How to Keep Track of Your Heart Rate

By Cardiac Monitoring Services

Introduction

Located in Irvine, California, Cardiac Monitoring Services is a provider of Holter devices and event monitors, two distinct technologies that allow medical professionals to thoroughly analyze unusual activity throughout a patient’s cardiovascular system. Devices provided by Cardiac Monitoring Services help medical providers to document and understand a patient's heart rate at different times of the day.

Individuals with potential heart abnormalities can benefit by checking their heart rate from time to time. An increased heart rate may be a sign of heart failure while a slow heart rate can be a sign of bradycardia.

Heart Rate

While medical professionals or cardiac monitoring equipment should be sought out for the most accurate measurements possible, a person can get a basic idea of his or her heart rate using only his or her fingers, a clock, and basic math.

The first step a person will need to take involves finding his or her pulse. The wrist just beneath the thumb is a convenient place to take one’s pulse while the throat just under the jaw is another place where a pulse can be easily felt. Individuals aged 65 and older should take care if checking their pulse at the neck, as pressing too hard could cause light-headedness.

Conclusion

After locating his or her pulse, an individual will need to count the number of heartbeats occurring over the course of 15 seconds. Multiplying this number by four will equate to beats per minute (bpm), otherwise known as heart rate.

Activity throughout the day will naturally cause a heart beat to decrease and increase. A person's heart beat will be lower upon waking and higher after participating in any type of physical activity. The normal resting heart rate for an adult is 60 to 100 bpm.