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Just been a quick spin on the bike with the lad. Very low key pedal about, heart rate slightly elevated from normal. When I've came in and sat down, relaxed a bit my heart rate plummets. According to my Garmin a low of 31 and hovering about 40+. This is the third time this has happened. At all other times my resting heart rate is between 55-60. And normal I'd say 60-70. At first I thought it may be a foible with the watch but pretty much the same results in the same circumstances. Any ideas? I am taking medication for high BP. Probably for under an hour, stabilising a bit now. Normal or strange, needless to say I'd have never noticed anything if I hadn't had the watch on. I did spend a bit of time googling this last time to no avail.
Contact your GP.
ASAP.
Might just be your meds, might just be a blip, but as other threads on here have shown, abnormal heart rates should not be ignored.
How tight is your heart rate strap? If a wrist one it should be quite tight - not stopping circulation but not able to spin.
Call doctor and let them know as well.
It's a wrist optical hr, Garmin Vivoactive. I was going to mention it to the doc, but with the current crisis I've not saw him for a good few months. I'll check out the current escalation process.
Did you check it manually? My bet is an artifact from the garmin. At work when we get abnormal readings from the electronic machines for HR and BP the first thing to do is check manually
I didn't check manually, I did feel my pulse and it felt slow but I didn't count it. Because this is the third time it's happened with very similar circumstances, slow bike ride and relax, I thought the watch was reading ok as it doesn't happen at any other time.
I've an appointment for to speak to the doctor on Thursday. I'll see what he says.
I'm a cardiologist but importantly I'm not YOUR doctor. I also get exactly this after exercise; in my case it's due to ectopic beats. It's said to be slightly unusual during activity / recovery but I see it fairly regularly in others.
It could be the Garmin but if you're sat still I'd expect it to be pretty accurate. I'd put money on it being due to ectopic (extra) beats and paradoxical undercounting by the Garmin. A proper ECG during symptoms would confirm / refute that. It's something that's worth chatting to your GP about - they may be confident enough to just reassure you which may be reasonable depending on your history. See what they say - they may be able to organise a 24 hour ECG themselves.
When I'm on call I get at least 1 call a week with someone panicking about a low heart rate in an asymptomatic person. It's invariably due to ectopic beats being undercounted by a ward ops machine pulse-oximeter and I rarely worry about it. If someone is dizzy / light-headed / there is any history of fainting then I get concerned.
Many thanks Superficial, appreciate the response and I'll obviously still check in with the Doc. No symptoms of light headedness and I wouldn't have noticed unless I hadn't glanced at the watch. There is a family history of heart disease so I'm always a bit wary but I was checked last year prior to starting with the BP meds, and everything was fine.