Taking care of your heart health is one of the most important things you can do. Your heart is one of the most important organs in your body, and it’s a vital part of staying healthy and fit. As a person ages, their heart will naturally be faced with challenges. The good news is that finding ways to prioritize heart health is something that can be done with a relative amount of ease.
Every little bit helps when it comes to investing in the future of your heat. So whether you are an avid health enthusiast, or just starting to venture into the world of health and fitness, heart health should always be a priority. One way that you can keep track of your heart health from home, is by learning how to measure your heart rate.
What Good Does Measuring Your Heart Rate Do?
Cardiac output is the amount of blood that your heart pumps and is a measure of how healthy your heart is. When it comes to understanding cardiac output two important factors have to be taken into consideration and they are heart rate and stroke volume. Cardiac output is the product of both stroke volume and heart rate, and learning how to measure your heart rate can give you one of these important factors.
Heart Rate
Heart rate refers to the number of times a heart beats per minute. The idea behind a strong, and healthy heart, is that this number will be on the lower end. Now there are very natural reasons why a heart rate may increase. For example, if a person feels that they are in danger, they may experience an increase in heart rate because their muscles may need more blood if they sense you are about to undergo stress as in the fight or flight mechanism.
In general, the lower your heart rate, as long as you have adequate or healthy cardiac output, the better the heart function. The stroke volume comes into play for a person to achieve a lower heart rate but a healthy cardiac output. Having control over your heart rate can also help in managing and reducing stress. Patients with cardiovascular issues often browse through the types of pacemakers to find the best one for their condition. This device can help regulate heart rate and keep it within a healthy range. For instance, if you are experiencing a high heart rate while resting, it could be an indication of stress or a potential underlying health condition.
Stroke Volume
This term refers to the amount of blood that is pumped out per heartbeat. Hence, the smaller the stroke volume, the higher the heart rate to achieve an adequate or healthy cardiac output. At the same time, if the stroke volume increases, then the heart rate decreases because it takes a lower heart rate to achieve the desired cardiac output.
What Can You Gather From Simply Tracking Your Heart Rate?
By checking your heart rate at home, you can keep track of your progress towards a goal of a lower resting heart rate. If you can keep experiencing life normally, yet you notice that your resting heart rate is lowering, this is indicative of a larger stroke volume and greater heart health.
It should be noted, that this is just a way of keeping track for personal reasons. Any concerns should be taken up immediately with a medical professional. There are also incredible supplements like CoQ10 that help invigorate the mitochondria of the cell that can help with heart health. In fact, coQ10 benefits point to strong cardiovascular health and could be a great option for anyone wanting to improve their resting heart rate.
Checking Manually
The first method isn’t always the easiest. First, find your radial pulse which is located near your wrist. Once you have located it apply adequate pressure to feel the pulse clearly without blocking off the artery. Once you have established this, count the number of beats that take place inside one minute.
To save on time, you can count the number of beats in 30 seconds and multiply by two, or within 15 seconds and multiply by four.
Checking Digitally
An easier way to check your heart rate is to use a personal piece of tech that offers this feature like a smartwatch or cell phone. Thanks to advancements in technology, a lot of cell phones can provide this kind of service, and most smartwatches are built with a heart sensor as a staple part of their service.
The great thing about using a digital tool is that there are a lot of health applications that sync this information to one localized dashboard. This allows you to see trends over time and can be very helpful in understanding this one aspect of your heart health.
Conclusion
Knowing how to check your heart rate at home can be something that helps motivate you to keep pursuing heart-healthy food choices and exercises. No matter what stage you find yourself in with your health journey, with hard work and persistence, you can improve the health of your heart!
