*Your HEARTRATE and extending your LIFESPAN*

Well i just listened to an interesting radio show that really got me thinking.

This radio show ( on NPR ) basically said there was a connection throughout all the species with the rate of the heart beat and their expected life span.

SO basically an animal like a tortoise which is one of the longest lived animals, akso has a slow heart rate.

In retrospect an animal like lets say a house cat which has a much faster heart rate also has a shorter expected lifespan.

so i did some research before posting this to make sure this theory was sound.

An investigation was made of the available data on heart rates and maximum lifespan of a number of vertebrates from a variety of sources; only data pertinent to resting adult non-anesthesized homeothermic mammals and birds in a state of thermal neutrality were subsequently analyzed. All known hibernators were excluded because of their extreme, and largely unknown, range of heartbeat from season to season. Plots of heart rate (beats per minute) against reciprocal of lifespan in years showed surprisingly good fits (r = +0.90 for mammals and r = +0.64 for birds). Computation of the total number of heartbeats in the maximum recorded lifespans of the mammalian and avian species involved in this study showed that the mean cumulative heartbeat number for 31 mammalian species was 100 +/- 8 S.E.M. x 10(7) beats and for 23 avian species was 326 +/- 22 S.E.M. x 10(7) beats. This paper documents this analysis, which supports the concept of a close similarity in lifespan heartbeats among mammalian species and among avian species.

Ah so there is some sort of relationship among mammals and avians. lets dig a little deeper and see if we can come up with any mroe info n the subject.

What are the "Billion Heart Beats"? The term refers to an observation/rule that all mammals will have an expected life-span that will be the equivalent of their heart beating 1 billion times. The rate at which a mammal’s heart beats is relates to the animal's size in an inverse way, which means that the greater the body mass the slower the heart rate will be. For example, an elephant’s heart beats very slowly in comparison to a mouse. The average life span of an elephant is around seventy years whereas a mouse will only live for a couple of years, yet their hearts will have beaten a similar number of times by the time they die.

As animals get bigger, from tiny shrew to huge blue whale, pulse rates slow down and life spans stretch out longer in tandem, so that the number of heartbeats during an average stay on Earth tends to be roughly the same - i.e. about a billion. There are of course other factors that will effect the longevity (the life span) of a particular animal, such as disease and environmen, but scientists have found that mammals in the wild will indeed live for about the time that it takes their heart to beat 1 billion times. In 1945 Brody originated the term Physiological time to indicate that smaller animals seem to live according to a faster time scale than large animals.

Hmm pretty interesting.

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So i guess the question become clear, can we increase the human lifespan by decreasing the hearts rate?

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So the question i present to everyone on ATS is simple, do the monks of Tibet who can at will increase and decrease their heart rate live longer. I have read that the monks of Tibet normally have long lifespans.

So could the average person increase their lifespan through meditation and heart control? i would say yes.

[edit on 28-8-2009 by phi1618]

Hmm, something that I will remember for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, my life won't be long according to this source. I exercise frequently. But I really enjoy sitting outside and just enjoy nature. Maybe that habit can exceed my exercising habit. Just goes to show you, "Slow and Steady wins the race"! Funny how that includes a tortoise.

Star and Flag!

reply to post by Trams


health also has an effect on long life as long as its health amounts of exercise and not excessive i think youll be fine. However imagine a monk lowing his heart rate for extended periods of time, that would yield large results.

or even a pacemaker that lowers heart rate when you are inactive and raises it slightly when you are active.

reply to post by phi1618


I wonder if it could be dangerous if you practice lowering your heart beat to such a low number. Like 1/20. I remember when I was in the 6th grade, my teacher taught us that we could lower our heart beats after jumping a lot, and then completely stop and breath slow. I haven't really thought about it now, but he was helping us control our bodies!

reply to post by Trams


various breathing exercises can be used to lower heart rate, personally i have found no danger in doing it as long as you dont stop it

reply to post by phi1618


I think that adrenalin also plays a big part as it increases your heart rate.

Stress causes an adrenalin rush and when you think about it, our ancestors that had to fend off wild animals all the time were under a great deal of stress and had much shorter life spans.

I envision the monks having a very sedentary life without much stress.

Just a thought..

Originally posted by tribewilder
reply to post by phi1618

 

I think that adrenalin also plays a big part as it increases your heart rate.

Stress causes an adrenalin rush and when you think about it, our ancestors that had to fend off wild animals all the time were under a great deal of stress and had much shorter life spans.

I envision the monks having a very sedentary life without much stress.

Just a thought..

i would tend to agree, however maybe that is the key to extending lifespan and keeping your heart rate down to a minimal.

Basically if we on a daily basis could lower our rate ( artificially or naturally ) we would theoretically live longer?

I have neurosarcoidosis with bradycardia,
My heart rate runs about 56 bpm. Even if i "try" to exercise

Does this mean i will live longer if the sarcoidosis does not kill me.
Complication of sarcoidosis is what killed Bernie Mac.
en.wikipedia.org...

I have neurosarcoidosis with bradycardia,
My heart rate runs about 56 bpm. Even if i "try" to exercise

Does this mean i will live longer if the sarcoidosis does not kill me.
Complication of sarcoidosis is what killed Bernie Mac.
en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by ANNED
I have neurosarcoidosis with bradycardia,
My heart rate runs about 56 bpm. Even if i "try" to exercise

Does this mean i will live longer if the sarcoidosis does not kill me.
Complication of sarcoidosis is what killed Bernie Mac.
en.wikipedia.org...

well assuming it follows the same logic as above and the disease itself doesn't get you, i would say it should in theory

Star and flag!

Another point for the no exercise camp, woo hoo! This living forever thing is going to be much easier than they were trying to let on

No way do you have a kitty that eats corn on the cob. How cool is that...

Okay, I've never really tried to lower my heart rate, but it tends to stay around 65 to 70 beats per minute. My bp is also somewhat moderate... I mention this because I indulge in the occasional tobacco pipe, or cigar. It doesn't effect either measurement as I mentioned above.

My Mom is 67 years old, and has far outlived her life expectancy as she is morbidly obese....No kidding she weighs 300lbs., and is short.

She has natural low bp, and heart rate; similar to myself. Maybe that's proof of what Your saying.

S&F

Heart rate is hardly a predictor of human lifespan. This is just a theory. The average human lifespan varies by 30+ years. The average is 70 something years old but lots of people live to be over 100. There MANY more important factors that dictate human health than heart rate. And I'd say modern human beings are under a very different kind of stress than cavemen.............yet it's still a damaging type of stress similar to fight or flight.

Diet is more important than anything nowadays. There were other things like disease/infection that killed people hundreds of years ago. Now we have drugs and cures for stuff like that but other chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes is on the rise.