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What Can Prevent You From Reaching Your Target Heart Rate for a Stress Test?

As you get older, you may be subjected to a stress test. And if you haven't had one before, it's really a simple exercise with a fairly frightening name to bring your pulse up to its target heart rate. But, with any sort of examination, there are a few things that can prevent this from happening.

  1. Function

    • Essentially, a stress test is an examination of your heart initiated by a physician to assess how your heart performs under physical stress. Usually, you'll be placed on a treadmill or a stationary bike to elevate the beating of your heart to its target heart rate. On occasion, a medication will be used to induce the same effect, but you'll typically have to perform some sort of exercise if you're physically able. During the course of the examination, your heart and breathing will be monitored, so you shouldn't be concerned with performing the task at hand.

    Identification

    • There are some people who will be unable to reach their target heart rate. This doesn't mean that the heart is unable to accomplish the desired rate for the stress test; it usually means that some factor has played a role in preventing the individual from achieving it. Typically, a stress will be stopped prior to the target heart rate when a person becomes so out of breath that he is unable to continue, endures a sense of dizziness, feels a moderate pain in his chest, suffers an arrhythmia or experiences a drastic change in blood pressure.

    Significance

    • The information garnered from this sort of test gives the doctor a clue to your overall physical fitness. It also can tell him if there is enough blood flow through the heart, the healthiness of the organ itself and whether you're suffering from coronary artery disease, among other maladies.

    Features

    • While participating in this sort of examination, your goal is to bring your heart up to its target rate, which may lead you to wonder what this actually is. The target heart rate is basically 50 to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate, which is 220 beats per minute minus your age. However, it isn't just a certain percentage of the maximum heart rate alone that makes up your target heart rate. Other factors, such as your resting heart rate, must be taken into account to arrive at the precise number. So making a sweeping generalization of what a certain age group's target heart rate should be impossible. Your doctor will be able to tell you what your target heart rate is at the time of the stress test.

    Misconceptions

    • If you're like most people, hearing that a test is used to put stress on the heart can be a little disconcerting. Why would you want to put stress on the heart? Isn't that dangerous? First of all, there are certain heart problems that have an easier time being diagnosed when your heart rate is elevated to the target rate, making this sort of examination a good option for identification. Second, there is very little risk involved in a stress test. Yes, there are those situations that do arise for some people, but you'll more than likely not experience any problems.

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