August 27, 2025 • 20 mins
There’s a test you can do yourself at home to get a lot of good data about how likely you are to stop living due to the #1 cause of death in women. The best part is that it’s free and easy and if it comes back not optimal, you have time to start doing simple things now so that you make it to your 80s in unusually good health.
send me a message with questions, suggestions, or ideas of things you need help with: healthcouragecollective@gmail.com
visit my website for freebies, updates, and upcoming programs www.heatlhcouragecollective.com
Are you ready to give your cells their best chance to not have to stop living before they die by allowing them access to physiologic levels of hormones, but aren't sure how to even get started? Join the waitlist for my new beta program here and help me figure out how best to help wonderful women like you get the hormone care they deserve!
Come visit me: www.healthcouragecollective.com
email me: healthcouragecollective@gmail.com
send me a message with questions, suggestions, or ideas of things you need help with: healthcouragecollective@gmail.com
visit my website for freebies, updates, and upcoming programs www.heatlhcouragecollective.com
Are you ready to give your cells their best chance to not have to stop living before they die by allowing them access to physiologic levels of hormones, but aren't sure how to even get started? Join the waitlist for my new beta program here and help me figure out how best to help wonderful women like you get the hormone care they deserve!
Come visit me: www.healthcouragecollective.com
email me: healthcouragecollective@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a test you can do yourself at home to
get a lot of good data about how likely you
are to stop living due to the number one cause
of death in women. The best part is that it's
free and easy, and if it comes back not optimal,
you have time to start doing simple things now so
that you make it to your eighties in unusually good health. Yeah.
(00:21):
Listening to the Health Courage Collective Podcast, Episode two hundred
and seventeen, an easy way to outsmart the number one
killer of midlife waiting. Welcome to the Health Courage Collective Podcast,
the show for women who are too busy to slog
through hours of generalized, in applicable and opten contradictory health information,
(00:42):
but too smart to ignore that a few minutes of
focused attention now can prevent years of suffering in the future.
I'm your host, Christina Hackett, a pharmacist who doesn't want
you to live on prescriptions, a certified coach specifically trained
to maximize your potential, and a compulsive learner obsessed with preventative,
cutting edge, holistic and integrated medicine. I'm on a mission
(01:04):
to increase your physical and mental resilience so you can
fearlessly look forward to your next forty plus limitless years.
Your time is down. Let's go, Hello, my friend, and
welcome to the episode. How has your week been? I
hope it's been fabulous. How has worrying about aging been
going this past week? The targeted thinking question what do
(01:28):
I want? Is such a great antidote to worry of
all kinds. Focusing on what you want instead of worrying
sounds easy and obvious, but although it kind of is,
most people don't do it. If you do, you'll create
a different kind of future. Today, we're going to talk
(01:50):
about an easy way to outsmart the number one killer
of midlife women. What are you most worried? Will kill
you prematurely or make you stop living before before you die?
Most women say that they're worried about cancer. It's good
to be vigilant and aware of all of the ways
we can drastically reduce our risk of the common diseases
(02:10):
of aging, cancer included. But did you know that cardiovascular
disease causes two times as many deaths as cancer in
the United States. The difference isn't quite as big in
the rest of the world, but those are the facts here.
Twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease as from cancer,
and the fastest growing rate of change of population groups
(02:35):
is the death rate from cardiovascular disease among women aged
forty five to sixty four. Let that one sink in.
The fastest growing group of deaths from heart disease is
midlife women. According to the American Heart Association, a survey
they sent out in two thousand and nine reported that
sixty five percent of women knew that heart disease was
(02:56):
the leading cause of death in women. But the same
survey in twenty nineteen showed that only forty four percent
of women knew that the leading cause of death in
women was cardiovascular disease. So while the death rate from
cardiovascular disease is climbing in midlife women, the awareness of
that fact is going down. This is a little bit
(03:19):
peripheral to what we're talking about today, but it's so
so important. If you want to age abnormally well, you
need to know the most common causes of death and
ability so that you can prevent or drastically delay them.
Cardiovascular disease like heart attack, stroke, heart failure, et cetera,
is kind of number one. Well, it is the number
one thing that will be listed as cause of death
(03:40):
on your death certificate, the real number one cause of
loss of life while you're both not dead and dead.
Does that makes sense? The number one thing to make
you stop living before you die and to make you
die is the under the radar driver of all of
the official causes of death and disease. There is one
thing that drastically increases your risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia,
(04:01):
and a whole host of other problems like impaired immune
system function, chronic pain, et cetera metabolic dysfunction that means
higher than optimal insulin levels and or glucose levels. It
triggers and makes everything like everything that can go wrong
with your cells as you age, more likely to happen
and more likely to happen sooner. That's important to know. Okay,
(04:26):
So cardiovascular disease is the most likely thing to be
listed on your death certificate. There are a few ways
to measure your cardiovascular resilience if you will. The main
one I think of is your VOTWO max. Gootwo max
shows how much sustained high effort physical activity you can perform.
(04:46):
It has to do with your cardiovascular efficiency, metabolic health,
and autonomic nervous system function. It's a test you can do.
It's somewhat involved. I've done it before. You run on
a treadmill or where you can write a stationary bike
with a heart rate monitor and a face mask on
that's measuring how much oxygen and carbon dioxide you're exchanging.
(05:08):
It's not exactly pleasant, but it is the number one
predictor of death from any cause. It's a better predictor
of mortality than smoking, diabetes, or even your age. If
you could only pick one test for the likelihood of
the number one killer of women, it should be VO
two max. Probably a close second, but much easier to
(05:32):
test is your blood pressure. Now, surprise there Sometimes things
that are obvious and frequently talked about are easy to overlook.
But blood pressure really is a big deal and something
that should be paid attention to. The cumulative amount of
force on the walls of your blood vessels over time
has a lot to do with your risk of death.
(05:52):
Each increase of twenty systolic the top number, and ten
diastolic the bottom number, doubles your risk of death from
cardiovascular disease. It's so easy to check your blood pressure,
and there are lots of ways to manipulate it into
the range that you want. That walking around with double
the risk of dying of the most likely thing to
(06:14):
kill you is just negligent, so don't do it. Another
thing that gives you a clue about your risk of
dying of the most likely thing to kill you is
your resting heart rate. This is even easier to measure.
You can do it with your fingers in a clock,
but tons of wearables like our rings and smart watches
and fitbits, et cetera will tell you what yours is
(06:34):
with zero percent effort on your part. The lower the
better to a certain point. Obviously, you don't why you're
so low that you have to sleep in a coffin
during the day, but a twenty sixteen study showed that
each ten beat per minute increase in your resting heart
rate increases your risk of death from any cause by
(06:55):
nine to twenty two percent. The more cardiovascular capacity and
resilience you have, the healthier your resting heart rate is.
Anything over the mid seventies should probably be a concern
for you, but everyone's a little bit different. What can
be most valuable is tracking your resting heart rate compared
to yourself. When your resting heart rate is higher than
(07:17):
usual for a day or two, you know that your
body is not fully recovered from some kind of stress.
If it was a hard training day, that's fine the
day after. If it's elevated for a week after training,
that's a sign that your body needs more recovery. Your
nervous system has a big influence on your cardiovascular system.
(07:38):
Your sympathetic or fight or flight response increases your heart
rate and blood pressure, and your parisympathetic or rest and
digest response does the opposite, slowing your heart rate and
decreasing your blood pressure. They're both good. Like when you're
rocking your Dirtylicious workout. That's a real class offered at
(07:59):
the vasag Gym by my house. It's what you would
expect to learn at a class called Dirtylicious. Anyway, you
do want that sympathetic stress response to work well so
that you can do your Chinese jump rope or throat
punch of mugger or whatever. You just also need your
parasympathetic system to work well so that you can relax
(08:19):
and recover afterward. Way way back in episode twenty three,
we talked about heart rate variability. It's an important metric
that is becoming a little more widely used, which is great,
but maybe not super well understood. Go back and listen
to episode twenty three if you want more info about HRV.
(08:41):
It's the best measure of your parasympathetic or rest and
digest system function. Repeated measurements that show that your HRV
is increasing usually means that your cardiovascular system is getting
more resilient, which is good. Things that increase your heart
rate variable are better overall fitness, better sleep, and lower
(09:05):
physical and psychological stress. Whew. Okay, finally we get to
what we're actually going to talk about today. It's not
something that people talk about a whole lot, but I
think they should, so I'm glad that you're here today.
While your HRV or heart rate variability clues you into
your rest and digest system, your heart rate recovery tells
(09:26):
you how well you can switch from fight or flight
to rest and digest. This gives you some good information
because if you aren't able to go from sweaty and
panting all on to cool as a cucumber all off
very quickly, your cardiovascular system isn't resilient enough to give
(09:47):
you the ability to live more as you get older,
rather than less, so that's important to know. A sluggish
heart rate recovery, meaning when it takes you a long
time to put the brakes on your heart rate and
blood pressure after strenuous effort, shows that you have reduced
(10:07):
cardiovascular resilience, impaired rest and digest abilities called your vagal tone,
and possibly some underlying disease. People with slower heart rate
recovery are more likely to have a cardiovascular event like
a heart attack, and have a higher risk of dying
from any cause. The opposite is also true. A fast
(10:30):
heart rate recovery, when you can switch gears and put
the brakes on very quickly after peak exertion, means your
cardiovascular equipment and your nervous system are fit and balanced
and more likely to keep you healthy and alive for longer.
It's estimated that sixty percent of what your heart rate
recovery is determined by your genetics. Your genetics also have
(10:53):
a big influence on your resting heart rate and your
heart rate varuability too. Lifestyle factor account for about forty
percent of your heart rate recovery. This is stuff like
good parasympathetic nervous system abilities called vagal tone, good cardiovascular endurance,
and overall fitness. One study in less fit people showed
(11:15):
that for each ten beats per minute reduction in recovery,
meaning instead of your heart rate changing from one hundred
and sixty to one hundred and twenty beats per minute
in sixty seconds, it only went from one hundred and
sixty to one hundred and thirty beats per minute in
sixty seconds. If that were the case, there was a
thirteen percent increased risk of cardiovascular events like strokes and
(11:39):
a nine percent increased risk of dying from any cause.
One study showed that a heart rate recovery of forty
seven beats per minute for women in one minute was
associated with a forty six percent lower risk of cardiovascular
events like heart failure and a thirty nine percent decreased
(11:59):
risk of cerebrovascular events like a tia or a stroke.
Well trained people usually have a heart rate recovery of
more than thirty beats per minute, and young lead athletes
often have a heart rate recovery of fifty to sixty
beats per minute. While there's a range of cardiovascular risk,
there is a drastic drop off at twelve beats per minute.
(12:23):
If your heart rate only goes down by twelve beats
per minute in sixty seconds, your risk of death is
double and you should get evaluated asap. Okay, so do
you want to check your heart rate recovery? Yeah, you
are awesome. So to measure yours, you just measure your
peak heart rate exactly as you finish a high intensity
(12:44):
workout like four minutes of hard work in a high
intensity interval workout or something. Then immediately stop all activity,
ideally lying down or at least sitting exactly sixty seconds
after stopping activity at your peak heart rate, measure your
heart rate again. That's it. It's not any kind of
(13:05):
percentage or threshold. It's just exactly the numbers how many
beats permitted your heart rate decreases in sixty seconds. So
if your peak heart rate were one hundred and eighty
and your sixty second measurement was one hundred and fifty,
your heart rate recovery is thirty. A few nuances to consider.
Your number is only accurate if you're not moving at
(13:26):
all during that sixty seconds. It's not sixty seconds of
a cool down type activity. It's being completely passive. Another
important thing to consider is how you're measuring your heart rate.
Anything worn on your wrist or your finger is going
to be much much less accurate than a chest strap.
An arm device like a whoop strap is more accurate
(13:47):
than a wrist or finger device, but slightly less accurate
than a chest strap, which is the gold standard. Also,
optical devices like Apple watches and rings have a pretty
significant lag in when they measure, so they just won't
be very precise. There aren't as many studies about anything
other than sixty seconds, but how much your heart rate
(14:08):
recovers after just thirty seconds and as long as two
minutes also matters. Faster the better for the one minute measurements.
If yours is fifteen or below, you have a problem
that needs attention, like right now. If it's over fifteen
but less than thirty, you would definitely benefit from some
deliberate interventions if you don't want to stop living before
(14:30):
you die. If you're over thirty but under sixty, you
will benefit from increasing it. It will help if you're
above sixty or the high fifties, you're in the top
twenty percent of people. So keep doing what you're already
doing because it is good for your cardiovascular and your
nervous systems. If you measure your heart rate recovery and
(14:51):
find that it's not as high as it could be,
that means that there is some nervous system and or
cardiovascular system fragility that could make you a at more
of a normal level. And why age at a normal
level when you could age at an elite level. The
good news is that heart rate recovery is absolutely something
(15:11):
you can improve. While some of it's genetic, much of
it has to do with lifestyle and training. While we
don't want to be normal, in general, it is normal
for your maximum heart rate to decrease by about one
beat per year after the age of twenty, and your
heart rate recovery will also decrease a bit as you
get older, no matter how fit you are, So be
(15:33):
your elite self, but keep in mind that there are
some physiologic changes that happen with the passing of the
artificial construct we call time. And that's okay, okay, So
are you ready to measure your heart rate recovery? Just
measure precisely with a chest or armstrap at peak heart
rate and then sixty seconds later. That will give you
a baseline and then you can recheck it in a
(15:56):
few weeks. I think three months seems like a reasonable
time to recheck and expect to see an improvement if
you've changed your habits. It's pretty simple. Just keep a
note in your phone or somewhere and check back in.
Think about how good it would feel to know that
you are for sure improving your abilities to show up
(16:17):
for life and do whatever you were sent here to
do before you stop living. I love watching numbers, and
this is a good number to pay attention to. It
can tell you whether you're on the right track and
give you a numerical pad on the back if you are.
It doesn't love a good numerical pad on the back. Right. So,
the best way to improve all of your cardiovascular metrics,
(16:38):
including your heart rate recovery and HRV and blood pressure, investing,
heart rate and VOTWO max is to improve your aerobic fitness.
It's beyond the scope of this podcast. What I've encourage
you to get serious about improving your aerobic capacity. Send
me a message at Healthcourage Collective at gmail dot com
if you want some tips or resources. I like how
(16:59):
doctor here Atia explains a good cardiovascular training regime. Remember,
I want you to stop exercising and train instead. Following
a training program will help much more and also feel
more rewarding. As much as I hate low intensity, steady
state cardio and prefer shortest possible doses of cardio, Doctor
(17:19):
Etia recommends both high intensity and low intensity training schedules
and does a good job of explaining how they work
together and each of them isn't quite as effective without
the other. He calls it building both the base and
the peak. You need both of them. Aerobic fitness is
the number one driver of resting heart rate improvements once
(17:40):
you've got a good cardio routine that you enjoy following.
Sleep also influences all of your cardiovascular metrics. People who
sleep less than six hours a night and have poor
quality sleep have a sixty three percent increased risk of
cardiovascular disease and a seventy nine percent increased risk of
this specific cardiovascular disease coronary artery disease compared to normal sleepers.
(18:05):
Plus sleep influences rest and digest parasympathetic nervous system regulation
and vice versa. Parasympathetic nervous system regulation helps you sleep,
same with stress, so consistently healthy sleep and stress habits
will also improve your heart rate recovery. Another thing that's
one of my all time favorites is cold therapy, cold water,
(18:26):
emergent or whole body cryotherapy. It improves your cardiovascular and
parasympathetic health and resilience. Eating really cold, drops your heart
rate and improves your parasympathetic rest and digest nervous system
function for hours afterward. It's fabulous and I love it.
Heart Rate recovery isn't talked about a ton, but it's
(18:47):
a useful and pretty easy to measure metric to give
you a good snapshot of your risk of being debilitated
or dying of cardiovascular disease. It's not the only thing
there is, and that's the beauty of it. I think,
check your blood pressure, get a VO two max test
if you're really forward thinking, and measure your resting heart
rate and heart rate variability. Those plus your ApoB cholesterol
(19:10):
boats that we talked about in episode one hundred and
seventy one, The real deal with cholesterol will tell you
a ton about how likely you are to get the
most common deadly disease. The reason why I'm so happy
that you're listening to this is because there is absolutely
something you can do about this stuff, and it doesn't
have to be anything major or complicated or difficult or painful.
(19:33):
If you start in tiny ways now and stick with them,
you'll have a very different experience in your eighties and
nineties than most women. You'll be able to live and
give more as you get older and feel left out
when everyone else is complaining about all of the medical
appointments and charges and management they have to deal with.
Thank you so much for being here today. I hope
(19:54):
you're curious what your heart rate recovery is. Next week
we're going to talk about why it's so hot to
find a good doctor to help you with your hormones.
Until then, check your heart rate recovery and they'll be normal.
Thank you so much for tuning into the Health Courage
Collective podcast. I am truly honored that you have paid
me the enormous compliment of your time and attention. I
(20:15):
would be so grateful if you would share this podcast
with someone you know and subscribe so you never miss
an episode. This podcast is for entertainment and information purposes only.
Statements and views on this podcast are not medical advice.
This podcast, including Christina Hackett and producers disclaim responsibility for
any possible adverse events by use of information contained here
(20:36):
it If you think you have a medical problem, consult
a licensed Positions
There's a test you can do yourself at home to
get a lot of good data about how likely you
are to stop living due to the number one cause
of death in women. The best part is that it's
free and easy, and if it comes back not optimal,
you have time to start doing simple things now so
that you make it to your eighties in unusually good health. Yeah.
(00:21):
Listening to the Health Courage Collective Podcast, Episode two hundred
and seventeen, an easy way to outsmart the number one
killer of midlife waiting. Welcome to the Health Courage Collective Podcast,
the show for women who are too busy to slog
through hours of generalized, in applicable and opten contradictory health information,
(00:42):
but too smart to ignore that a few minutes of
focused attention now can prevent years of suffering in the future.
I'm your host, Christina Hackett, a pharmacist who doesn't want
you to live on prescriptions, a certified coach specifically trained
to maximize your potential, and a compulsive learner obsessed with preventative,
cutting edge, holistic and integrated medicine. I'm on a mission
(01:04):
to increase your physical and mental resilience so you can
fearlessly look forward to your next forty plus limitless years.
Your time is down. Let's go, Hello, my friend, and
welcome to the episode. How has your week been? I
hope it's been fabulous. How has worrying about aging been
going this past week? The targeted thinking question what do
(01:28):
I want? Is such a great antidote to worry of
all kinds. Focusing on what you want instead of worrying
sounds easy and obvious, but although it kind of is,
most people don't do it. If you do, you'll create
a different kind of future. Today, we're going to talk
(01:50):
about an easy way to outsmart the number one killer
of midlife women. What are you most worried? Will kill
you prematurely or make you stop living before before you die?
Most women say that they're worried about cancer. It's good
to be vigilant and aware of all of the ways
we can drastically reduce our risk of the common diseases
(02:10):
of aging, cancer included. But did you know that cardiovascular
disease causes two times as many deaths as cancer in
the United States. The difference isn't quite as big in
the rest of the world, but those are the facts here.
Twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease as from cancer,
and the fastest growing rate of change of population groups
(02:35):
is the death rate from cardiovascular disease among women aged
forty five to sixty four. Let that one sink in.
The fastest growing group of deaths from heart disease is
midlife women. According to the American Heart Association, a survey
they sent out in two thousand and nine reported that
sixty five percent of women knew that heart disease was
(02:56):
the leading cause of death in women. But the same
survey in twenty nineteen showed that only forty four percent
of women knew that the leading cause of death in
women was cardiovascular disease. So while the death rate from
cardiovascular disease is climbing in midlife women, the awareness of
that fact is going down. This is a little bit
(03:19):
peripheral to what we're talking about today, but it's so
so important. If you want to age abnormally well, you
need to know the most common causes of death and
ability so that you can prevent or drastically delay them.
Cardiovascular disease like heart attack, stroke, heart failure, et cetera,
is kind of number one. Well, it is the number
one thing that will be listed as cause of death
(03:40):
on your death certificate, the real number one cause of
loss of life while you're both not dead and dead.
Does that makes sense? The number one thing to make
you stop living before you die and to make you
die is the under the radar driver of all of
the official causes of death and disease. There is one
thing that drastically increases your risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia,
(04:01):
and a whole host of other problems like impaired immune
system function, chronic pain, et cetera metabolic dysfunction that means
higher than optimal insulin levels and or glucose levels. It
triggers and makes everything like everything that can go wrong
with your cells as you age, more likely to happen
and more likely to happen sooner. That's important to know. Okay,
(04:26):
So cardiovascular disease is the most likely thing to be
listed on your death certificate. There are a few ways
to measure your cardiovascular resilience if you will. The main
one I think of is your VOTWO max. Gootwo max
shows how much sustained high effort physical activity you can perform.
(04:46):
It has to do with your cardiovascular efficiency, metabolic health,
and autonomic nervous system function. It's a test you can do.
It's somewhat involved. I've done it before. You run on
a treadmill or where you can write a stationary bike
with a heart rate monitor and a face mask on
that's measuring how much oxygen and carbon dioxide you're exchanging.
(05:08):
It's not exactly pleasant, but it is the number one
predictor of death from any cause. It's a better predictor
of mortality than smoking, diabetes, or even your age. If
you could only pick one test for the likelihood of
the number one killer of women, it should be VO
two max. Probably a close second, but much easier to
(05:32):
test is your blood pressure. Now, surprise there Sometimes things
that are obvious and frequently talked about are easy to overlook.
But blood pressure really is a big deal and something
that should be paid attention to. The cumulative amount of
force on the walls of your blood vessels over time
has a lot to do with your risk of death.
(05:52):
Each increase of twenty systolic the top number, and ten
diastolic the bottom number, doubles your risk of death from
cardiovascular disease. It's so easy to check your blood pressure,
and there are lots of ways to manipulate it into
the range that you want. That walking around with double
the risk of dying of the most likely thing to
(06:14):
kill you is just negligent, so don't do it. Another
thing that gives you a clue about your risk of
dying of the most likely thing to kill you is
your resting heart rate. This is even easier to measure.
You can do it with your fingers in a clock,
but tons of wearables like our rings and smart watches
and fitbits, et cetera will tell you what yours is
(06:34):
with zero percent effort on your part. The lower the
better to a certain point. Obviously, you don't why you're
so low that you have to sleep in a coffin
during the day, but a twenty sixteen study showed that
each ten beat per minute increase in your resting heart
rate increases your risk of death from any cause by
(06:55):
nine to twenty two percent. The more cardiovascular capacity and
resilience you have, the healthier your resting heart rate is.
Anything over the mid seventies should probably be a concern
for you, but everyone's a little bit different. What can
be most valuable is tracking your resting heart rate compared
to yourself. When your resting heart rate is higher than
(07:17):
usual for a day or two, you know that your
body is not fully recovered from some kind of stress.
If it was a hard training day, that's fine the
day after. If it's elevated for a week after training,
that's a sign that your body needs more recovery. Your
nervous system has a big influence on your cardiovascular system.
(07:38):
Your sympathetic or fight or flight response increases your heart
rate and blood pressure, and your parisympathetic or rest and
digest response does the opposite, slowing your heart rate and
decreasing your blood pressure. They're both good. Like when you're
rocking your Dirtylicious workout. That's a real class offered at
(07:59):
the vasag Gym by my house. It's what you would
expect to learn at a class called Dirtylicious. Anyway, you
do want that sympathetic stress response to work well so
that you can do your Chinese jump rope or throat
punch of mugger or whatever. You just also need your
parasympathetic system to work well so that you can relax
(08:19):
and recover afterward. Way way back in episode twenty three,
we talked about heart rate variability. It's an important metric
that is becoming a little more widely used, which is great,
but maybe not super well understood. Go back and listen
to episode twenty three if you want more info about HRV.
(08:41):
It's the best measure of your parasympathetic or rest and
digest system function. Repeated measurements that show that your HRV
is increasing usually means that your cardiovascular system is getting
more resilient, which is good. Things that increase your heart
rate variable are better overall fitness, better sleep, and lower
(09:05):
physical and psychological stress. Whew. Okay, finally we get to
what we're actually going to talk about today. It's not
something that people talk about a whole lot, but I
think they should, so I'm glad that you're here today.
While your HRV or heart rate variability clues you into
your rest and digest system, your heart rate recovery tells
(09:26):
you how well you can switch from fight or flight
to rest and digest. This gives you some good information
because if you aren't able to go from sweaty and
panting all on to cool as a cucumber all off
very quickly, your cardiovascular system isn't resilient enough to give
(09:47):
you the ability to live more as you get older,
rather than less, so that's important to know. A sluggish
heart rate recovery, meaning when it takes you a long
time to put the brakes on your heart rate and
blood pressure after strenuous effort, shows that you have reduced
(10:07):
cardiovascular resilience, impaired rest and digest abilities called your vagal tone,
and possibly some underlying disease. People with slower heart rate
recovery are more likely to have a cardiovascular event like
a heart attack, and have a higher risk of dying
from any cause. The opposite is also true. A fast
(10:30):
heart rate recovery, when you can switch gears and put
the brakes on very quickly after peak exertion, means your
cardiovascular equipment and your nervous system are fit and balanced
and more likely to keep you healthy and alive for longer.
It's estimated that sixty percent of what your heart rate
recovery is determined by your genetics. Your genetics also have
(10:53):
a big influence on your resting heart rate and your
heart rate varuability too. Lifestyle factor account for about forty
percent of your heart rate recovery. This is stuff like
good parasympathetic nervous system abilities called vagal tone, good cardiovascular endurance,
and overall fitness. One study in less fit people showed
(11:15):
that for each ten beats per minute reduction in recovery,
meaning instead of your heart rate changing from one hundred
and sixty to one hundred and twenty beats per minute
in sixty seconds, it only went from one hundred and
sixty to one hundred and thirty beats per minute in
sixty seconds. If that were the case, there was a
thirteen percent increased risk of cardiovascular events like strokes and
(11:39):
a nine percent increased risk of dying from any cause.
One study showed that a heart rate recovery of forty
seven beats per minute for women in one minute was
associated with a forty six percent lower risk of cardiovascular
events like heart failure and a thirty nine percent decreased
(11:59):
risk of cerebrovascular events like a tia or a stroke.
Well trained people usually have a heart rate recovery of
more than thirty beats per minute, and young lead athletes
often have a heart rate recovery of fifty to sixty
beats per minute. While there's a range of cardiovascular risk,
there is a drastic drop off at twelve beats per minute.
(12:23):
If your heart rate only goes down by twelve beats
per minute in sixty seconds, your risk of death is
double and you should get evaluated asap. Okay, so do
you want to check your heart rate recovery? Yeah, you
are awesome. So to measure yours, you just measure your
peak heart rate exactly as you finish a high intensity
(12:44):
workout like four minutes of hard work in a high
intensity interval workout or something. Then immediately stop all activity,
ideally lying down or at least sitting exactly sixty seconds
after stopping activity at your peak heart rate, measure your
heart rate again. That's it. It's not any kind of
(13:05):
percentage or threshold. It's just exactly the numbers how many
beats permitted your heart rate decreases in sixty seconds. So
if your peak heart rate were one hundred and eighty
and your sixty second measurement was one hundred and fifty,
your heart rate recovery is thirty. A few nuances to consider.
Your number is only accurate if you're not moving at
(13:26):
all during that sixty seconds. It's not sixty seconds of
a cool down type activity. It's being completely passive. Another
important thing to consider is how you're measuring your heart rate.
Anything worn on your wrist or your finger is going
to be much much less accurate than a chest strap.
An arm device like a whoop strap is more accurate
(13:47):
than a wrist or finger device, but slightly less accurate
than a chest strap, which is the gold standard. Also,
optical devices like Apple watches and rings have a pretty
significant lag in when they measure, so they just won't
be very precise. There aren't as many studies about anything
other than sixty seconds, but how much your heart rate
(14:08):
recovers after just thirty seconds and as long as two
minutes also matters. Faster the better for the one minute measurements.
If yours is fifteen or below, you have a problem
that needs attention, like right now. If it's over fifteen
but less than thirty, you would definitely benefit from some
deliberate interventions if you don't want to stop living before
(14:30):
you die. If you're over thirty but under sixty, you
will benefit from increasing it. It will help if you're
above sixty or the high fifties, you're in the top
twenty percent of people. So keep doing what you're already
doing because it is good for your cardiovascular and your
nervous systems. If you measure your heart rate recovery and
(14:51):
find that it's not as high as it could be,
that means that there is some nervous system and or
cardiovascular system fragility that could make you a at more
of a normal level. And why age at a normal
level when you could age at an elite level. The
good news is that heart rate recovery is absolutely something
(15:11):
you can improve. While some of it's genetic, much of
it has to do with lifestyle and training. While we
don't want to be normal, in general, it is normal
for your maximum heart rate to decrease by about one
beat per year after the age of twenty, and your
heart rate recovery will also decrease a bit as you
get older, no matter how fit you are, So be
(15:33):
your elite self, but keep in mind that there are
some physiologic changes that happen with the passing of the
artificial construct we call time. And that's okay, okay, So
are you ready to measure your heart rate recovery? Just
measure precisely with a chest or armstrap at peak heart
rate and then sixty seconds later. That will give you
a baseline and then you can recheck it in a
(15:56):
few weeks. I think three months seems like a reasonable
time to recheck and expect to see an improvement if
you've changed your habits. It's pretty simple. Just keep a
note in your phone or somewhere and check back in.
Think about how good it would feel to know that
you are for sure improving your abilities to show up
(16:17):
for life and do whatever you were sent here to
do before you stop living. I love watching numbers, and
this is a good number to pay attention to. It
can tell you whether you're on the right track and
give you a numerical pad on the back if you are.
It doesn't love a good numerical pad on the back. Right. So,
the best way to improve all of your cardiovascular metrics,
(16:38):
including your heart rate recovery and HRV and blood pressure, investing,
heart rate and VOTWO max is to improve your aerobic fitness.
It's beyond the scope of this podcast. What I've encourage
you to get serious about improving your aerobic capacity. Send
me a message at Healthcourage Collective at gmail dot com
if you want some tips or resources. I like how
(16:59):
doctor here Atia explains a good cardiovascular training regime. Remember,
I want you to stop exercising and train instead. Following
a training program will help much more and also feel
more rewarding. As much as I hate low intensity, steady
state cardio and prefer shortest possible doses of cardio, Doctor
(17:19):
Etia recommends both high intensity and low intensity training schedules
and does a good job of explaining how they work
together and each of them isn't quite as effective without
the other. He calls it building both the base and
the peak. You need both of them. Aerobic fitness is
the number one driver of resting heart rate improvements once
(17:40):
you've got a good cardio routine that you enjoy following.
Sleep also influences all of your cardiovascular metrics. People who
sleep less than six hours a night and have poor
quality sleep have a sixty three percent increased risk of
cardiovascular disease and a seventy nine percent increased risk of
this specific cardiovascular disease coronary artery disease compared to normal sleepers.
(18:05):
Plus sleep influences rest and digest parasympathetic nervous system regulation
and vice versa. Parasympathetic nervous system regulation helps you sleep,
same with stress, so consistently healthy sleep and stress habits
will also improve your heart rate recovery. Another thing that's
one of my all time favorites is cold therapy, cold water,
(18:26):
emergent or whole body cryotherapy. It improves your cardiovascular and
parasympathetic health and resilience. Eating really cold, drops your heart
rate and improves your parasympathetic rest and digest nervous system
function for hours afterward. It's fabulous and I love it.
Heart Rate recovery isn't talked about a ton, but it's
(18:47):
a useful and pretty easy to measure metric to give
you a good snapshot of your risk of being debilitated
or dying of cardiovascular disease. It's not the only thing
there is, and that's the beauty of it. I think,
check your blood pressure, get a VO two max test
if you're really forward thinking, and measure your resting heart
rate and heart rate variability. Those plus your ApoB cholesterol
(19:10):
boats that we talked about in episode one hundred and
seventy one, The real deal with cholesterol will tell you
a ton about how likely you are to get the
most common deadly disease. The reason why I'm so happy
that you're listening to this is because there is absolutely
something you can do about this stuff, and it doesn't
have to be anything major or complicated or difficult or painful.
(19:33):
If you start in tiny ways now and stick with them,
you'll have a very different experience in your eighties and
nineties than most women. You'll be able to live and
give more as you get older and feel left out
when everyone else is complaining about all of the medical
appointments and charges and management they have to deal with.
Thank you so much for being here today. I hope
(19:54):
you're curious what your heart rate recovery is. Next week
we're going to talk about why it's so hot to
find a good doctor to help you with your hormones.
Until then, check your heart rate recovery and they'll be normal.
Thank you so much for tuning into the Health Courage
Collective podcast. I am truly honored that you have paid
me the enormous compliment of your time and attention. I
(20:15):
would be so grateful if you would share this podcast
with someone you know and subscribe so you never miss
an episode. This podcast is for entertainment and information purposes only.
Statements and views on this podcast are not medical advice.
This podcast, including Christina Hackett and producers disclaim responsibility for
any possible adverse events by use of information contained here
(20:36):
it If you think you have a medical problem, consult
a licensed Positions
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