Ask HN: What's your heart rate during work? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's your heart rate during work?

9 pointsholistio6 comments

I've recently become a bit too attached to my heart rate, after having gone through a panic attack a few months ago.

My resting heart rate during sleep is perfectly normal (60), also when I'm exercising.

I've also been to a cardiologist for a thorough examination and was told that there was nothing wrong with my heart and it's job is to beat and I should accept it.

However, when I'm working I notice that my HR is often higher than what would seem logical for sedentary work - coding, in this case, like for most of you.

As I'm typing this, sitting comfortably, my heart beats 94 times per minute, which seems awfully fast to me. Maybe if I wasn't stressed out about it it would be lower.

When I'm driving, it often goes above 100 - although I have to admit I tend to drive fast on highways.

I'm curious, what's your typical heart rate during regular daily activities, like working, driving, taking a shower, etc? It is surprisingly hard to find any quality content, apart from "a normal adult RHR is between 60 and 100" repeated all across the internet.

Thanks in advance for sharing!

> I've also been to a cardiologist for a thorough examination and was told that there was nothing wrong with my heart and it's job is to beat and I should accept it.

Do you know what they checked specifically? There are many things that can cause an elevated resting heart rate such as thyroid issues and anaemia. Or it might be related to any medication you take or things like caffeine / alcohol consumption.

In my experience doctors generally don't worry too much if you're only just outside of normal ranges, but that doesn't mean something isn't wrong / suboptimal with your health. I'm not blaming doctors for this, at the end of the day they only have so much time and they can't waste time trying to obsessively optimise the health markers of every person they see. But that doesn't mean you can't.

For example, hyperthyroidism can cause both panic attacks and a high resting heart rate. Even if your doctor tested you for hyperthyroidism it's still worth knowing if you're own labs because like I say, if they're only slightly high your doctor is quite likely to overlook it as it's not an immediate risk to your health, but slightly high can still cause problems for some individuals.

Personally a high resting heart rate is something I'd be very concerned about because it will take years off your life. You really want it in the low normal range of around 60-70bpm.

I have chronic tachycardia and during normal daily activity it's common for it to hover around 90-100. During exercise it easily goes over 100. I've also gotten it checked. They had me wear an EKG device for a few days and did a blood test for thyroid issues, but other than "Yup, it's very fast", they didn't really get much more revealing information. I figure so as long as it doesn't cause me discomfort I'll try not to worry about it too much.

Do you do regular cardio workouts?

For comparison: I (male, 45 yrs/old, 100kg, BMI too high) train 5-7 times a week for strength/hypertrophy and 2-3 times a week I do hard cardio for an hour (HR 145-160 average, max HR 170-187).

7-day average RHR: 43

After writing some text in this here textarea: 50

Moving about (likely close to driving a car): 70-80

Look at percentages, not the actual numbers. My heart-rate is too low (bradycardia).

> I've also been to a cardiologist for a thorough examination and was told that there was nothing wrong with my heart and it's job is to beat and I should accept it.

Have you tried going to different cardiologists until you find one willing to tell you there’s something wrong with your heart? I think this will make you feel better.

This is a very interesting take. Why would you want something to be wrong with your heart

The person asking this question has been told by a doctor that they are fine. They won’t be satisfied until someone — either a doctor or somebody here on HN tells them they aren’t fine.

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