Bradycardia. Should I Be Concerned?

[MindPieces]

Hey everyone. 30 year old male here who jogs 3-4 miles every day without fail.

About a month ago I went to the doctor with a feeling of "air hunger." Like I constantly needed a deep breath and couldn't always get one. They wrote it off as anxiety, and eventually I figured that maybe I didn't really "need" a deep breath. I could still speak and function without feeling short of breath, so I figured my air craving was all in my head.

Lately I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping and issues with stress, mainly over possibly imagined health concerns. Yesterday morning I felt quite lightheaded and decided to go to the doc. After leaving me hooked up to an EKG for a while, they discovered that my resting heart rate is about 45 bpm. I have no idea if this is normal for me or not, as I haven't had it tested before. All blood tests came back normal, and the doc didn't seem too concerned with the slow heart beat.

I finally slept somewhat decently last night for the first time in weeks, but have still felt a little foggy and headachey today. I'm concerned that the bradycardia is a new thing that's causing all my symptoms, and the docs are ignoring it because I appear young and healthy.

I've recently had an echo and holter monitor done and await the results. Should I be concerned about this slow heart rate? Should I have any other tests done? And how do I know if my fogginess is due to my month of stress and sleeplessness, or if my brain isn't getting enough oxygen to function?

[frue13]

not sleeping will cause foggieness.   I was told that 45 beats per minute is ok as long as everything else is ok.   Anything below that I would get a second opinion.  Not that it is bad but just to ease your mind.  I went through a spell where it lasted 2 months and my heart rate would stay in the 50's.  After returning to sleep it then returned to what it used to do.

One last thing.  Trust your doctors.  Where a holter get the test you need to get done done. After they clear you then move on.  If you continue to obses over your heart, it will drive you bannas.

[Wisconsin2007]

If you're putting in 20-30 miles a week, odds are the bradycardia is a result of your conditioning.  My father had a slightly lower resting heart rate in his early 40's, but he regularly ran in 10k, 20k and a few marathons.  Nobody knew how low his heart rate was until he had a bicycling accident and spent a week in the ICU.  He said the nurses kept waking him up to check to make sure he was OK, because his rate got so low.  But I think he just stood out because everyone else in the ICU was 70 or older and had resting HRs in the low 100's.  

Lance Armstrong's resting HR is 32.