Resting heart rate
DERuheherzfrequenz
Resting heart rate (RHR) is your heartbeats per minute at full rest. It is ideally measured lying down after several minutes of quiet rest, or right when you wake. It is swayed by caffeine, illness, medications, and sleep. Trained people usually have a lower RHR. That comes from two changes: a remodeled heart pacemaker (the sinoatrial node, especially a turned-down 'funny' channel called HCN4, an effect that persists even after blocking the nerves), plus higher vagal (parasympathetic) tone. A bigger stroke volume (more blood pumped per beat) is a parallel adaptation. Epidemiological data (like Aune 2017) link a higher RHR to more cardiovascular and all-cause death. So RHR is a simple marker of your heart-and-lung health and recovery.
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Sources
- Cooney MT, Vartiainen E, Laatikainen T, Juolevi A, Dudina A, Graham IM. (2010). Elevated resting heart rate is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease in healthy men and women. *American Heart Journal*doi:10.1016/j.ahj.2009.12.029
- Kannel WB, Kannel C, Paffenbarger RS Jr, Cupples LA. (1987). Heart rate and cardiovascular mortality: the Framingham Study. *American Heart Journal*doi:10.1016/0002-8703(87)90666-1
- Aune D, Sen A, ó'Hartaigh B, Janszky I, Romundstad PR, Tonstad S, Vatten LJ. (2017). Resting heart rate and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer, and all-cause mortality – A systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis of prospective studies. *Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases*doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2017.04.004