What Is Heart Rate, and Why Should We Monitor It Regularly
How technology contributes to heart health and why should we monitor and improve heart rate
My Heart Beats at Night in Victoria Was Heard by a Company in California, Alarming Them.
I write extensively about heart health because it’s an issue of importance to society and personally interests me. Unfortunately, 18 million people die from cardiovascular diseases yearly.
Monitoring resting heart rate and heart rate variability can provide valuable insights into our cardiovascular health, identify potential health issues, and track fitness progress.
I’m inspired to write this story to share a personal experience after receiving valuable messages from my fitness watch service provider operating in San Francisco, California, with a large data center.
As their Australian customer for over a decade, I have relied on their smartwatch’s heart rate measuring feature, which I find highly accurate.
Aside from providing the device, this provider captures data, analyzes it, and creates alerts. They analyze my fitness, sleep, and other biomarkers as I feed them to my health portal.
Until a few months ago, I had never received an alarming alert from the company. However, one morning, after a long and vivid lucid dream, I received an SMS message and email from the provider asking if I was alright. They also send comprehensive instructions on what to do.
Upon reading the message, I learned that my heart rate had skyrocketed to 150 bpm, significantly increasing from my usual resting heart rate of 55–65 bpm.
Because I was sleeping and no activity was detected, the service provider suspected I might have heart failure or be close to a heart attack and urged me to see a doctor or go to an emergency department immediately.
Fortunately, I have a close friend who is a cardiologist, and I made an appointment to see him after his work.
After conducting several tests, he determined that everything was normal with my heart and overall cardiovascular system. He asked me about my activities, diet, and stress levels the day before, but I couldn’t think of anything unusual.
Upon reviewing my smartwatch analysis, which showed my usual amount of exercise, and my typical one-meal-a-day diet, I realized the only thing different was the lucid dream I had the night before.
It was a long and intense dream. In the dream, I attempted to fly from one galaxy to another and encountered unusual creatures that might have increased my adrenaline and glutamate. I did not feel fear, but I was excited and exhilarated.
My cardiologist friend and I were curious whether lucid dreams and nightmares could affect heart rate, but we couldn’t find much evidence in the literature. The only available case study was conducted in 1989, giving us some clues.
However, an article from Harward Medical School quoting Dr. Epstein reported, “Your heart rate can vary quite a bit during REM sleep because it reflects the activity level occurring in your dream. If your dream is scary or involves activity such as running, then your heart rate rises as if you were awake.”
After this unusual personal experience, I’d like to briefly explain heart rate and its importance and then provide three practical tips to improve it based on my experience.
What is heart rate, and why does it matter?
Heart rate is the number of times the heart beats per minute. It is an essential indicator of cardiovascular health and fitness levels.
The heart responds to internal and external factors such as stressful feelings, infection, or exercise by increasing its rate.
The heart pumps blood throughout the body. It delivers oxygen and nutrients to the cells and removes waste products. The autonomic nervous system regulates the heart rate.
Monitoring resting heart rate can provide valuable insights into our cardiovascular health. Adults' average resting heart rate is 60 to 100 beats per minute.
Seeing the fluctuations in the long term can provide insights to medical professionals who look after our cardiovascular health. Therefore smartwatches or other devices like fitness rings can be helpful.
A lower resting heart rate generally indicates better cardiovascular health and fitness. A higher resting heart rate may indicate health issues like heart disease, diabetes, or infectious diseases.
Monitoring heart rate during exercise can also be helpful, as it can determine the intensity of our workout and adjust accordingly. A higher heart rate during exercise indicates a higher level of effort and a more intense workout.
After this background info, I’d like to provide three tips that helped me improve my heart rate, which used to be over 90 bpm in my younger years, and now is around 60 bpm.
1- Exercise Regularly and Improve Incrementally
Improving heart rate with exercise is an excellent lifestyle habit that can contribute to other organs, particularly brain and mental health.
Regular exercise can improve heart rate by making the heart more robust and efficient at pumping blood.
This means that the heart doesn’t have to work as hard to pump blood around the body, which can lead to a lower resting heart rate.
Therefore athletes usually have a very low resting heart rate, like 40 bpm, as opposed to 60 to 100 bpm in the general public.
During exercise, the heart rate increases to meet the body’s demands for oxygen and nutrients. Over time, regular exercise can lead to a lower resting heart rate, which means that the heart is working more efficiently.
Regular cardio workouts like walking, running, cycling, swimming, tennis, and jumping on a trampoline can improve resting heart rate.
In addition, resistance training such as calisthenics and weight lighting can also strengthen the heart. So a combination of cardio and resistance training can be ideal for those who can do them.
Exercise is helpful for the heart. However, age, medications, and health conditions can affect heart rate. Therefore, it is always necessary to consult with qualified healthcare professionals who can access our medical history before beginning a new exercise routine or significantly changing the current one.
2 - Recover timely and manage stress.
Stress significantly contributes to an increased heart rate. Therefore, managing stress can effectively improve heart rate.
Oxidative stress after heavy workouts or stressful days can cause chronic inflammation, increasing heart rate. Therefore, it is essential to reduce stress and inflammation in the body. I will cover inflammation in the next section.
Unhealthy lifestyle habits or conditions, like sleep deprivation, a sedentary lifestyle, excessive exercise, metabolic disorders, hormonal imbalances, psychological issues, and relationship problems, can contribute to oxidative stress.
Some practical ways to reduce oxidative stress are to practice good sleep hygiene, adjust exercise routines by reducing excessive cardio, do moderate resistance training, and recover from workouts.
Additionally, it can be helpful to slow down and take care of the body through activities like mindfulness, meditation, deep/slow breathing, frequent breaks at work, good posture, working in a flow state, and improving relationships with others.
These lifestyle choices can reduce stress hormone levels in the body, such as cortisol, norepinephrine, and adrenaline, which can cause the heart rate to increase.
Consuming enough calories and nutrients from whole foods can help reduce stress and inflammation, improving heart rate.
3 —Lower chronic inflammation via ketosis, thermogenesis, and autophagy
Lowering chronic inflammation is crucial for maintaining heart health. The heart rate increases when the body is inflamed, even if we don’t exercise. Inflammation can cause the heart to work harder to pump blood, which increases the heart rate.
A natural approach to lower inflammation is increasing the number of ketone bodies, such as BHB (β-Hydroxybutyrate), making anti-inflammatory effects.
I have experienced these effects and made ketosis a lifestyle choice for sustainable health. For example, time-restricted eating, long-term fasting, and ketogenetic diets effectively initiate or increase ketosis to reduce chronic inflammation.
Another lifestyle approach to lower inflammation is thermogenesis. We can create thermogenetic effects by exposing the body to bearable cold and heat. The body regulates its temperature tightly. During this regulation, some biochemical activities happen in the cells.
Both cold and heat therapies can reduce inflammation in various ways. Cold showers can lower the heart rate, and hot showers can increase them. Mixing them can reset our biological rhythms.
I also leveraged cold therapy via ice baths and heat therapy using dry saunas and steam baths. They brought many benefits. Here’s how saunas might improve cardiovascular health.
Thermogenesis, combined with the power of ketosis, can initiate a self-healing mechanism in the body. Self-healing mechanisms involve the processes of autophagy and mitophagy, which affect cells and mitochondria, particularly in the dense heart muscles.
Intermittent fasting and intense exercises can initiate autophagy and reduce inflammatory responses in the body. As autophagy naturally cleans pathogens and damaged proteins, it can significantly lower the inflammatory response in the body, improving heart health.
Furthermore, since autophagy occurs during ketosis, the presence of BHP in the bloodstream can serve as a signaling molecule to lower inflammatory reactions.
I explained the details in an article titled Ketosis Can Lower Chronic Inflammation and Improve Metabolic and Mental Health in 6 Ways.
Summary and Conclusions
Heart rate is the number of times the heart beats per minute. It is an essential indicator of cardiovascular health and fitness level.
The heart responds to internal and external factors such as stressful situations, infections, or physical activities by increasing its rate.
Monitoring heart rate and heart rate variability can provide valuable information to our healthcare professionals.
Improving heart rate is possible with healthy lifestyle habits, such as regular exercise, a nutritious diet, stress management, and other lifestyle activities that can lower inflammation.
However, factors beyond lifestyle habits can affect heart rate and overall heart health, like medication, underlying health issues, infection, aging, emotional traumas, social pressure, and genetics. Therefore a holistic approach to heart health with professional support is vital.
Please look at the seven steps I compiled and summarized to improve heart health and lower cardiovascular risks via healthy lifestyle choices. Moving from comfort to stretch and risk zones can significantly improve our heart health.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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