Racing Heart and Anxiety. Dr. Sanjay Gupta Answers Your Questions (Part 3)

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Dr Sanjay Gupta is a leading consultant cardiologist in York, UK.
YouTube:    / yorkcardiology  
Web: http://yorkcardiology.co.uk/


Full transcript of the video: https://dareresponse.com/dr-sanjay-ma...

Transcript :

What is a normal range of heart rate? When should people be worried or concerned?

Sanjay Gupta: The first thing to say is if you go by the books, the normal range for the heart rate is between 60 and 100 when you're resting. But to my mind, it's only worth worrying about if it's causing a problem, otherwise it's just a mere number. [00:28:00] So I get people saying to me, my heart rate was 40 last night, should I be worried? And I say to them, well, we have to think about what the heart rate actually means, because otherwise, it's just a number. Why should we worry about a number? What does it mean? What does this number mean?

And the idea is that the heart rate has to beat at a certain level to get blood around the body. And that's all it is, and at a certain rate, maybe the heart is not going to be pumping blood around the body adequately. So I say to them, were you conscious? And they say yes, and I said, were you able to do your daily things, were you able to read? They said, absolutely, and I said, were you urinating okay? Yeah, fine, well, the blood is getting around, it doesn't really matter what the number is. Why worry about the number? The blood is getting ground.


So slow heart rates, I never worry, unless they're causing a problem and the most sensitive parts of the body are the brain, so if your heart rate is slow and it is truly slow for you, you would feel dizzy or you would feel light-headed or you'd black out. If the kidneys weren't getting the blood then you wouldn't be passing urine, your skin would go blue because you're not getting the blood round, but otherwise, what does the number mean?

So I never worry about slow numbers. Fast numbers, of course, we're in different environments, if you're exercising, of course, your heart rate will go up, if you get someone knocking on the door suddenly, of course your heart rate go up.

Barry McDonagh: Or drink a cup of coffee.

Sanjay Gupta: Cup of coffee, your heart rate will go up, it doesn't really mean that there's suddenly a problem. So I think we spend too much time worrying about numbers and I think we should spend less time worrying about numbers and just being more alert to the fact that actually, when we're okay, when we feel okay, what does it matter?

Barry McDonagh: I think what helped me a lot with this idea of not being obsessed about your heart rate all the time, was just not to think of my heart as an atomic clock, that it has rhythms [00:30:00] all of its own and maybe I don't know why it's beating fast for whatever reason, but I'm going to let it. And just trusting your body again, that it goes through these different cycles, fast, slow, and it's doing its best job. And me jumping in with my mind, trying to control it or worry about it just doesn't help, it does nothing.


Sanjay Gupta: Absolutely, the heart does what its told to do and sometimes the brain tells it what to do and sometimes the brain gets it wrong, but the heart is actually just doing, the very fact that the heart is beating, that's all you need.



Barry Be happy you've got a heart beat.

Sanjay Gupta
Exactly. If it's not causing a problem, it doesn't matter. It really doesn't.