How To Decrease Heart Rate Quickly

Slowing A Chronically High Heart Rate

1Lie down and relax. Lie down on a comfortable surface such as your bed or your couch. If there is no comfortable surface to lie upon, then try sitting in a relaxed position.

Make sure that the room is quiet and comfortable. If your view from your window is chaotic, then close your curtains or your blinds.

Relax your muscles. Stay in this position and allow your heart rate to slow at its own pace.

If you have been in 1 position for a while, switch! Try sitting or lying down if you have been standing. Your blood pressure changes when you change position and this may also affect your heart rate.XResearch source

2Concentrate on pleasing mental imagery. Calm your mind and body by using guided visualization and imagining places that make you happy. For instance, you can think about a beautiful mural, a scene from nature, or a daydream that you would find relaxing.

Find a print or a photo of something that makes you feel relaxed. You can sit on your bed in a meditative posture and gaze at the picture to try to calm your mind and body.

Write in a journal about a place you love to visit or a place in which you feel very at peace. Then, close your journal and picture the place in your mind, allowing the calm to wash over you.

3Learn to meditate. Place your internal focus on the beating of your heart. Try to use the power of your concentration to slow down your heart rate.

4Breathe slowly. Try some of these techniques to use breathing to calm your heart rate:

Clinical Contributors To This Story

Sarah L. Timmapuri, M.D. contributes to topics such as Cardiac / Heart Health, Exercise / Fitness.

By Sarah Timmapuri, M.D.

If your heart is racing as youre sitting reading this article, its possible your body is trying to tell you something. A high resting heart rate, or a heart rate of more than 100 beats per minute, means your heart is working extra hard to pump blood through your body. And, that extra effort could result in a wide range of negative effects on your overall health, including feelings of dizziness and fatigue and most seriously blood clots, heart failure and, in rare cases, sudden death.

Normal resting heart rate is anywhere between 60 and 100 beats per minute, and its simple to check how fast yours is beating. While idle, hold your pointer and middle finger between your bone and tendon on the thumb side on your wrist until you feel your pulse, and count the number of beats for a minute that is your resting heart rate.

Certain aspects of someones resting heart rate are directly connected to uncontrollable factors, such as age and genetics, however there are certain actions that be taken to help decrease heart rate and improve overall wellbeing for those whose resting heart rate is above normal.

Here are six proven ways to lower your resting heart rate:

Add More Fish To Your Diet:

Similarly to exercising, maintaining a healthy diet is beneficial to each of us for many reasons. For one, incorporating more fish has been associated with lower resting heart rates, according to a study from the American Heart Association. Dont enjoy eating fish? Talk a doctor about taking fish oil supplements, which may have positive effects on heart rate as well.

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How To Lower The Heart Rate While Running

Your heart rate isn’t just another health metric to track in your training journal â it’s an important indicator of how hard your body is working during a run.

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As the intensity of your workout increases, your heart rate increases, too. But working too hard, and raising your heart rate too much, can actually damage the heart and lead to serious health complications.

Knowing how to calculate a safe range for your heart rate and learning how to manage your heart rate when it gets too high can help protect you from these potentially dangerous health issues. Plus, maintaining the right heart rate zone for your age, sex and lifestyle is key to improving the heart rate while running and ensuring your workout is helping â not hurting â your heart.

Here’s what you need to know about safe heart rate zones and what to do if your heart rate is too high.

What To Expect At Your Office Visit

Your provider will examine you and ask questions about your medical history and symptoms.

You may be asked:

• Do you feel skipped or stopped beats?
• Does your heart rate feel slow or fast when you have the palpitations?
• Do you feel a racing, pounding, or fluttering?
• Is there a regular or irregular pattern to the unusual heartbeat sensations?
• Did the palpitations begin or end suddenly?
• When do the palpitations occur? In response to reminders of a traumatic event? When you are lying down and resting? When you change your body position? When you feel emotional?
• Do you have any other symptoms?

An electrocardiogram may be done.

If you go to an emergency room, you will be connected to a heart monitor. However, most people with palpitations do not need to go to an emergency room for treatment.

If your provider finds you have an abnormal heart rhythm, other tests may be done. This may include:

• Holter monitor for 24 hours, or another heart monitor for 2 weeks or longer

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Maintain A Healthy Weight

Dropping a few pounds and getting leaner can help bring down your heart rate. The more weight you carry, the harder your body has to work to move blood through the body especially if you dont have a lot of muscle mass, says Dr. Singh.

Embracing good nutrition and regular exercise can help you maintain a healthy weight. Plus, theyre good for your overall heart health. Consider it a win-win.

Improving Your Heart Rate Permanently

1Check with your doctor to what extent it’s okay to exercise vigorously. Intense exercise is not the first step, but work up to more vigorous exercise. Short bursts of energetic effort, such as running short dashes, interspaced with relaxing to not lose your breath, called interval training, improves your heart’s efficiency by about 10 percent more than the usual aerobic exercise done at a steady pace.

Build up until you’re performing at your maximum, safe heart rate for the last interval, then you can cool down. Change up your routine periodically — pace, machine, incline plane, stairs, weights, dance, water, route, hills — to make your heart pump blood more effectively with fewer beats.

For runners: If you run on a treadmill, use the interval setting. If you run outdoors or on an indoor track, then warm up for 5 minutes. Then run fast for 1 minute and jog slowly for 1 minute. Repeat the interval 6 or 8 times before cooling down for 5 minutes.

For swimmers: Swim ten 50-yard freestyles, resting for 15 seconds between each pair of swims. As you swim, swim aerobically, raising your heart rate but not raising it too much, not swimming too hard so that you become really out of breath.XResearch source

On the bike: Warm up for 90 seconds. Then, pedal at a moderate energy burst for 30 seconds. Slow back down to a cardio rate for 90 seconds before performing another energy burst for 30 seconds. Each 30-second energy burst should be more intense than the last.XResearch source

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When To Contact A Medical Professional

If you have never had heart palpitations before, see your provider.

• Loss of alertness
• Dizziness or lightheadedness

• You often feel extra heartbeats .
• You have risk factors for heart disease, such as high cholesterol, diabetes, or high blood pressure.
• You have new or different heart palpitations.
• Your pulse is more than 100 beats per minute .
• You have related symptoms, such as chest pain, shortness of breath, feeling faint, or loss of consciousness.

Slowing A Very High Heart Rate

1Practice slow deep breathing. Although it may seem difficult, lowering your breathing speed will help to lower your heart rate. Take a breath for 5-8 seconds, hold it for 3-5 seconds, and then exhale slowly for a count of 5-8 seconds. Focus on exhaling completely to reduce your heart rate.XResearch source

Try the 4-7-8 breathing technique. This is when you inhale to the count of 4, hold for the count of 7, and then exhale to the count of 8 while making a whoosh sound. Repeat the exercise 3 or more times.XResearch source

2Perform vagal nerve stimulation. This stimulates the vagus nerve which is responsible for controlling your heart rate. To do this, try the valsalva maneuver, after taking a deep breath, strain the muscles in your abdomen the same way you would to give a bowel movement. Hold the pressure for five seconds, and then let go. You may have to do this multiple times to get the desired effect. Other ways to stimulate the vagus nerve include:XResearch source

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If You Want To Lower Your Fast Resting Heart Rate Without Drugs That Can Cause Side Effects There Are At Least Five Natural Ways To Do This

A normal pulse at rest should be between 60 and 100 beats per minute.

First, it would be helpful to learn if your fast resting heart rate is being caused by ongoing anxiety.

In fact, just the act of taking ones pulse for one minute could make it speed up, due to the anxiety of finding out what it is.

But even if you suffer from anxiety, there are still five ways to naturally slow down your resting heart rate no drugs required, says Yaser Elnahar, MD, a cardiologist with Hunterdon Cardiovascular Associates in NJ.

Dr. Elnahar recommends the five natural approaches below.

What Is Tachycardia What Are Its Causes And Symptoms

Tachycardia is a serious heart condition that occurs due to unexpected high heart rate. The normal heart beat count for an adult is 60-100 beats per minute. If it increases more than 100, it can lead to severe heart complications.

The causes of Tachycardia are:

• As a reaction to certain medications
• Congenital electrical pathway abnormalities in the heart.
• Consumption of excessive alcohol.
• Consumption of drugs likes cocaine etc
• Electrolyte imbalance

• Smoking and certain lung diseases

The symptoms of tachycardia:

• Lightheadedness
• Rapid pulse rate
• Heart palpitations a racing, uncomfortable or irregular heartbeat or a sensation of flopping in the chest

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Resting Heart Rate As A Marker Of Heart Health

Your resting heart rate may say something about the health of your heart. Some studies show that a lower resting heart rate is linked with a healthier heart. A study of 130,000 post-menopausal women found those who had faster heart rates at rest were more likely to have a heart-related health event, like a heart attack than those with lower resting heart rates. People who arent as physically fit also have faster-resting heart rates because their heart doesnt beat as efficiently.

Most adults have a resting heart rate between 60 and 90 beats per minute, but athletes and people who exercise hard may have a resting heart rate in the 50s or even 40s. However, a heart rate in the 40s may also be a sign of heart conduction problems, so its a good idea to see a physician. Likewise, you should let your physician know if your resting heart rate is often above 100 beats per minute. This could be a sign of other health problems too, like an overactive thyroid gland.

Treating Supraventricular Tachycardia In Hospital

SVT is rarely life threatening. But you may need treatment in hospital if you keep having long episodes.

This may include:

• medicines to control the episodes of SVT given as tablets or through a vein
• cardioversion a small electric shock to the heart to help it get back to a normal rhythm
• catheter ablation a treatment where thin tubes are placed through a vein or artery into your heart to correct the problem with the electrical system this permanently cures the problem in most patients

Find out more about:

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What Is A Normal Resting Heart Rate

The resting heart rate is the heart pumping the lowest amount of blood when you are not exercising. What is a normal resting heart rate? A normal resting heart rate, when you are calm, relaxed, and healthy, will range between 60 and 100 beats per minute for adults. That being said, a normal heart rate will vary from person to person, and throughout a personâs day.

A heart rate lower than 60 beats isnât necessarily a problem. Factors that affect heart rate include drugs like beta-blockers, body position, and anxiety or stressful emotions. A lower heart rate is also common in athletes and those that get lots of physical activity. The heart also pumps a little more and the pulse rate increases when the humidity is high. If youâre obese, you may also see a higher resting pulse than normal, but not too much over 100 beats per minute.

It is important to note that an above normal heart rate can be a sign of several problems, and symptoms may include fainting, weakness, chest pain, lightheadedness, low blood pressure, heart pain, and inadequate blood flow in the legs and arms.

For an accurate heart rate reading, simply put your fingers over your pulse and count the number of beats per minute. You could also count the beats in 15 seconds and multiply the number by four. The best places to find your pulse are the wrists, side of your neck, inside of your elbow, and top of the foot.

Bradycardia Causes + 9 Natural Ways To Improve Slow Heart Rate

By Kathleen McCoy, BS

• Natural Treatments

If your heart beats less than 60 times each minute, you have bradycardia. This condition can also be referred to as sinus bradycardia. At rest, an adult heart typically beats between 60 and 100 times a minute anything lower may be a sign of an underlying medical condition. It can be a serious condition if your heart isnt pumping enough blood throughout the body.

There are, of course, exceptions. Young adults and premier athletes may have a resting heart rate of less than 60 beats a minute and this is generally not considered a health concern. Bradycardia symptoms can range from mild to severe, particularly when your brain, liver, kidneys and other organs arent getting enough oxygen.

Several conditions can cause bradycardia, including several potentially serious conditions, such as myocarditis, sleep apnea, lupus or certain medications. Bradycardia treatment depends on the underlying cause of the low resting heart rate but may also include the surgical placement of a pacemaker.

If you become suddenly faint, have difficulty breathing or experience chest pains, call 911 immediately.

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What Are The Most Common Causes Of A Fast Heart Rate

Normally, your bodys systems run on autopilot, thanks to your autonomic nervous system, which regulates all the vital functions you dont really need to think about. This includes things like your heart rate, blood pressure, sweating, urination, and various gastrointestinal functions, Brent Goodman, MD, a board-certified neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, tells SELF.

Sometimes, though, certain lifestyle habits, situations, or even health conditions can cause your heart to start beating very rapidly or irregularly. Here are a few common culprits to keep on your radar.

Lets be real: With everything going on in the world, theres an extremely good chance youre stressed right now. When you encounter something stressful, your body releases a surge of norepinephrine, also known as adrenaline, Camille Frazier-Mills, MD, a cardiologist at Duke Electrophysiology Clinic, tells SELF. Receptors in your heart respond to this trigger and can make your heart rate pick up.1

If you cant immediately solve whatevers making you stressed , try deep breathing exercises to at least help you feel better in the moment. The Mayo Clinic suggests taking deep breaths through your nose so that you feel your stomach rise instead of your chest, and exhaling through your nose as well. Focus on your breath and the rise and fall of your abdomen throughout.

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What Is The Heart Rate

Heart rate or pulse rate is the number of times your heart beats in a minute. It is a simple measure to know how much your heart works during rest or activities.

Heart rate is one of the vital signs that are checked regularly whenever you visit your doctor, or when you get admitted to the hospital.

Your heart rate is lower when you are resting and higher when you are doing any kind of activity, or are feeling stressed or anxious.

When you exercise, your heart needs to work harder, which increases your heart rate. As soon as you rest, the heart rate starts decreasing gradually and returns to its normal level, usually within an hour.

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Reduce Caffeine And Alcohol Intake

Excessive caffeine and alcohol in your bloodstream raise blood pressure and heart rate. While the elevated heart rate is temporary it can cause panic attacks and anxiety. Alcohol is a toxin and your body works extra hard to eliminate it, thereby, straining your heart. Both caffeine and alcohol cause dehydration which increase the workload of your heart. Cutting caffeine and alcohol consumption will gradually slow your heart rate.