Medical Questions » Heart Questions » Question No. 485
| Question: | Can you tell me please how many beats does a normal heart do in one minute. I am over 70 and my heart when I wake in the morning, and am still in bed, beats only 52 times a minute. Is that too low? |
| Answer: | The normal heartbeat rate, according to textbooks, is 72 beats per minute, but there are wide variations on this depending upon what you are doing, how you are doing it, your age, and how fit you are.
If exercising vigorously, a young person' s heart rate may increase to 250, while an Olympic athlete' s may not go above 150.
Younger people tend to have a higher heart rate than the elderly. At rest, a baby may have a heart rate of 85, a child 80, a young person 70, and an elderly person 60.
If you are anxious or frightened, your heart rate will also increase. Illness, fevers and many disorders of the body (eg. overactive thyroid, heart disease) will also increase the pulse rate.
If you are totally relaxed and comfortable, as you should be in a warm bed on waking from a good night' s sleep, your pulse rate will be at its minimum, and a rate of 52 under these circumstances is nothing to be concerned about. An extremely fit athlete in the same circumstances could have a heart rate of 40.
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