Does Your Health Status and Medication Effect Your Heart Rate?

  • Am I exercising at the right level?
  • Are the heart rate / exercise intensity charts accurate?
  • Do my medications effect my heart rate?

During the Precision Heart Rate Training Plan JJ uses a heart rate monitor to provide feedback on how hard her body is working, recovery levels and so on. This provides invaluable feedback and ensures every workout is highly effective.

If you are currently exercising using heart rate you are on the right track. However, exercise is a science and generic heart rate formulas can be both misleading and sometimes outright ineffective.

But before you consider one of the precision workout plans you should first be aware that some medications and conditions will affect your heart rate both at rest and during exercise.
If you are in any doubt, a trained Exercise Physiologist or Clinical Exercise Specialist will not only be able to advise you on the best workouts but also the most effective heart rates or intensities for your personal needs.
Obviously any one with a medical condition that affects heart rate or limits exercise intensity should consult a doctor before beginning any type of exercise. These conditions might include:
  • high blood pressure,
  • high blood cholesterol
  • signs or symptoms of any disease
  • recovery from a serious illness or a medical treatment e.g. surgery
  • usage of a pacemaker or other implanted electronic device
  • on regular medication

In almost all cases exercising and using a heart rate monitor not only provides greater safety but also more precise and effective workouts. Even persons with cardiac arrhythmia (many abnormal heart beat intervals) can use heart rate monitoring. If arrythmias occur, the monitor will briefly fluctuate between very high and very low readings and then return to steady numbers.

For cardiac patients and cardiac rehabilitation a heart rate monitor is highly beneficial in home-based exercise to accurately follow a prescribed exercise intensity. At first, a suitable exercise test will be needed to determine the safe exercise intensity.

Heart and circulation medications as well as asthma medication may affect heart rate and exertion tolerance, which needs to be taken into consideration when making the exercise program.

This is especially true of ß-blockers which have the greatest impact on heart rate. They not only lower both the resting heart rate but also effect maximum heart rate.

In some cases it is therefore safer to determine the suitable exercise intensity via a special clinical exercise test than to follow the recommended exercise intensity as % of maximum heart rate without appropriate testing.

Specialized exercise testing is also recommended for certain diseases such as diabetes to safely determine suitable exercise intensities.

A qualified Exercise Physiologist will know to ask if you are taking any medications, conduct a suitable exercise test and then prescribe appropriate safe and effective exercise heart rate intensities accordingly.

If you are monitoring your intensity using any kind of heart rate training, this list should help you in determining whether your medication is having any effect (and therefore mis-informing you) on your actual exercise intensity:

Table. Effect of medications on heart rate (ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 6th ed, 2000).

Medication Heart rate
ß-blocker decrease
Nitrates increase or no change
Calcium channel blockers

    Dihydropyridines
    Other
 increase or no change
decrease or no effect
Digitalis decrease in patients with atrial fibrillation
Diuretics no change
Nonadrenergic vasodilators increase or no change
ACE inhibitors no change
Antiadrenergics without selective blockade decrease or no change
Antiarrhythmics

    Class I
    Class III
 increase or no effect, with Propafenole
decrease or no change
Bronchodilators increase or no change
Antidepressants increase or no change
Lithium no change
Nicotine increase or no change
Thyroid medications increase

(ACE=angiotensin converting enzyme)

If you are in any doubt about how hard you should be exercising, what heart rates you should choose or whether you are exercising appropriately for your current condition, I recommend you consult a qualified Exercise Physiologist or Clinical Exercise Specialist in addition to your doctor.

.