I was in the hospital, hooked up to the pulse ox, I was getting night time readings in the low 50s along with BP in the range of 80 over 55 or a little less. I didn't know BP went that low...

 

[Rick]

There is a difference between a low pulse due to fitness and due to some kind of health episode.

Resting pulse is best measured when sitting or lying down relaxing now upset not watching TV.
Just being relaxed.

Your cardiovascular reserve is the difference between your resting pulse and your maximum pulse ( w/o suffering a heart attack)

Back when I was young and extreme fit my resting pulse was 58 bpm and my maximum pulse when sprinting up a long hill in the heat of the day was,.. well I don't want to say because even back then no one believed me.
But the difference between the maximum and minimum number is IMHO our reserve capacity .

 

[Spikedriver]

There is a difference between a low pulse due to fitness and due to some kind of health episode.

Resting pulse is bets measure when sitting or lying down relaxing now upset not watching TV.
Just being relaxed.

Your cardiovascular reserve is the difference between your resting pulse and your maximum pulse ( w/o suffering a heart attack)

Back when I was young and extreme fit my resting pulse was 58 bpm and my maximum pulse when sprinting up a long hill in the heat of the day was,.. well I don't want to say because even back then no one believed me.
But the difference between the maximum and minimum number is IMHO our reserve capacity .

Thing is, there was no health episode. My heart is A-OK, actually better than A-OK. I was having odd chest pains and decided to go in because I have a family history and other risk factors. They decided to keep me overnight. Once they said there was no heart attack, my stress was gone and all my vitals went to the lowest levels I've ever seem them go to...

 

[Rick]

Thing is, there was no health episode. My heart is A-OK, actually better than A-OK. I was having odd chest pains and decided to go in because I have a family history and other risk factors. They decided to keep me overnight. Once they said there was no heart attack, my stress was gone and all my vitals went to the lowest levels I've ever seem them go to...

sleepiness and meds can lower your bpm even further and I dont want to overcomplicate with special situations....but for adult males a resting puls in the low 70s is normal.
In the mid to low 60s a sign of fitness (rarely accomplished by those over 70) and finally bpm in the 50s often a mark of professional and semi professional athletes.
(I consider active duty infantry and SOF troops professional athletes)

 

[rusty]

My resting heart rate has been about 53 since I was in my 20s

 

[Magus]

Mines 120. the doctor almost passed out when I took a deep breath and dropped it to 85 in about ten seconds.

 

[Supervisor42]

My resting heart rate has been about 53 since I was in my 20s

Someone may need to check it when you sleep. This can be bad:
https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/resting-pulse-of-only-60-beats.16091/post-473594

 

[Haertig]

Mines 120. the doctor almost passed out when I took a deep breath and dropped it to 85 in about ten seconds.

Your doctor should know about that. It's normal. Taking a deep breath - expanding your chest - puts pressure on your vagus nerve. And that slows down your heartbeat. As a matter of fact, one of the treatments we used when I was a paramedic on an ambulance was what's called a "vagal maneuver". When a patient has some type of racing heartbeat condition, SVT or whatever, we would instruct them to take a deep breath, and press down like they were straining to have a bowel movement. This stimulates the vagus nerve, which slows things down, and may break the tachycardia. This is also why many people die a rather undignified death on the toilet. They pass out from the vagal maneuver that they didn't even realize they were doing, wonk their head on the tile floor, and end of story. We used to find a lot of patients on the floor, beside the toilet. One dude - poor guy - weighed like 400 lbs, fell off the toilet and got wedged between the toilet and the wall. His blubber oozed its way down around things and it was like he was cemented in there. We had the firefighters smash the toilet with a sledge hammer so we could get him out. He didn't make it.

If your doctor is unfamiliar with this vagal thing, you might need to find a new doctor. He/she would be right to be concerned if your resting heart rate is indeed 120, but the fact that it drops with a vagal maneuver is nothing special.

 

[Haertig]

Having a heart rate of 60 is indicative of you being in at least reasonable physical shape - or - it could be because you are taking a certain class of drug for your high blood pressure. Namely, a "beta blocker". There are several of this class of drug used to treat high BP. Metoprolol comes to mind (because I happen to take that specific one). Beta blockers put kind of a "lid" on your pulse rate. And that lid is usually right around 60 beats per minute. Your rate will go up from that with exertion, but just sitting there, you're most likely going to be around 60. Even if - minus the beta blocker drug in your system - your resting heart rate might be 80 or 90.

This is another thing we used to have to take into account as paramedics. When you are evaluating someone for shock, normally the pulse rate goes up first (then the BP goes down, then your organs don't get enough O2, then you die). But the absence of an elevated pulse rate does not clear the patient from being in shock. Their "normal" pulse rate could be because they are on a beta blocker drug.

I could brag about my heart rate of 60. But I know it's not because I am physically fit. It's because I take Metoprolol.

 

[Magus]

Your doctor should know about that. It's normal. Taking a deep breath - expanding your chest - puts pressure on your vagus nerve. And that slows down your heartbeat. As a matter of fact, one of the treatments we used when I was a paramedic on an ambulance was what's called a "vagal maneuver". When a patient has some type of racing heartbeat condition, SVT or whatever, we would instruct them to take a deep breath, and press down like they were straining to have a bowel movement. This stimulates the vagus nerve, which slows things down, and may break the tachycardia. This is also why many people die a rather undignified death on the toilet. They pass out from the vagal maneuver that they didn't even realize they were doing, wonk their head on the tile floor, and end of story. We used to find a lot of patients on the floor, beside the toilet. One dude - poor guy - weighed like 400 lbs, fell off the toilet and got wedged between the toilet and the wall. His blubber oozed its way down around things and it was like he was cemented in there. We had the firefighters smash the toilet with a sledge hammer so we could get him out. He didn't make it.

If your doctor is unfamiliar with this vagal thing, you might need to find a new doctor. He/she would be right to be concerned if your resting heart rate is indeed 120, but the fact that it drops with a vagal maneuver is nothing special.

Oh, no worries, I did it on purpose. I studied yoga in high school.
Its not hard to regulate one's heart or breathing with focus. sometimes I can stop bleeding and make an electrician's meter move at will.

 

[joel]

Even a cheap $12.99 fingertip oxygen meter will give you your pulse rate in just seconds...

I think we have 3.
(I could say it should be at everybody's fingertips, but that would be a bad pun)

I have one of those, not same brand, I have had resting beat of 100, not good, can wear you heath out.
It is a type of AFIB.