Once while having an echocardiogram to test for heart damage from the breast cancer drug Herceptin, my technician asked me if I was a runner. "I do run," I told him, and then asked how he knew. He told me I had a really low resting heart rate, something runners often have. He seemed impressed by my low number. I was flattered.

Many athletes pride themselves on a low resting heart rate. It means they're in good physical shape and their hearts don't need to pump as hard, say the experts from Reader's Digest. Translation: Low heart rate folks have less risk for heart problems. Higher rates mean the heart needs more oxygen, and the cardiovascular system gets stressed.

The best way to reduce your heart rate is to exercise regularly. While working on your fitness, shoot for this healthy resting heart rate range: 55-65 heartbeats per minute.

Source

Women are living longer, healthier lives than ever before. That's why it's even more important today to prevent one of the leading causes of death among women: heart disease. In fact, heart disease is the leading cause of death among women over 65.

While most of the risk factors, signs and symptoms are the same in women as they are in men, there are unique aspects to women's heart health that are different, so it's important to get tested. And though many tests measure cardiac health, some are better at detecting disease in women.

According to MORE magazine, these are the tests that you should be asking for and why:

• Stress echocardiogram -- A stress echocardiogram uses ultrasound to show the heart's motion at rest and at peak exercise and is more accurate for women than conventionsl stress testing, which can lead to false positives in women.

Source