A new study suggests that a slow heart rate does not indicate an increased risk for heart disease, Philly reports.
"For a large majority of people with a heart rate in the 40s or 50s who have no symptoms, the prognosis is very good," corresponding author Dr. Ajay Dharod, instructor in internal medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., said in a center news release.
"Our results should be reassuring for those diagnosed with asymptomatic bradycardia," Dharod added.
In some people the heart beats below 50 beats a minute, a condition called bradycardia. A typical heart rate for an adult at rest is 60 to 100 beats a minute.
The slow heart rate can lead to symptoms such as light-headedness, shortness of breath, fainting or chest pain.
For the study, the researchers looked at data from more than 6,700 healthy people between the ages of 45 and 84, living in the United States. The researchers followed their health for more than 10 years.
The study concluded that people with a heart rate of less than 50 and no symptoms of heart trouble didn't have a higher risk of heart disease, as compared to those with a normal heart rate.
However, the study noted that people with a low heart rate who were taking heart rate-modifying drugs had an increased risk of death.
"Bradycardia may be problematic in people who are taking medications that also slow their heart rate," Dharod noted. "Further research is needed to determine whether this association is causally linked to heart rate or to the use of these drugs."
The findings were published online Jan. 19 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
