My heart rate is dropping daily - why?

[RedDoughnut]

I wear a FitBit and for the last week I have noticed my heart rate is dropping every day. The FitBit is accurate and my blood pressure is ok. High end of normal.
My heart rate is usually in the mid 70s.
I'm now down to 62.
Why could this be? I'm anaemic but last time my heart rate went up.

I'm a little bit breathless but again, I've put that down to the anaemia,
I've got a GP phone appointment next week.

Anyone got any thoughts please ?

What are you doing when it’s 62 ? And 62 is normal for some people. Do you have anxiety by any chance ?

Every ones heart rate goes up and down , its normal for it to fluctuate. My advise is to get rid of the fit bit.

It's my over all daily resting heart rate that's dropping. I'm not doing anything special and I'm not anxious.

I've worn a FitBit for years. It's the sudden daily decline, it's weird.

This is the week. It's bizarre.

For me that would mean I'd lost weight. It also fluctuates with my cycle.

I had that when I had Covid. It was dropping steadily and ended up low 50s. I only looked at it because I felt a bit odd. Could that be a possibility? If you otherwise feel well, I wouldn’t worry too much. Obviously act if you develop other symptoms.

I would also agree with cycle changes, weight changes, laying off the booze etc.

Interesting weight loss is mentioned.
I have been making a good effort with my diet over the last month and I am losing, but this change is recent.

This is usually a sign of improving fitness or reducing stress.

I'm a teacher and you should see the massive cliff-drop at the start of the summer holidays (and the creeping rise over the last week)!

Here's my second half of July. I had an interview just at the end of term. And then we finished for the summer.

Definitely not improving fitness. Anaemia had put paid to that.

Declining stress? Maybe? I'm back at work on Monday. That might change things?

It's the fact I've been years and years around the same and Im plummeting now I find odd.

Usually a lower resting heart rate is considered a good thing and yours isn't that low (mine is about 41).

Are you wearing it for the same time periods? Weirdly my recorded resting heart rate is higher when I wear it for sleep than when I don't.

So the average resting heart rate has dropped from 68 to 62? This is not significant, well within the range of normal and can be explained by various factors - your blood pressure, stress levels, overall activity, unnoticed illness, diet etc. If it's any consolation, worrying about it will probably increase it again

My average RHR can vary between 65 and 48 - depending on base load of activity, food, alcohol (when I used to drink it), bugs/viruses and how anemic I was at the time.

Maybe your breathlessness is due to anemia getting worse too. Is that under control and do you have a cause for that?

No it's dropped from around 75. That screengrab is just this week.

Anaemia is due to menopause mega periods and I'm habing an iron infusion again soon.

I know heart rate varies and that 60 is not worryingly low its just the continuing daily drop. It seems to go down by one every day.

Its not an issue OP. I'd find a resting heart rate in the 70s more concerning than in the 60s tbh. Even though both are in the realms of normal.

Your heart rate isn't plummeting. In the pic you posted it's dropped from 68 to 62. That's hardly noticeable - it's the scale of the graph that's making you notice it and worry.
70+ is very slightly high, so n good that it's come down to the 60s. Mine is usually low 60s, though has been in the 70s this week because I've had a nasty bout of D&V.

Take the Fitbit off and don't bother the overworked GP.

Please don’t waste a doctors time with this. It’s fluctuated by 8bpm. It’s fine.

Mine drops a few beats in the three days before my period. Like clockwork.

RHR within normal range isn't a concern. What is a more interesting indicator is heart rate variability, higher heart rate variability is healthier (more variable time between each beat). There is a good app called Visible that measures this, it was designed by someone with long Covid. If the variable heart rate changes it tells you to take it easy. It definitely works, I noticed if my HRV got lower I'd feel a lot more like flopping around. Sometimes it gets higher (usually when I'm exercising regularly and sleeping well) and I know I have more in the tank then. It's quite helpful for managing a condition I have.

Mine changes monthly like that with my menstrual cycle.

Mine varies according to stress levels. It has gone up and down and various points over the past 30 days (that my Fitbit shows) in a window of 6 points.

Anything low 60s is good.

I'm in hospital every 2 months to get blood, usually 6 pints. My consultant told me that they only give iron if your anaemia is to do with your diet, but if it's to do with losing blood etc, they give you blood. But I'd never heard that before, so seems that isn't true if they are giving you iron
Sorry I know this is nothing to do with your thread but just stood out to me. Really hope the iron helps

@RyRyanGoslingsTan No, I've had an emergency blood transfusion and follow up iron infusion as I was loosing huge amounts of blood due to a fibroid.

My iron isn't as low this time as I've recently had Zoladex injection to stop bleeding. I'm taking ferrous sulphate but it wasn't keeping up.

It's not that my heart rate is low, its not especially, it's the fact it's dropping every day and nothing in my life has changed.

I suspect it's fine, and your GP will say don't worry.

But I went to my GP in June with an Apple Watch-based query about my resting heart rate (was very low - around 40bpm) and she said she thought it was almost certainly nothing to worry about but scheduled a quick ECG to check (was really straightforward, took 20 minutes and was done in the GP surgery). A week later I was fast tracked to a cardio specialist as there's an issue with the electrical signals in my heart.

The point being, let the GP decide what to do about it rather than a lot of non experts on MN who don't know your medical history. And sometimes these devices do give you useful information - I assumed my occasional dizziness and breathlessness were just part of being alive, but apparently not! So I am glad it was thoroughly checked out

And try not to worry in the meantime, because chances are it's fine (despite my experience, and actually even in view of my experience, given that the consultant doesn't seems particularly minded to do anything about it right now and has scheduled some follow up tests in six months to see if there is any deterioration)

Really hope they can get your levels up again. Anaemia is awful. Sorry I know nothing about the heart rate thing