Yeah, he didn't exactly need an Apple watch to tell him something is going on. That's a bit under double what his heart rate should be. Equivalent to what someone in reasonable shape would have when they're jogging. It's amazing he never got it checked out before.
It's possible he may not have noticed, or may not have realised that his RHR was unusually high. I mean, in day to day living how many of us are really conscious of what our hearts are doing outside of periods of heavy exertion?
120 is an "uncomfortable" heart rate though; you'd feel it at rest, it would somewhat get in the way of concentrating or sleeping. (Although it's easy to dismiss as resulting from anxiety or infection.)
As even the tiniest bit of research will show, that is insanely high. Well over 99th percentile for that age group, according to US CDC. While it might be counterproductive to get anxious about minor symptoms, when one of the most critical indicators of overall health is off the charts I think "you should be worried" (with "go see a doctor" as the express or implied followup) is the humane response. "Meh" or denying the statistical reality is IMO irresponsible.
The average person's resting heart rate is 70 bpm. The "maximum" heart rate is roughly 207 - 2/3 of your age.
So for someone who is say 30, your maximum rate is ~187. But a rate over 90 when resting is considered outside normal levels.
If you have no history of cardiac disease and aren't taking any medications that would cause an increased rate, if your resting rate is 113-120, you need to be checked.
I'd consult if mine was over 90 at night for no apparent reason (usually below 50, but went as high as 80 during a hard hiking week). Monitoring my nightly heart rate (Samsung Watch) gave me quite an insight on my general shape. When sickish, definitely not going as low as usual...
Yeah, my dad died of a heart attack at a relatively young age, and I've been paranoid about my cardiovascular health ever since. Half an hour of that HR at rest and I'd be off to the ER.
I’m definitely aware that I suffer from hypochondria, but what if I’m just imagining that I do? All joking aside, I never even thought about getting help for that, maybe I should.
It's very common, and it often starts after an illness or health scare. In some people it gets worse and worse, they start going to the ER all the time because they feel something is wrong etc. It can be debilitating. If you feel like it's having a negative impact on your life, don't hesitate to seek help. It's always easier to nip it in the bud sooner rather than later.
Hah, too late now, I kind of got over it on my own, but it was debilitating for a while. The catch 22 is that the brain that's tricking itself isn't aware that it's tricking itself. Once I realized over time that I was imagining it, I was able to put it behind. Also, no doctor that I went to see for my imagined problems ever suggested that I should seek treatment for health anxiety, which I guess I don't blame them for because they are supposed to take people's complaints seriously.
No, that's not quite what it is. You can have an unusually rapid, but regular (i.e. normal sinus) rhythm and that's called tachycardia. During tachycardia, the electrical impulses that control the muscles of your heart fire in the correct sequence, intensity, and spacing between impulses, they just go through a cycle much more quickly. If you looked at an ECG and measured the distances between the peaks and valleys, they'd be at consistent distances, just really close.
During a-fib, the electrical impulses are all off. The peaks and valleys are irregularly spaced and the amplitudes vary from cycle to cycle. This usually results in a rapid heart rate as a second order effect because, due to the "misfiring" not enough blood is pumping through and your heart is working harder to make up for the difference.