Low heart rate

J

Jasonj

Guest
Hey all,

I was just looking to see if anyone else experienced this or has any advice? I just recently got an Apple Watch and have noticed my resting heart rate it about 48bpm. I knew I’ve had a low resting heart rate for awhile. I have confirmed this with a different heart rate monitor as well. I don’t feel dizziness or have any symptoms. I am most certainly not an athlete, I weigh 155 and I’m 6 foot.
Anyone else experience this?
 
Sounds like you're going to live to be 100 to me. You probably should be an athlete, that weight and heart rate would make you a good bicyclist.
 
My HR was measured at 36 for one of my previous medicals and it was no issue. I was racing and training a lot at the time and the nurse thought the monitor was broken . The AME never mentioned a thing.
 
Back when I was running a lot a 45bmp heart rate was common for me, and even now I'm normally in the 50's.
 
Jasonj said:
Hey all,

I was just looking to see if anyone else experienced this or has any advice? I just recently got an Apple Watch and have noticed my resting heart rate it about 48bpm. I knew I’ve had a low resting heart rate for awhile. I have confirmed this with a different heart rate monitor as well. I don’t feel dizziness or have any symptoms. I am most certainly not an athlete, I weigh 155 and I’m 6 foot.
Anyone else experience this?
Click to expand...
Odds are that’s fine and just normal for you, especially if you don’t have any symptoms, such as light-headedness especially when you stand up. That’s particularly true if, when you feel your pulse, it’s regular (no skipped beats and no variation in time between beats).

And although it’s most likely normal, there’s the remote possibility it’s associated with an irregular heartbeat, which could be an issue. That’s more likely with age and other medical conditions. I don’t know much about Apple watches but apparently they have a setting to detect arrhythmias. Not sure how accurate it is, but that’s something.

Of course, the safest thing to do is have it checked out. That most likely means just having someone properly trained listen to your heart for its rhythm and any murmurs. An EKG would confirm things but if you came into my clinic with that story and didn’t have other risk factors or history, if I listened to your heart and it was normal, I’d stop at that and reassure you. If you were still concerned, I’d probably offer an EKG.
 
FAA aeromedical defines a heart rate less than 50 bpm as Bradycardia and requires investigating so be careful of thinking it's always healthy. I got past my medicals with a slow rate for a long time, too, so it gets overlooked. But flight physicals have never been about health care. I have diagnosed Bradycardia and have a permanent pacemaker as a result, but my sleeping heart rate was <25 BPM. Of course the pacer came with an SI requirement and hoops to jump through. As my cardiologist says? The FAA let me fly sick for 20 years and once I was fixed they make me play the SI game. My AME agrees it's silly. Thank goodness for BasicMed!
 
When I was in my 30s and played basketball several days a week, 50 BPM was my norm.
 
Stewartb said:
FAA aeromedical defines a heart rate less than 50 bpm as Bradycardia and requires investigating so be careful of thinking it's always healthy.
Click to expand...
Very good point. Thanks for keeping me honest.
 
My resting HR is typically in the low 50s. No issues for my medical.
 
The Army docs had to recheck me three times because they could not believe my Resting HR was in the low 40's.

Yeah, I was running sub-10 minute two-miles every Friday...
 
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