Which Factors Affect Resting Heart Rate?
Your resting heart rate can be affected by many factors. These include:
– Emotions: If you are sad, extraordinarily happy, anxious, or stressful, the heart rate can be increased
– Body position: The heart rate tends to be stable when you stand, sit, or rest. However, it would increase in a short duration after you stand up
– Air temperature: The heart beats harder when the humidity and temperature are high. This increases the resting heart rate, but often less than 10 bpm
– Medication: Some drugs like beta-blockers would block the production of adrenaline, thus slowing the heart rate. In contrast, taking thyroid drugs in a high dosage would increase the pulse
– Other factors: chronic sleep deprivation and prolonged stress [2]
