It's no secret that your smartwatch churns out all kinds of data on a regular basis, including your daily step count and your average heart rate, which provides helpful insights into your health and wellness. But new research suggests that actually combining those two numbers will give you a better peek into how efficiently your heart is working than each stat does on its own.
The researchers are calling this new stat your "daily heart rate per step" or "DHRPS," and it’s a helpful tool to know about, especially if you’re really dialed in to your heart health.
DHRPS isn’t designed to replace your step count or your heart rate numbers, explains Zhanlin Chen, lead study author and a medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Instead, “it’s an integrative measure that uses information beyond step count." In other words, its a combo of two key metrics that can give you a little clearer insight.
So, what is DHRPS and how can you calculate it? Here’s the deal.
Meet the experts: Zhanlin Chen, is the lead study author and a medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Cheng-Han Chen, MD, is an interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA; Hiral Master, PT, PhD, is a senior scientist and researcher at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
What is DHRPS?
DHRPS (pronounced “derps”) stands for daily heart rate per step, and it's designed to look at how well your heart is working, Chen says. “We wanted to create a metric that helps us monitor someone’s cardiovascular health, and we can’t really do that outside of the context of someone’s exercise demand,” he says.
Calculating your DHRPS is simple: Just divide your average daily heart rate by the average number of steps you take every day.
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Why might it be more accurate than just looking at your step count?
Both your daily step count and average daily heart rate are considered to be good evaluations of heart health, points out Cheng-Han Chen, MD, interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA. “It’s not surprising that combining the two in one measure can make an even better measure,” he says.
Zhanlin Chen also says that you have a lot of control over your step count and, with that, you can game the system a little by choosing to move more on any given day. “It’s a conscious decision,” he says. But adding your average daily heart rate to the mix helps clarify a little more how your heart is doing when you add in all that activity.
What is considered a “good” DHRPS number?
The study looking at DHRPS divided people who wore Fitbits into different groups based on their calculations. “A favorable DHRPS is a lower percentile,” Zhanlin Chen says. The threshold is 0.0147.
“If someone takes 10,000 steps a day and their heart rate was 147 beats per minute throughout the day, that could potentially signal their heart is working harder than it should,” he says. (For most adults, a normal resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute, according to the American Heart Association.)
A lower DHRPS is better (something more like 0.008), Zhanlin Chen explains. This could signify someone who takes 10,000 steps a day but has an average heart rate of 80 beats per minute. “That is in the range of what we would consider physiologically normal,” he says.
How do I improve my DHRPS?
The best way to improve your DHRPS is to increase your physical activity to help boost your cardiovascular fitness over time, says Hiral Master, PT, PhD, senior scientist and researcher at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
It can also help to manage your stress by doing things like meditation or yoga, maintaining a balanced diet that is low in saturated fats and high in fruits and vegetables, ensuring you get enough sleep, and avoiding stimulants like nicotine and excessive caffeine, she says. Basically, you want to try to stay active while also lowering your resting heart rate through healthy diet, mindfulness and exercise.
Should I ditch step counts and focus on this instead?
Nope. “We think step count is still important in terms of keeping track of how much exercise you’re doing,” Zhanlin Chen says. “This metric is trying to flag potential suspicions about who has heart disease. It’s a metric that can derive new information from data we’re already collecting.”
Basically, DHRPS is just one more way to keep tabs on your heart health.
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Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a master’s degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.