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Your typical heart rate (pulse)

What is your typical pulse (beats per minute)?


  • Total voters
    47

Undisclosed

Senior Member
Messages
10,157
I average around 50 to 60 BPM.

I was in the emerg once hooked up to their cardiac equipment -- it measured 40 BPM - very freaky. I was experiencing very low BP at the time too. I went to the ER because I was wavering on losing consciousness. They never did find a concrete reason for this but at least the numbers showed something was going on.

Why are you asking?
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
Do you mean resting pulse? There would be a big difference for most between resting and pulse taken at other times. Also, the low category is not low enough for me if it is resting pulse. Mine is about 55. And the "very high" may not be high enough for some.

Sushi
 

cigana

Senior Member
Messages
1,095
Location
UK
Yeah I mean resting, I will update the post :) It was hard for me to predict what names I should give to the different brackets, but I thought that since I give the numbers, the names shouldn't matter so much?
If the low category isn't low enough for you, then you could vote in the "very low" instead?
 

roxie60

Senior Member
Messages
1,791
Location
Central Illinois, USA
I average around 50 to 60 BPM.

I was in the emerg once hooked up to their cardiac equipment -- it measured 40 BPM - very freaky. I was experiencing very low BP at the time too. I went to the ER because I was wavering on losing consciousness. They never did find a concrete reason for this but at least the numbers showed something was going on.

Why are you asking?

That reminds me of a time in the Drs office the nurse took my BP and asked if I was ok, I said yes. She took it again a few mins later, asked m if I was going to pass out, I said no. Then Dr came in an took it again and also asked if I flt dizzy or if I felt I was going to pass out...I said no again. Apparently it was extremely low. I was glad to see they were concerned but no immediate issue that I was aware of...
 

cigana

Senior Member
Messages
1,095
Location
UK
I average around 50 to 60 BPM.
Why are you asking?

There was another post that mentioned a low heart rate is seen in Lyme. But I knew that PWC's often reported both low and high...was just interested to see if there was a significant deviation from normal.
 

Undisclosed

Senior Member
Messages
10,157
There was another post that mentioned a low heart rate is seen in Lyme. But I knew that PWC's often reported both low and high...was just interested to see if there was a significant deviation from normal.


I remember reading that too. I have had what the medical community defines as 'bradycardia' all my life. I never experienced any dizziness until I got sick though.
 
Messages
42
Location
Balatonfüred
Usually fifty-something. I walk around with a pulse of 60,my heart rate fails to raise above 120 during exercise and cannot sweat no matter what and I have high blood pressure.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
I didn't realize so many of us had low resting HR. Low BP, yes, but low HR is new to me.

My resting HR is 80-85 (sometimes more) depending on time of day and what I've been doing. And that's with Florinef and a calcium channel blocker to reduce my HR. My walking around HR is 105-115. My AT is 125, so I can go over it relatively easily. I thought this was fairly common in ME/CFS. Go figure.

Do those of you with low HR have trouble staying under your AT?
 

ahimsa

ahimsa_pdx on twitter
Messages
1,921
Response to the poll:

My pulse is all over the place. But the general rule seems to be that on "bad" days (especially in a "crash") my resting pulse is higher and on "good" days it's lower. But I confess that I don't monitor it very closely most of the time. So I checked the "sometimes high, sometimes low" box.

A bit of a tangent (but I think it might be relevant for some):

I know you said "resting" pulse, which I think means sitting down. But I thought I'd mention that folks with any type of orthostatic problems might have a large swing in heart rate (HR) between lying down, sitting up, and standing. For example, my HR standing still (not walking, just standing completely still) ranges anywhere from 113 to 150. It's higher standing still than walking.

As I said, I don't usually monitor my HR to this level of detail. The only reason I know these particular numbers is because I decided to measure my blood pressure (BP) while standing up, the first thing in the morning, and before taking any of my meds (midodrine, florinef, salt, etc.).

I did these BP measurements for a couple of weeks because I wanted to see how low my BP got. The BP monitor measures both BP and HR. It works pretty quickly so I only have to stand still for a minute or two to get a reading.

Because it's a fairly short time to stand still I was not expecting such a large increase in HR. But that's what I saw. So, maybe I've developed POTS in addition to NMH after all these years? 150 is way more than a 30 beats per minute increase over my sitting/resting HR.

Before these measurements I could sense that my heart was going faster while standing (e.g., I'm at the sink trying to wash my hands) than it did 20+ years ago. But the degree of the increase was a bit surprising.

[ end of tangent, back to your regularly scheduled programming ;) ]
 

SpecialK82

Ohio, USA
Messages
993
Location
Ohio, USA
I also thought we all had relatively high heartrates probably related to the low blood pressure and also deconditioning over time. I'm very surprised that some have low heartrates.

Do you people with low heartrates not exceed your AT very easily? Do you not experience PEM as long as below your AT?
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
I didn't realize so many of us had low resting HR. Low BP, yes, but low HR is new to me.

My resting HR is 80-85 (sometimes more) depending on time of day and what I've been doing. And that's with Florinef and a calcium channel blocker to reduce my HR. My walking around HR is 105-115. My AT is 125, so I can go over it relatively easily. I thought this was fairly common in ME/CFS. Go figure.

Do those of you with low HR have trouble staying under your AT?


Yes, I have to really watch it if I try any exercise. Thought my HR is quite low and I don't have POTS, rather OI, my HR will go too high with exercise. I wear an HR monitor for my reclining pilates class.

Sushi
 
Messages
19
Mine is in the 50s, sometimes dropping into the 40s. I have pretty severe POTS so I actually have a huge range of heart rates - can go up 100 points within a couple minutes of standing. I think it's more common to have a high resting HR with POTS so I'm kind of an oddity. And obviously I can exceed my AT quite easily.

I suspect that in my case at least the low HR is something viral. I've only been sick for a year and been measuring my HR for about 6 months, since I found out I had POTS, but resting it used to be in the upper 60s. Over the last few months my symptoms have been more consistently "viral" (fevers, swollen lymph nodes, blood count abnormalities) and my resting HR has gotten lower. Of course my cardiologist seems to think my low HR is just a sign I'm young and healthy (I'm not sure how he explains the decline over the last few months - I guess he thinks I've just gotten "more fit" since being mostly bedridden?!)
 
Messages
76
Location
Australia
My resting PR flies (tachycardia) especially when I'm "rested". I had to have 24hr ECG & BP monitoring a few months ago and it turned out my average BP was in the "low normal" range. The tachycardia is just a response in the drop in BP, which happens all the time - I have orthostatic intolerance (OI).

Drs nowadays don't show much concern for low BP, my dr told me to take salt tablets and drink lots of water to bring my blood volume up. It sort of worked, although I still can't stand for long periods of time without falling flat on my face.
 

Little Bluestem

All Good Things Must Come to an End
Messages
4,930
I don't think drs. ever showed much concern for low BP. My mother had low BP, which I inherited. Her doctors told her that there was no such thing as too low blood pressure. She said that was easy for them to say since they did not have to live with it.
 

Shell

Senior Member
Messages
477
Location
England
I put very high as even on the Ivabradine my resting pulse is around 88 to 95. Better than it was but still high. It can occasionally drop to 73 but that's infrequent.
BP is high and all over the place.

(side note roxie60; in my nursing days I checked a lady's standing BP. It was 60/0 and she was standing up. She said she felt fine so I thought I was hearing things. I asked her to lie down and fetched the ward sister (I was a student at that time) she heard he same and when the doc was called she was still registering 60/something close to nothing. By that point she did feel ill. How she didn't have a stroke I'll never know! Took her off meds and she improved.)
 
Messages
64
Usually low, around 60-68bpm but goes up into the high 80's when feeling worse or wired/overstimulated. BP is usually high on doc visits.

Have also had a morbidly slow pulse when I went in for colonoscopy - around 40bpm IIRC. I got dehydrated after taking the prep with no eating or drinking allowed. One of the nurses asked me if I was an athlete because of my low HR. Had difficulty managing two flights of stairs at that point in time. GI finally put me on IV saline when he saw me.
 
Messages
11
Location
Germany
I usually have 45-55. Low indeed, but I think it's not pathologic because I was a competitive athlete at a young age and therefore have developed a natural big vagotonia heart. BP is normal. But on easy excercise like running, I nowadays get very real problems like all of you. Among other things the pulse is spiking up insanely high.
 

PennyIA

Senior Member
Messages
728
Location
Iowa
I don't think drs. ever showed much concern for low BP. My mother had low BP, which I inherited. Her doctors told her that there was no such thing as too low blood pressure. She said that was easy for them to say since they did not have to live with it.


My mother bounced between low blood pressure and high blood pressure for most of her adult life. Low Blood pressure made her feel fatigued and dizzy. High Blood pressure she never noticed... and of course, the doctors only wanted to treat the high blood pressure.

I've had low-normal blood pressure for years without symptoms. After I got sick, I had semi-high blood pressure for the first six months (high pain, too). Once the severe pain backed off - it dropped extra low and has been low for several years now. My doctor's recommendation was to increase salt intake. It's raised my blood pressure and alleviated a lot of my dizziness (well, sometimes, I think I still get some form of OI that comes and goes).

And for the pulse rate - I have had low resting heart rate ever since I used to teach aerobics and learned meditation in the 80's. Even though I'm completely out of shape now, that seems to keep my resting rate low.