Rapid decreases in resting heart rate from childhood to adulthood may indicate heart trouble ahead
While a slow resting heart rate is generally considered a good thing, investigators have some of the first evidence that if that rate decreases rapidly as children move into young adulthood, it's an indicator that cardiovascular disease may be in their future.
Medical College of Georgia investigators report a significant association between a faster decrease in resting heart rate from childhood to adulthood and a larger left ventricle, the heart's major pumping chamber, over a 21-year period in hundreds of individuals who were healthy at the start.
The faster decrease in heart rate also was associated with a higher level of pressure inside the blood vessels of the body, which ...















