Hello! I am Liu Jian
Today is the 549th issue of Jian Ge said to accompany you
You may have heard this saying: the total number of heartbeats in a person's life is fixed, so the slower the heartbeat, the longer it lives.
Is this view scientific?
Don't tell you the answer first, after reading the contents of this issue, you will have your own judgment.
It is better to have a resting heart rate that is slower in the range
Let's first see if the slower the heartbeat, the longer it will be.
The heartbeat mentioned here refers to the resting heart rate, that is, the heart rate per minute in a awake, inactive state. In general, resting heart rate normally ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute (referring to healthy sinus heart rate).
Previous studies have found that healthy people with elevated resting heart rate have an increased risk of hypertension, atrial fibrillation, ischemic stroke, acute myocardial infarction, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, type 2 diabetes, heart failure and other diseases.
A Danish study pointed out that after excluding the influence of other risk factors such as disease and exercise, the resting heart rate is in the range of 45 to 100 beats per minute, the lower the heart rate, the stronger the oxygen absorption capacity of the human body, the higher the resting heart rate, and the greater the risk of death. For every 10 beats/minute increase in resting heart rate, the risk of death increases by 16 percent [1]. The Kailuan study in China analyzed the relationship between the cumulative amount of resting heart rate (average resting heart rate× follow-up years) and mortality, and through the average 4 years of follow-up of more than 47,000 adults, it was found that after adjusting the traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors and baseline resting heart rate, the cumulative amount of resting heart rate and all-cause mortality showed a "J" type relationship, and the risk of death increased by 1.86 times in people with resting heart rate of more than 80 beats per minute [2].
"J" type relationship between the cumulative amount of resting heart rate and the risk ratio of death
Another recently published study in China, which followed nearly 30,000 urban and rural community residents aged 35 to 70 in China for 8 to 12 years, found that compared with the population with a resting heart rate of 65.5 to 71 beats per minute, the risk of cardiovascular death increased by 3.3 times and the risk of myocardial infarction increased by 72% compared with the population with a resting heart rate of 65.5 to 71 beats per minute [3].
The above study found that resting heart rates of 50 to 80 beats per minute are healthier. If there are two healthy people whose physical fitness, age, and blood pressure are exactly the same, the one with the higher resting heart rate may have a shorter lifespan.
The mechanism by which elevated resting heart rate increases the risk of death is not fully understood, possibly due to the fact that higher resting heart rate is a manifestation of sympathetic nervous system activation, which promotes the development of inflammation, increases the risk of atherosclerosis, hyperinsulinemia and hypertension, and over time induces chronic disease and even death.
The heartbeat may be fixed
So, is the total number of heartbeats in a person's lifetime a fixed value?
According to the average heart rate of 60 to 70 beats per minute, the life expectancy is about 70 years old, so the total number of heartbeats is about 2 billion times. This relationship between heart rate and life expectancy is likely to be regular.
Interestingly, other animals may be following similar rules. An earlier study found that many mammals had roughly the same average number of heartbeats in their lifetime, and a slash of fixed slope could be drawn based on the resting heart rate and life expectancy of some animals. For example, mice have a heart rate of 500 to 600 beats per minute, but their life expectancy is only 1 to 3 years, but as can be seen from the figure below, human life expectancy does not follow this slope, which may be due to scientific, medical and social development, which has extended human life expectancy and made a breakthrough in human life [4].
Breakthrough in human longevity
You may ask, since the resting heart rate is as low as possible within a certain range, how can it be lowered? Exercise is the best way to lower your resting heart rate. Long-term regular exercise can inhibit the excessive excitement of the sympathetic nervous system, strengthen cardiopulmonary function, and reduce resting heart rate.
Brother Jian said
Resting heart rate refers to the heart rate of a person in a awake and quiet state.
The study found that within the normal range, the higher the resting heart rate, the higher the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and death.
The number of heartbeats in a person's life is about 2 billion times, and we can reduce the resting heart rate and promote health by strengthening exercise.
Today's content is finished, and the next issue is more exciting.
Heart health knowledge is in "Jian Ge Says Heart"
We'll see you next time.
bibliography
[1] Jensen MT, Suadicani P, Hein HO, et alElevated resting heart rate, physical fitness and all-cause mortality: a 16-year follow-up in the Copenhagen Male StudyHeart 2013;99:882-887.
[2] Zhao Q, Li H, Wang A, et al. Cumulative Resting Heart Rate Exposure and Risk of All-Cause Mortality: Results from the Kailuan Cohort Study. Sci Rep. 2017;7:40212. Published 2017 Jan 9.
[3] Wang Y, Yin L, Hu B, et al. Association of heart rate with cardiovascular events and mortality in hypertensive and normotensive population: a nationwide prospective cohort study. Ann Transl Med. 2021;9(11):917.
[4] Levine HJ. Rest heart rate and life expectancy. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1997;30(4):1104-1106.
Speaker: Liu Jian
Editor-in-Charge: Tan Suzhen