I am a health young female athete with a high resting pulse - what could cause this?
I am a 21 year old female who has been an active/healthy gymnast for 14 years. My BP is 117/74, give or take a few. My EKG is well within normal range and sinus tachycardia has been ruled out (my mom works for doctors).
Normally it isn't 100+ although that has happened a few times. The one time I remember was a few months ago when I was hanging out at my mom's work waiting for her to get off and grab lunch with me. I took my resting pulse and it was 113. The other day I was doing clinical research and the subject had to rest for 20 minutes. While keep time, I laid down on the other bed and was half asleep for most of the time. About 15 minutes in, I took my resting pulse and it was 88. This is a pretty common number for my resting pulse.
Considering I am a young white healthy female athlete who works out 20 hours a week, this seems really high for a resting pulse. Any idea what could be causing this, if it is something to worry about, and how I can get it down?
There is a history of heart attacks in my family with the men on my father's side. No women in my family have had heart problems and my father regularly visits a cardiologist and has had nothing but good news.
There is an uncommon disorder called inappropriate sinus tachycardia. It has been associated with a high resting pulse as well as an exaggerated pulse response to exercise. The exact cause is not known and it most commonly affects women who are less than 40 years old. It can cause some problems during exercise, which does not seem to be an issue in your case. For more information consider discussing this with a cardiologist
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