If you have heart or cardiovascular conditions, your doctor may have advised you to start using a heart rate monitor, or even something like a vital signs monitor (which also monitors your heart rate).
However, you might be a bit confused as to how to read heart rate monitor results.
More often than not, if you have been advised to use a heart rate monitor, your doctor may also want you to monitor things like blood pressure, oxygen saturation and more.
Therefore, right now we want to help you figure out what all of these readings on a high quality heart rate monitor are and what they mean.
What is a Heart Rate Monitor?
A heart rate monitor is a simple device designed for personal use, with the aim of monitoring and displaying your pulse or heart rate in real time.
There are basic heart rate monitors out there which only monitor heart rate, while there are others which can also monitor things like blood oxygen saturation, body temperature, blood pressure, and more.
Today we want to take a closer look at high quality and fully comprehensive monitors that can keep track of all of these vital signs. These can also be known as vitals monitors.
Reading the Numbers
When it comes to heart rate monitors, most of them don’t measure just your heart rate, but also other vital signs such as respiration, blood pressure, body temperature, and oxygen saturation in the blood. Let’s figure out what all of these numbers mean and what range your numbers should fall within.
Heart Rate
Of course, the main thing which a heart rate monitor keeps track of is your heart rate. Your heart rate is measured in beats per minute, or in other words, how many times per minute your heart contracts. What you need to know is that the average heart rate for an adult is between 60 and 100 beats per minute.
Keep in mind that if you are very active, fit, and healthy, your heart rate could be as low as 40 beats per minute. However, if you have under 60 beats per minute, but don’t see yourself as being overly fit, you may have some sort of heart issues.
The same can be said if your heart rate is over 100 beats per minute. Yes, things like exercise and smoking can raise your heart rate temporarily, as well as stress too, but that said, your heart rate should not be over 100 beats per minute on a consistent basis.
Body Temperature
A good heart rate monitor or vital signs monitor should also measure your body temperature. The normal body temperature for a health adult should be 98.6 degrees. However, with that being said, just below 98 degrees to just over 99 degrees is normal as well.
That said, anything outside of that range is not ideal. Low body temperatures may occur due to old age, exposure to cold weather, a lack of blood flow, diabetes, and other conditions. If you have a high body temperature, it may be causes by bacteria, viruses, inflammation, and other conditions.
Blood Pressure
Another very important piece of information that a good heart rate monitor (a very high quality one), can provide you with, is what your blood pressure is. Technically speaking, blood pressure is a measure of your heart when it is beating, known as systolic pressure, and when your heart is at rest, known as diastolic pressure.
The first number, systolic, should be between 100 and 130, and the second number, diastolic, should be between 60 and 80. High blood pressure can be caused by alcohol, smoking, being overweight, aging, eating too much sodium, and others. Low blood pressure may be caused by blood loss, dehydration, heart conditions, pregnancy, infections, allergic reactions, and others.
Oxygen Saturation
If you have a high quality heart rate monitor that comes complete with a pulse oximeter, it will also tell you the level of oxygen saturation in your blood. Having well oxygenated blood is vital for the health of your cells, organs, and more.
Generally speaking, healthy adults should have a blood oxygen saturation level of 95% or higher, with 100% being a perfect score. If your blood oxygenation is between 90% and 94%, it is a sign of a serious issue, and if your oxygen saturation level is below 90%, it’s a cause for immediate concern.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that heart rate monitors are very easy to read. They literally do all of the work for you and display the results in an easy to read manner, nothing more than simple numbers. It’s not reading the results of a heart rate monitor that is hard, but interpreting what they mean.