What Your HeartBeat Says About Your Health

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By: Linda Melone

Monitoring your heart rate can indicate good heart health or problems. Here's how to learn what your heartbeat says about you.

Your heart rate gives a play-by-play account of your body’s responses to changes in your physical and emotional state. Changes in your heart rate can alert you to potential problems and tell you you’re exercising hard enough or that you need a break.
  
Doctors often prescribe heart-rate tracking as a safety precaution for people who have a history of heart issues. Athletes also monitor their heart rates to track their progress, and some doctors recommend pregnant women use a monitor to help them keep their heart rate below 130.
    
“Heart rate is a biological response to everything,” says Martha Gulati, M.D., M.S., a cardiologist and associate medical director of the Center for Women’s Cardiovascular Health at the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute in Chicago. “Emotional stress, illness, and fever raise it. It may also be a symptom of undiagnosed coronary disease.”

Find out more about coronary artery disease.