Fantastic news for people with a slow heart rate

The WMBF News notes that, People with a slow heart rate don’t have an increased risk for heart disease, a new study suggests.

The team examined data on 6,733 participants who were enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

Scientists recognized that the heartbeat (time) of significantly less than 50 wasn’t related to an increased threat of cardiovascular disease in individuals whether or not these were getting time-changing medicines, for example, beta blockers and calcium channel blockers. They were, however, more likely to die from heart disease if they developed it anyway.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and supported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

With recent global reports showing an epidemiology of cardiac deaths, this type of studies could prove useful in trying to understand which bradycardia patients are prone to develop cardiac events and which types of medical interventions could improve their health. The study is published in the January 19 online edition of the Journal of American Medical Association Internal Medicine.

“For a large majority of people with a heart rate in the 40s or 50s who have no symptoms, the prognosis is very good”, said study lead Dr. Ajay Dharod of Wake Forest Baptist Hospital. “Our results should be reassuring for those diagnosed with asymptomatic bradycardia”.

A slow heartbeat, called bradycardia, defined as fewer than 50 beats per minute – between 10 and 50 fewer beats than normal for an adult – can cause light-headedness, shortness of breath, fainting or chest pain.

Though the recent findings clearly show no link between low heart rate and risk of heart disease but the research team is meant to carry out further research to determine the kind of connection between heart rate, these medications and risk of cardiovascular disease. Also, the study participants who were taking heart rate modifying drugs, their risk for heart disease was no higher than the ones not on the drugs. These people did not have any history of cardiovascular disease when they joined the study. Only 5.3 percent of participants had a heart rate lower than 50 bpm – regardless of whether they were taking medication or not.

The levels of mortality were the same in patients with a slow heartbeat, an increased heartbeat (usually over 80 beats per minute) that took the prescribed medication and those who didn’t.