A heart rate is a vital sign that tells you how many times your heart beats per minute. It can give us a lot of information about the health of a patient’s heart.

A normal heart rate is between 60 to 100 beats per minute. Sometimes patients have slow heart rates, which cause them symptoms, and sometimes patients have fast heart rates, which cause them symptoms. Sometimes patients have irregular heart rates, where even if the heart rate number is normal, the rhythm is irregular. This can be seen in atrial fibrillation. (Note: See the American Heart Association’s target heart rate guide here.)

Resting heart rate is an individual’s heart rate when they’re in rest, at resting conditions, when they’re sitting down, when they’re laying down, when they’re not exerting themselves physically. Medications can definitely affect resting heart rate medications, such as beta blockers or calcium channel blockers; or some of our medications that we use for atrial fibrillation can lower resting heart rate.

You can lower your heart rate through physical activity and increasing physical fitness that helps lower your resting heart rate by increasing your body’s cardiovascular capacity through exercise. Athletes at their peak of physical performance have resting heart rates frequently well below 40 beats per minute.

An arrhythmia is an irregular heartbeat, or a fast or a slow heartbeat. It typically suggests an electrical problem in the heart. It’s really important to just be on top of your health in general, managing your weight, avoiding smoking, avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, treating sleep apnea if you have it, and maintaining routine primary care visits to stay on top of your cardiovascular health.

To learn more, speak with a cardiologist near you.