1 week Ago By Ashima Sharda Mahindra
While smartwatches are a popular way to track fitness, they are also important devices that can correctly figure out your heart health. According to a new study, zeroing in on your daily heart rate and step count—and crunching those numbers—could provide a clearer view of your cardiovascular health. A new method—the Daily Heart Rate Per Step, or DHRPS—measures your heart health and is calculated by dividing your average daily heart rate by the daily number of steps you take.
If your resulting number is higher, it shows a grave risk to your heart issues. According to the study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, DHRPS is among the best indicators of heart health as compared to just finding out the step count or heart rate alone, as it helps test the efficiency of your heart. “Our metric, which integrates heart rate and step count, looks at how much harder the heart has to work by raising the heart rate to meet the demand of physiological demand of exercise,” said Zhanlin Chen, a third-year medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Related News | National Walking Day 2025: Why Your Gym Workouts Cannot Replace Your Daily WalkWarning! Your Antidepressants May Be Putting Your Heart At Risk“If someone’s heart is less efficient, it must beat faster in order to pump blood around the body while they move. Because of this, DHRPS “is a more direct measure of cardiovascular fitness,” Chen added. How was the study conducted? Chen conducted a study with the help of his colleagues and faculty physicians from Northwestern, and the team analyzed electronic medical records and data from around 7,000 people who wore Fitbits.
The study results opined that those with DHRPS scores had conditions like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, risk of heart failure and stroke, coronary atherosclerosis, and heart attack. Related News | What Is The Best Time To Go For a Morning Walk?According to experts, the prevalence of these debilitating and life-threatening conditions was 56 per cent higher in those with a high DHRPS score. “We can hopefully use this metric, based on data that we are already collecting from millions of wearables, to screen for individuals at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease,” said Chen.
How does cardiovascular efficiency become a good heart health indicator? Doctors say your daily heart rate and step count are good metrics for tracking health, which has been done so for years. Also, experts say a higher resting heart rate means you have a higher risk of heart disease, while a higher daily step count has been associated with fewer adverse cardiovascular events. And so, by totalling these two, the DHRPS provides a proper look at how healthy a person’s heart is.
If your heart rate does not skyrocket too much after exercising, it shows the level of fitness of your cardiovascular system. Is DHRPS always accurate? Even though it can be a good way to check your heart’s efficiency, experts feel DHRPS has its limitations as it only relies on data from smartwatches, which may not be correct all the time. DHRPS data can also be inaccurate in various situations, which include taking medication for stabilising your heart rate.
According to Health, walking 5,000 steps up an incline will raise the heart rate more than walking 5,000 steps on flat ground, for example. Similarly, DHRPS wouldn’t register if a person is carrying something heavy or exercising their upper body. Ways to take care of your heart health To take care of your heart health, experts recommend making simple changes to your lifestyle.
With the help of a fitness tracker, you can measure your heart rate and steps, and to make sure that they are well within a healthy range, you must:Engage in mild-to-intense physical exercises like running, walking, swimming, or biking. Add resistance training twice or thrice a week to your exercise regime along with high-intensity training at least twice a week for your heart health. Eat a healthy diet incorporating all major food groups.
Deal with your stress and find ways to lower it. Do not smoke or drink alcohol. Keep yourself hydrated, especially before and after working out.
.
