Heart rate and life expectancy (Full Version)

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Aneirin -> Heart rate and life expectancy (3/24/2010 10:56:28 AM)

I understand there are many factors that can contribute to life expectancy, but the one that interests me is the speed of the heart in that does it have a finite life, much like a car part, it works great for a period and then wears and becomes less reliable until it just fails requiring a new part, or the whole thing scrapped. I was wondering if there was a finite life, is that measured in how many operations it is capable of, in the case of the heart, how many beats it can do before it wears out. Obviously the condition of a part, in a machine is dependant on the condition in which it is kept, regular maintenance, cleaning servicing etc, and its conditions of operation, in some ways just like the heart, but if like a machine part, the heart has a finite life measured in frequency of operations, is all this advice we are told to increase the heart rate by engaging in various activities actually hastening our end prematurely ?

Look at animals, usually the smaller the animal the faster the heart rate, but also look at the life span of these animals, do they last many years or a few years, could a slow heart rate actually be what we need not a fast heart rate ?



LaTigresse -> RE: Heart rate and life expectancy (3/24/2010 11:04:06 AM)

I would venture to say that there might be something to your thought.

I know that athletes have a much slower 'at rest' heart rate than people that are sedentary. Most would say that, as a general rule, people that are physically fit and healthy, are going to live longer than the sedentary person. What all determines all of that.....who knows.

Although I am sure there are a bazillion studies about it if one wants to dig.



lizi -> RE: Heart rate and life expectancy (3/24/2010 11:43:53 AM)

Hmmmm.....this makes sense to me as well. As a result of exercising over years I've lowered my heart rate which is what happens with regular exercise. As LaT pointed out, people in good physical condition do generally live longer and have lower heart rates. Actually I've got my own homework to do now and can't dig for hard information but I'll be interested in coming back later and following the thread.



jj292 -> RE: Heart rate and life expectancy (3/25/2010 4:07:13 PM)

Well athletes do have lower resting heart rates. This is because the heart is in better shape to pump the blood more efficiently. However, when they exercise, the rate increases like anyone else. So Im not quite sure the number of beats has anything to do with it. It has more to do with the quality of the beats.

But exercise and diet are not the only factors. There is a significant genetic factor. If everyone in your family has high blood pressure, the chances are quite high you will also develop it no matter how much you exercise and how well you eat.

Same with cancer. If your mother and grandmother had breast cancer...you better keep up your mammograms.



pahunkboy -> RE: Heart rate and life expectancy (3/25/2010 4:16:36 PM)

...you can do everything right- then slip and die in the bathtub.



ThatDamnedPanda -> RE: Heart rate and life expectancy (3/25/2010 4:57:19 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin
I was wondering if there was a finite life, is that measured in how many operations it is capable of, in the case of the heart, how many beats it can do before it wears out.


Neil Armstrong, the astronaut, certainly thought so. He once said, "I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of them running around doing exercises."

Slacker.



sweetboundesire -> RE: Heart rate and life expectancy (3/25/2010 6:59:40 PM)

if humans didn't love or need love, if we were more primal i could see the sense in this and sure the better in shape you are the better your odds your feeling the love from those around you because positivity breeds positivity.

This said, you can be healthy or ordinary and still die of a broken heart. People die of broken hearts all day...sometimes it's called suicide and sometimes it may become heart disease or they just die within a year or so when it's a life partner. Yes folks, love fucken kills. it's a mutha.
maybe sometimes if it doesn't kill, it makes you stronger? lol..there is so much i am not so sure of, but i'm pretty sure after the broken hearts i've went thru in my lifetime, i'm strong![;)] so maybe, it's positivity? who knows...but i think that may be good for your heart.

my pov, is it takes not only health but quality in life that matters more and will in turn perhaps pump out quantity...yet quantity in years i really don't feel is as relavent.



Termyn8or -> RE: Heart rate and life expectancy (3/25/2010 8:23:00 PM)

"Look at animals, usually the smaller the animal the faster the heart rate, but also look at the life span of these animals, do they last many years or a few years, could a slow heart rate actually be what we need not a fast heart rate ? "

Other factors also shift with the size of the organism. Smaller ones emit as well as hear higher audio frequencies for example. If any one really gave it a try I am pretty sure they would find a correlation between heart rate and longevity. However the size of the organism matters greatly. If there are data on this that is derived directly, I am still not sure what it proves.

As to the limit of the number of heartbeats a given being has, I would say if that is indeed the limiting factor it would vary in each individual [specimen]. How many times can that muscle squeeze and how many times can the valves keep flapping back and forth ? Even with the most comprehensive data, we would just find that it varies greatly.

And the quality of those heartbeats has been mentioned. The most efficient way right now to measure that is with a blood pressure test. It is not the numbers, but the span. Whether it is 300 over 200 or 200 over 100 it is the span that tells of that. The normal high blood pressure seems to be 120 over 80. That indicates too much static pressure in the venal system. But those numbers are not that bad, in fact are borderline and I would refuse drugs as treatment with those numbers, you're close enough. But the spread between the numbers should be around 40 at least, and sometimes it's more. In fact too much and that is a different matter. Anywhere between 40 and 55 indicates a pretty much normal heart, or at least functional. In good shape.

Hearts also encounter environmental difficulties. Like when people upset their fluid balance with sodium laced with dessicant, sugar and all kinds of wierd nasty things. The fluid, or even fat might develop and squeeze the heart, making it much less efficient. There could also be problems with the valves. Any of these types of conditions will cause the heart muscle to work harder. There is a limit and it might cramp up and you can figure out what happens then.

So yes, there might be something to this but I think the variables are far too hard to handle. Now on an individual basis, if you can excercise and increase the effiency of your cardio-pulmonary system, it may do at ease what others may struggle to do. This should be true, but probably can't be proven unless you can live two lives at once at the same place and time. But there is no doubt in my mind that it would be beneficial.

T



sweetboundesire -> RE: Heart rate and life expectancy (3/25/2010 8:38:51 PM)

one thing is for sure, Mc Donalds will kill not only your heart but eat your soul.



takemeforyourown -> RE: Heart rate and life expectancy (3/25/2010 9:00:50 PM)

It doesn't matter how many heartbeats you've had compared to the guy in the next hospital bed. It only matters that his coronary arteries are clear and yours are nicknamed, "widowmakers".



Rule -> RE: Heart rate and life expectancy (3/26/2010 10:16:01 AM)

In all mammal species the number of heart beats is the same, I learned in the first year of my study of biology.



pahunkboy -> RE: Heart rate and life expectancy (3/26/2010 11:28:02 AM)

always breath correctly.


Right?



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