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Heart rates tend to elevate during high levels of exercise and although faster heart rates in these moments are not dangerous, a new study suggests that having a high heart rate during rest time could lead to an early death despite being physically fit. The research findings presented by the study's author, Dr. Magnus Thorsten Jensen, who is a cardiologist from the Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte in Denmark, revealed that healthy people who had rapid pulses when they were not exercising appeared to have shorter life expectancies, which suggests that exercise alone does not mean a longer life.

"A high heart rate does not necessarily mean disease. But we know that there is a very strong and significant association between high heart rate and life expectancy," Jensen stated. Jensen and his colleagues have previously found that people with resting heart rates of 80 beats per minute tend to die four to five years faster than people with the resting heart rates of 65 beats per minute. People who are physically fit tend to have lower heart rates, which would explain why they are generally healthier and live longer depending on other factors. However, this new study found that for some fit and active people, their resting heart rates can still be elevated when resting and due to their fast pulses, they are still at risk.

Jensen and his colleagues looked at data from 2,800 men who were followed for 16 years. The study started in 1970 when these men were all middle-aged. Before performing any statistical analyses, the researchers adjusted for factors, such as age and habits that could possibly skew the results. They found that for every 10-beat-per-minute increase in a person's resting heart rate contributed to a 16 percent increase in his/her risk of death. Although the study only looked into data of men, Jensen believes that the results should be similar to women as well.

Ways of lowering heart rates include performing more physical activity along with less sitting, stopping the habit of smoking, and using medications if other remedies do not work. Based from these findings, Jensen states that the current healthy resting heart rates, which are between 60 to 100 beats-per-minutes, should be reconsidered.

The study was published in the journal, Heart.