What's your resting heart rate?

[VeganBikeChick]

Mine is 42. I posted elsewhere that I wished it counted more than BMI as an indicator of your physical health. We're starting a new health management program at work that will determine our health insurance rates, and while my labwork is stellar (including HR), my BMI is obese for my height/weight. I hate that it's the only tool they use to diagnose your level of health.

[limewave]

My rhr is around 45. And we have the same issue with our health insurance :( And I too weigh in as obese on the BMI scale. And yet I am quite certain I am far healthier than many a coworker who would fall under "normal weight."

[Crankin]

Mine varies. It's between 45 and 58 when I wake up in the AM, which is usually when I take it. But, it's about 68-72 when I am up and walking around, and it can even get up to 80 if I've had coffee, been running around, stressed. When I was doing yoga regularly, it was at the lower end of this more of the time.

[OakLeaf]

I don't care enough to sleep with a HR strap, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't remember to check it until after I'd had my tea! When I'm driving to a ride it generally settles around 52, so I'd guess that's probably 5-10 bpm over my resting??? Mine also shoots way up into the 70s if I stand or walk, which as I understand it isn't very healthy. :(

[indysteel]

My resting heartrate varies, but has been tending to run in the low 50s. Over the summer when my thyroid was whack, it was in the 65-75 range and could get to 110 if I was just sitting at my desk. That sucked.

[HillSlugger]

My resting HR is typically in the low, mid 40's. I've been in pre-op and had the nurses starting to worry about me ;)

[Catrin]

My resting heart rate ranges from the high 50's to 62, it has improved greatly over the last 2.5 years!

[marni]

last time I was at the dr. the nurse reached over and peeled back my eyelid to see if I was still alive. Apparently she was alarmed that it was only 45. She took it three times with the same result. Unfortunately, my bmi defines me as overweight although I have shrunk from a womans 22 xl to a petite 8-10 . It all depends on how it is measured, by the pincer method or by straight tape measure measurements. By the pincer method I am at 19 %, by the measurement I am 24% and overweight. I tend to go more by how I feel and how my clothes fit.

It's all so much incantations and chicken fat. I will die when I am fated to die, overweight or underweight, aerobically fit or no.

marni

[Anelia]

My doctor also checks my heart very thoroughly because my reasting heart rate is 35-37. She says my heart is like a turtle's. If you don't believe me... (I'm sorry for the big picture). My HR monitor is correct, I double check it with the finger on the wrist, too. http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/262415_1925151169292_1257515807_31666789_6147787_n.jpg
I'm 33 and my BMI is 18,7 but I don't believe in BMI, it's the muscle/fat ratio that matters. And of course aerobic fitness and gneteics. I have difficulties raising my HR, the hard zone for me is over 160-165.

[gnat23]

I always had this vision of people with resting heart rates in the 30's, I mean, that's a beat every two seconds, right? It's slow, but I just imagine it's like a cannon going off every time. (ba-BOOM! .. ba-BOOM! .. )

-- gnat! (she of hummingbird heart)

[malkin]

I think they use BMI because the data are all available for a large population sample.

Is your insurance set up so your premium changes with your BMI?

[Anelia]

The ONLY thing that matters when paying my health insurance is the salary I get. For example if an obese 57-year-old person with two heart attacks, heavy drinker and chain smoker receives half the money a 23-year-old elite athlete receives, the unhealthy person will pay half the insurance. I know we live in a crazy country and we have to be a little nuts to survive. :o

[zoom-zoom]

Even though I am clinically overweight (by maybe 10#s, not a lot) my BP is generally in the 110/60 ballpark. Cholesterol is amazing--my HDL/LDL ratio is about 1:1, triglycerides <40 (I recall they were about 35, last time I was checked). I can't recall my heart rate. At the doctor it's usually 60ish. I'm sure it would be much lower if I checked first thing in the AM while still in bed.

My PCP is awesome. He has never once said anything to the effect that I should lose weight. He knows I'm very active and my non-weight #s paint a more accurate picture of my health than does the BMI. The BMI is just a screening tool, not a diagnostic one.

[Brandi]

Mine is in the low 60's to mid 50's depending. I am also considered over weight even though most is muscle. But they don't judge you on that do they? Not fair. I think a doctor should be the one to determine weather you are over weight or not and that is what the insurance company should go by. Same with my hubby they said he was 10 pounds over weight. We are both short stocky people who are like a brick house not a flabby marsh mellow!

[goldfinch]

Mine varies. It's between 45 and 58 when I wake up in the AM, which is usually when I take it. But, it's about 68-72 when I am up and walking around, and it can even get up to 80 if I've had coffee, been running around, stressed. When I was doing yoga regularly, it was at the lower end of this more of the time.

Same here.

[goldfinch]

Mine is 42. I posted elsewhere that I wished it counted more than BMI as an indicator of your physical health. We're starting a new health management program at work that will determine our health insurance rates, and while my labwork is stellar (including HR), my BMI is obese for my height/weight. I hate that it's the only tool they use to diagnose your level of health.

Any way to have your doctor certify that you are not overweight (if in fact you aren't) so that you get the best rate? IIRC, most of these programs are incentive programs to get people to change their behavior. If you are not overweight there is no behavior to change.

My BMI is something like 23. I am no longer within the overweight range but if you look at me you can see that I am a round person. I still have way too much body fat.

[Melalvai]

For several days in a row one week when I woke up I put the strap on and went back to sleep and when I woke up again I looked at the watch. 54, 56, 55. So that was pretty consistent. I'm approaching the high end of normal for my BMI.

[shootingstar]

I have no idea what my resting heart rate is. But had my blood pressure done 2 months ago. Have to dig around in my papers to get the reading for figures. It was pronounced as excellent.

I have never had a heart monitor nor taken my own heart rate. Partially because I never had a problem with my heart rate/blood pressure, so I tend to forget my readings. I never had an interest to wear a heart monitor. But I do have an interest in simply maintaining my weight and regular cycling for my own fitness for....past 2 decades.

Our public health care system is such that both healthy and unhealthy people with respect to their heart rate/condition, wouldn't receive a special "rate" /discount.

Come to think of it, I probably am doing something blasephemous on any cycling/jogging etc. forum as a regular participant --ie. not knowing my heart rate.

[Crankin]

Shooting Star, I don't use my HR monitor anymore for cycling. But I do monitor my resting HR and take it by hand at other times, as an indicator of my overall health and stress level. We have a BP machine at home (digital) that I also use once in awhile. It's important for me to keep an eye on it, as mine can be very low or too high; it's very dependent on my stress level.

[shootingstar]

Dumb as this may seem, I gauge my "heart" fitness by how I can cycle certain hills at certain % grades continuously and onward for awhile without feeling pooped out.
Plus know my weight (vaguely since I weigh myself um... 1-3 times per month. I can see the bathroom scale less than 10 ft. from where I am sitting now at the computer.) and how my clothing fits on me.

'Course it helps that I know how much annual approx. cycling mileage I did too. I probably sound as if I don't care about my health, but would just use other indicators to help myself long term.

[roadie gal]

BMI is a very poor, but easily obtainable measurement. When I was in the army my BMI always came out high, but when they did the actual body fat measurements with the calipers I had a body fat of 18-19%. The BMI doesn't take body composition into account at all. Stupid. End of rant.

I used to have a resting heart rate of about 28. Of course that was right before I got my pacemaker...Now my resting heart rate is 60.

[pll]

It is an interesting issue to try to consider some health indicator when setting the insurance rates. The tricky question is which one (or which ones... perhaps it should be a composite score). Given any indicator, there will be people that get hurt by it.

I don't have a measurement of my resting heart rate. At the doctor's office, it's generally around 60, +/- 1-2 beats. I do suffer from some measure of 'white coat anxiety', so that must push my HR a bit higher than would otherwise be. After a couple of medical procedures, in the recovery room, I saw my heart rate was under 50. In terms of BMI, I fluctuate between 19 and 20. I have not had my body fat measured with calipers in many years, but according to my scale in the morning, it is around 19%. A typical BP measurement would be 90/60 or 100/70; my cholesterol panel is very good (not as good as zoom zoom's, though).

[goldfinch]

It is an interesting issue to try to consider some health indicator when setting the insurance rates. The tricky question is which one (or which ones... perhaps it should be a composite score). Given any indicator, there will be people that get hurt by it.



Frankly, I think that we should have national health insurance, paid through our taxes, but that isn't a popular position these days.

Given that it is so hard to maintain weight loss, the number of factors that go into weight gain, including genetic factors, my opinion is that a punitive charge is not going to help.

Here is an interesting article on the issue of charging people different rates, depending on whether they are obese, or smokers, or the like: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/health/policy/smokers-penalized-with-health-insurance-premiums.html?pagewanted=all

[pll]

Frankly, I think that we should have national health insurance, paid through our taxes, but that isn't a popular position these days.

+1. I agree with you.

[Miranda]

Sitting here at my pc desk, my HR was 63 bpm. Think first thing in the morning when I've lied in bed, right after waking, and taken it, still about 60 bpm.

Though I'm considered fit by a doctor's standards, my HR is still always higher than you would expect because of my medicines. My asthma meds that I must take to prevent an exercise induced attack just spike my HR like crazy. Also, my allergy meds that are decogestant and antihistimine based affect my overall BP and HR as well. Seems like my HR on the Garmin bike pc is always at least a 100bpm- before I ever even start the ride.

I'm weighing more than I would like now, but am still about 20% BMI based upon just height and weight with a basic BMI calculation.

Sorry you are having a hard time with your insurance rates. I worry this is coming down the pike for us as well. Your's though sounds unfair. DH is so unhealthy and this year to not get a price increase had to do a health screening. Oh geez, if they start changing our rates based upon his health habits we are screwed.

Best of luck to you.

[Owlie]

Frankly, I think that we should have national health insurance, paid through our taxes, but that isn't a popular position these days.

Given that it is so hard to maintain weight loss, the number of factors that go into weight gain, including genetic factors, my opinion is that a punitive charge is not going to help.

Here is an interesting article on the issue of charging people different rates, depending on whether they are obese, or smokers, or the like: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/health/policy/smokers-penalized-with-health-insurance-premiums.html?pagewanted=all
+1, on all of it.
My mom's new insurance (which sucks) has the premiums set by I believe a combination of BMI, cholesterol and some other things, but primarily BMI. (Of course, BMI means nothing at the level of an individual, but we knew that.)
No idea what my resting HR is, but the last time I had it looked at (ER), it was around 65-70bpm...probably not my resting HR!;)

[Crankin]

+1 on the insurance.
Given my experience here, with our "Romney Care," I can't say anything bad. Almost all of my clients are getting therapy because of this insurance; it's a behavioral health initiative for families who have this plan. What I don't like is that if you are a working person and your employer doesn't offer insurance, what the state finds for you can still be pretty expensive.
I have mixed feelings about the issues raised in the NYT article. I wouldn't have a problem, because my BMI is 20, I don't smoke, or have any of the other risk factors. But, I know how hard it is to quit smoking. On the other hand, I kind of do feel strongly that people need to take more responsibility for their own health, but we need to help them. Behavioral change is extremely hard and unless most people get support, it's not going to happen. And using one thing as a measure of good health is just dumb.

[Bike Chick]

This health insurance trend is a bit scary. My BMI is high but my resting heart rate is low and I work very hard to keep my bp and cholesterol counts low. I would be really upset if I didn't get a discount and the skinny little coworker that smokes 2 packs of cigarettes a day did. Perhaps they should devise a fitness exam for the discounts and not rely on where you fell on the chart.

Two weeks ago I made a trip to the er when I got my finger in the way of my embroidery machine needle. To look at me you wouldn't think I was very fit. I'm 53, gray-headed and 10 pounds overweight. When the nurse took my bp and pulse (it was 44) she asked if my pulse was always this low and took it a second time to be sure.

[shootingstar]

So in the U.S., it has always been or recent trend on using certain health measurements by private health insurers for discounts/premium payments?

The reality is that a very healthy person could be suddenly quite sick with a terminal, non-curable disease. So what happens?

My father is not overweight (never was, in fact underweight for several decades), no cardiopulmonary nor respiratory problems at all. He is 82, but has prostate cancer. Not curable at his age. He is not "penalized" by the public health care system for having cancer which of course is not caused by smoking. (He stopped smoking before he married my mother.)

He has never taken his own heart rate and wouldn't know it. But his blood pressure has tended to be slow as diagnosed by doctor over the years.

This is why I can't get just measure my heart rate as my only indcator of health, there are real life examples in my own family, what type of lifestyle and diet long term one adopts to have overall good health.

(And when a terminal disease strikes, at least one is not suffering from multiple complications because of other health problems.)

[tzvia]

I have a BP monitor available to me, and use a Polar HR watch during exercise, and have measured my HR at rest (while watching TV) at around 49~50. Before I took up cycling again in 2008, after stopping in 2002, it hovered in the low 60s at rest. My BP at that time was in the 140s/low 90s. When I last checked it was 117/79. So I guess that between loosing about 30 lbs, exercising, and eating somewhat healthier, I am going in the right direction, at least as much as these things matter.

Being 52 and still about 20 lbs overweight (I am an apple- used to have a Goodyear truck tire around the middle, now it is more like a couple of MTB 2.1s.) Working on it but it has been hard to get those last 20 off. I don't dwell on the numbers, (the BP meter is my mother's, she bought it when she was advised she was borderline high BP), but it is interesting to see how they changed as I got myself into better shape.

Health insurance companies really don't have a much better way to quantify rates- even if we all got whole body MRIs, there would be risks and chance that fluctuate with hereditary and exposure/lifestyle factors. BP, HR and bloodwork are better than darts or guessing, but in the end it all feels like an educated guess.

I've known people who were 'the picture of health' just keel over with a brain hemorrhage. I've known people who were overweight, smoked, had high pressure jobs and lived to ripe old age. I've had relatives told they had 6 months, live 20 years. The science of health is really very interesting, as it involves so much chance.

[Brandi]

+1. I agree with you.




+2 :d

[NbyNW]

So in the U.S., it has always been or recent trend on using certain health measurements by private health insurers for discounts/premium payments?

IME it comes into play more for life insurance rates. But DH and I have not yet reached a time where this would have been an issue for us in applying for health insurance, so maybe others have had different experiences.

We've bought individual insurance a couple of times while in between jobs and they will quote us premium/deductible packages based on primary and no. of dependants before we have even sent our health questionnaires in.

The larger issue is whether you have a pre-existing condition that could get you denied coverage entirely (but after that there may be state programs that you can qualify for). DH really goofed on this once: he indicated that I had a spinal cord injury when all I had was a fracture to two vertebrae. So I got denied coverage. I had to spend a whole day on the phone clearing that one up!

[NbyNW]

I have mixed feelings on nationalizing insurance. On the one hand, the peace of mind that you are covered whether or not you are working is immense; On the other, I feel like I was already paying for health care when I had it through my employer; the money just didn't flow through my hands first. So I feel like it's just one big giant accounting problem that Americans will never agree on.

It was interesting to be living in Alberta while the health care debate was going on a couple of years ago. For one thing, a lot of Americans seem to think that Canada's health care system is national. If I understand right (please correct me if I'm wrong, Shootingstar!), what they have is a federal mandate that the provinces and territories provide health care insurance. So, you're covered but your insurance does not travel with you if you move to another province/territory or even just go on vacation. DH's company paid extra for us to have travel-related health insurance. I suppose if you don't have extra insurance you can always submit a claim but I don't know how successful people are with that.

Delivery of services can vary greatly depending on your geographical location. There are tons of Drs. in the big cities. Smaller towns struggle to attract and retain Drs. Even though Alberta has a perennial shortage of doctors, they don't make it easy for doctors to come from outside of the province to work; on several occasions we met experienced doctors (both men and women) who followed a spouse to Alberta from another part of Canada and it sounded like the requirements for them to get licensed to practice in Alberta were onerous.

I was never able to find a PCP in Edmonton. I asked both locals and newcomers for recommendations and everyone directed me to the listings on the Alberta Health website. The only Drs. taking new patients were at the public clinic where there is no guarantee of seeing the same person from one visit to the next. I started wondering whether having a PCP was a privilege reserved for locals. But as it turns out even a lot of my local friends had trouble getting a PCP. I could go on, but this post is getting long enough.

OTOH, some of the public health initiatives were very impressive. Getting a flu shot was a piece of cake, even during the whole H1N1 supply thing. I had a friend who lost 45 lbs, on her way to losing 60, through an experimental weight loss program with Alberta Health.

[shootingstar]

I believe there is a federal arrangement with provinces for transfer of money to the provinces for each provincial public health insurance program.

But that's only part of the story. Yes, I agree there are provincial differences of what residents pay (or not pay), availability of doctors, etc.

I've lived in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta. For whatever reason there is a problem in Alberta of immediately securing a family doctor as a new resident....it's probably a combination of doctor shortage, more women doctors who choose not to work punishing long hrs. (my sister is a living example with 2 young children. Now up to 40% graduating med students are women in Canada.). But there are other reasons.

BUT in Alberta for wierd (and stupid) reasons a resident does not have to pay a quarterly govn't imposed premium which is the opposite of B.C. (and I think Ontario. But I would have to ask.) This has been in effect for last few years. I doubt that is helpful to provincial budget on health care, but this province is more "selfish", in terms of its social support programs, etc. in general.

Alberta is the only province that doesn't have provincial sales tax...personally I just think it's stupid. Tax payments from the oil firms could never possibily cover our provincial budget.

I just see less sophistication and social services advocacy in Alberta. Voices of marginalized and weak/sick are quite muffled, compared to Toronto or Vancouver. And Calgary now has 1+ million people due to rapid growth in oil and energy sectors.

Yea, I guess I better get on the waiting list for family doctor..


In B.C. a single person pays abit over $56.00CAN every 3 months to the goverment. So it's VERY reasonable to have access to physician care. Of course, with additional payments to an insurer (ie. Blue Cross), one can stay in the hospital longer, get their own private room, etc. These top up services vary across different provinces in Canada. I am aware of this only because I've worked for various employers and knew what additional health benefits I could pay into.


In Vancouver I just merely dropped to my family doctor down the street with an appointment of course. Sure there were line-ups (as there are in big cities with many people) ...but it wasn't as difficult to find a family doctor with several days advance appointment booking for first time.

May I explain the level of quality of health care that is possible if you are in the right province, better city in Canada:

My father is under the care of specialists at Canada's top cancer research hospital in Toronto. He was never discriminated, never put back somewhere in the lineup for appointments because he is 82 and has cancer, which is terminal/non-curable now. He has appointments every few months, spend time, etc. He takes drugs. I have not heard of my parents charged much (if any) for these highly specialized drugs.


Sorry for my rant. But there are long time Albertans who want less tax, it is a province with big C Conservative for many decades, etc. Well, guess what: this is the situation that's going on right now. Alberta is abit like Canada's version of Texas in a down-scaled way, probably.

So does all this mean I should start taking my heart rate. For me it means doing simple stuff often, maybe not perfectly....cycling, eating ok, etc.

[NbyNW]

Sorry for my rant. But there are long time Albertans who want less tax, it is a province with big C Conservative for many decades, etc. Well, guess what: this is the situation that's going on right now. Alberta is abit like Canada's version of Texas in a down-scaled way, probably.

So does all this mean I should start taking my heart rate. For me it means doing simple stuff often, maybe not perfectly....cycling, eating ok, etc.

No problem -- I knew you would have an interesting perspective on this since you have lived in several provinces and still have family all over. What I don't get about Alberta is that they are always talking about how wealthy the province is, yet they can't get their priorities straight and solve some of the problems that you outlined.

FWIW, I think the oil companies absolutely could fork over more $$, for all the environmental damage they cause that potentially impacts public health.

[GrooverBrisbane]

My resting heartrate varies, but has been tending to run in the low 50s. Over the summer when my thyroid was whack, it was in the 65-75 range and could get to 110 if I was just sitting at my desk. That sucked.

Same here. I've got Hashimotos and taking my resting HR every morning actually got me onto it. I'd probably still be clueless about the Hashimotos if I hadn't noticed the rapid changes and spikes in resting HR.

It can be in the 60-65bpm region when my thyroid plays up. My endocrinologist restricted me to 120bpm and I wasn't allowed to bring my HR up any higher during my rides, which was a challenge because just thinking about riding usually gets me excited! ;)

It's all back to normal now and this morning it was 52bpm, which is low.

[OakLeaf]

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/health/research/rise-in-resting-heart-rate-linked-to-coronary-artery-disease.html?ref=health

[indysteel]

Same here. I've got Hashimotos and taking my resting HR every morning actually got me onto it. I'd probably still be clueless about the Hashimotos if I hadn't noticed the rapid changes and spikes in resting HR.

It can be in the 60-65bpm region when my thyroid plays up. My endocrinologist restricted me to 120bpm and I wasn't allowed to bring my HR up any higher during my rides, which was a challenge because just thinking about riding usually gets me excited! ;)

It's all back to normal now and this morning it was 52bpm, which is low.

Yeah, I've been tracking it a lot more closely lately. I even have an app on my iPhone that measures it.

[GLC1968]

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/health/research/rise-in-resting-heart-rate-linked-to-coronary-artery-disease.html?ref=health

Interesting.

Though, when I was my most overweight and very out of shape (about 2 years ago - BMI obese, BF above 30%, could barely run for 3 minutes straight), my RHR was still in the low 40's.

A low RHR in an of itself is not an indicator of good health. Just like BMI or any other metric, it's only one tool in the tool box and the whole picture needs to be evaluated.

[GrooverBrisbane]

Yeah, I've been tracking it a lot more closely lately. I even have an app on my iPhone that measures it.

I usually stick with the good old-fashioned finger-on-the-pulse counting... LOL

[indysteel]

[QUOTE=GrooverBrisbane;619615]I usually stick with the good old-fashioned finger-on-the-pulse counting... LOL[

I'm bad with math!

[OakLeaf]

I'm bad with math!

More accurate if you count the full minute anyway. :p

[GrooverBrisbane]

More accurate if you count the full minute anyway. :p

Agree. Always count the full minute! Sometimes I need three attempts though because I keep falling asleep... Counting is so soothing! "blush"