Learn about Heart Rate
Health Check is a general wellness tool. It is intended for maintaining and encouraging a healthy lifestyle. It is not intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, prevention, or treatment of a disease or condition.
No individuals should use the provided information, resources or tools contained in this app to self-diagnose or self-treat any health-related condition.
Heart Rate is a measure of how often your heart beats each minute. A lower resting heart rate implies reduced heart workload and better cardiovascular fitness.
Heart Rate
How is Heart Rate calculated?
The heart beat can be seen in the blood flow signal. In the picture below, each beat starts with the rise in blood flow to the peak, followed by a drop back to baseline.
To calculate heart rate, we use a frequency-based algorithm that determines the most commonly occurring heart rate in the signal.
Why does it matter?
The job of your heart is to pump blood throughout your body so it can provide nutrients to your cells and remove waste.
A higher resting heart rate means your heart has to pump more often. This increased workload can lead to more wear and tear and higher possibility of cardiovascular disease like Heart Attack [1].
The following charts can help you determine where your resting heart rate lies based on age and sex. This data comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [2].
How can I lower my resting heart rate?
Living a healthy lifestyle can improve your cardiovascular fitness and lower your resting heart rate.
[1] Fox, Kim, et al. "Resting heart rate in cardiovascular disease." Journal of the American College of Cardiology 50.9 (2007): 823-830.
[2] Ostchega, Yechiam, et al. "Resting pulse rate reference data for children, adolescents, and adults; United States, 1999-2008." (2011).