Heart rate & blood pressure: two terms you’re likely hear in nearly every medical appointment that are also relatively easy to understand. And their respective impact on your health is worth noting. Heart rate & blood pressure are two indicators of your heart’s function. While neither separately (or even together) can provide an entire picture of one’s general health, they can begin to shed light on ways in which your body might not be working efficiently.
Let’s break down these two relatively common health markers, so that next time you are in the doc’s office, you are well informed.
Basic Definitions for Heart Rate & Blood Pressure:
Heart Rate (otherwise known as Pulse or Pulse Rate): This is the number of times your heart beats each minute. According to the American Heart Association, a normal heart rate (HR) for a healthy adult is typically 60-100 beats per minute. That can vary & there are outliers, but most folks are likely to fall into this range. If you don’t – no need to panic. In the absence of other health issues, you might be one of the outliers and that’s perfectly ok.
Blood Pressure (BP): This is the pressure or force with which your blood flows through your system, specifically into and out of your heart. This number identifies how much force it takes to welcome blood back into your heart and then pump it out throughout your system. A preferred range for adults is generally <120/80, though this number increases with age. Why? As we age, our arterial walls naturally thicken, making the vessels less elastic. As a result, it takes more force to pump the blood, elevating the blood pressure. While a slight increase in BP is explainable, a significant & protracted increase in blood pressure at rest is not acceptable and can lead to a myriad of health issues. More on that later.
Response to Activity
Did you know that both your heart rate and your blood pressure change in response to exercise or exertion? Yep, and not only is that response normal, it tends to follow certain rules.
A healthy heart will beat more during exercise/exertion to pump more blood out to the muscles. The extra blood flow is necessary because your muscles need more oxygen to function at higher levels of exertion. This results in a faster (higher) heart rate. As you conclude your activity, your heart rate will eventually slow down.
When doesn’t this happen? This happens consistently with every single healthy individual, though those who are extremely fit might not have quite the dramatic increase in HR compared to a less fit individual.
One caveat:
However, those folks on certain medications called beta-blockers will not demonstrate this effect. So, for those individuals who may be using this class of drugs for various cardiovascular (CV) issues, measuring heart rate is not a valid means to identify one’s response to activity or general health. Instead, you’ll need to assess Rate of Perceived Exertion (link below).
Therefore, a normal response to exercise demonstrates a steady increase in your heart rate, with a gradual decrease upon conclusion of the activity. An abnormal response to exercise would be a reduction in heart rate as exertion increases, as well as an exaggerated increase in HR relative to the activity.
What Exactly Is Blood Pressure (BP)?
Blood pressure is a measure of two force components: systolic and diastolic. The top number is your systolic pressure. This is a measure of force against your arterial walls (vessels carrying blood away from your heart) when your heart beats. The diastolic number is the same measure, but when your heart is at rest (or in between beats). Together, this measure provides a good snapshot of how hard your heart may be working at rest and/or with activity.
With activity, it is expected that your blood pressure will also change, to reflect the increased demand on your system. During exercise, your systolic number may increase as high as 200mmHg depending on your gender and level of exertion. However, your diastolic number will largely stay the same, though it could drop slightly with cardiovascular exercise. Why is that? Well, your muscles need the extra oxygen and nutrients to function at higher levels during exertion. This requires an increased force to push out more blood during your heart’s contraction (i.e. systolic pressure). Exercise typically makes our blood vessels dilate (get wider) during exercise to accommodate this big push. As a result, your diastolic pressure (refilling the heart) is unlikely to change.
Fight or Flight
It is also important to note that both your HR & BP are likely to increase when you are excited or nervous. This stems from our biological “fight or flight” response in the case of danger. A temporary increase in either of these measures in this scenario is no big deal. In fact, it is a necessary part of our body’s response to a challenge.
However, a sustained response where either (or both) values remain elevated (specifically at rest) is not normal and should be discussed with your trusted health care provider.
Why You Should Care About Your Heart Rate & Blood Pressure
An elevated resting HR & BP means that your heart is working harder than it should, and that inefficiency could place a larger stress on other areas of your body. You already know that your heart rate and BP naturally elevate when you exert yourself, right? But what if your resting levels are ALREADY high before you even begin to exert yourself? That could be a problem.
When your blood pressure remains elevated for an extended period, it can place more stress on your blood vessels and entire CV system. This can cause a trickle-down effect, leading to body-wide issues like heart attack or failure, stroke, kidney dysfunction, vision loss, erectile dysfunction, chest pain and narrowing of the arteries throughout your body (known as peripheral arterial disease).
But all this is avoidable!
High blood pressure, or hypertension, can be avoided (or addressed once diagnosed) through many very do-able options. In fact, we talk about most of them throughout this blog! So, if you’ve made some changes already – way to go!
Here are a few to consider:
- Get active – move more.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Eat a balanced diet.
- Minimize salt intake.
- Don’t smoke!
- Limit alcohol consumption.
- Manage your stress properly.
- Take meds as prescribed.
- Work as a team with your health care provider(s) towards your personal goals.
↑ Click the links above ↑ to learn a few easy steps to address this issue before it becomes a life-changing problem.
Understanding heart rate and blood pressure will allow you to better interact with your physician and ask the right questions. You are your BEST advocate. Be well informed so that you can make appropriate decisions to improve your life – TODAY!
Other resources:
How to Monitor Your BP at Home @ Heart.org
