Flashes of Panic

“Is it normal for your pulse to be so low?” asked the ER nurse.

I’m a runner, so of course the answer is “yes,” but I wanted to hear the number, so I said, “Maybe, what is it?”

The answer was 46, which isn’t actually all that low for me. 42 is in the realm of normal; I’ve seen 36 before. (46 is about three beats to four seconds.)

I look at it this way. If you average 60 bpm (not unusual) for a day, that’s 86,400 heartbeats in a day.

If I spend an hour at 140 bpm and the rest of the day at 42, that’s 66,360 heartbeats in a day—over a 20% reduction. I get a day’s worth of spare heartbeats every week. See? I work hard because I’m lazy.

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