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Heart beat rate predicts life expectancy

Hopefully reading this won’t make your heart beat too quickly, for a new study from China has found that those with faster heart beats than the typical population are more likely to die earlier. Here scientists found that the risk of dying, from any given illness, increases by some nine per cent for every extra 10 heart beats per minute. Importantly this relates to when the a person is at rest (rather than walking or taking more strenuous activity).

In one sense this is nothing new. Medical experts have known for sometime that those with lower heart rates when resting tend to be healthier and fitter. However, what the new research has done is to add a quantitative measure.

Drawing on two contrasting sets of data, the research indicates that those with a resting heart rate of 80 beats per minute are 45 per cent more likely to die within the next 20 years compared to those with a heart rate of 45 beats per minute. Both of these represent extremes, with most people typically falling in the middle.

Speaking with The Daily Telegraph, Dr Dongfeng Zhang, of the Medical College of Qingdao University, Shandong, China, who led the research, explained: “The association of resting heart rate with risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality is independent of traditional risk factors of cardiovascular disease, suggesting that resting heart rate is a predictor of mortality in the general population.”

It should be noted that such research does not easily eliminate genetic factors and other influences, like social-economic deprivation, diet and so on. Nonetheless, the finding is based on a large pool of data, drawn from 46 studies including 1.2 million people. in the long-term, the scientists hope to develop a predictive algorithm.

The research is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal and it is titled “Resting heart rate and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the general population: a meta-analysis.”

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Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.

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