Re: High Pulse on Water Fast

As Wheatgrass has said there is little to be alarmed about with a pulse of 98 on day 11 of your fast, but I would personally advise you to rest at this time if you are not already, and report back on a daily basis.
Heart rate or pulse should be taken for accuracy in the resting state, along with Blood Pressure readings, as on arising first thing in the morning.

Reasons for a high pulse are many and varied..............

SHELTON.............
"The pulse varies greatly during a fast. It may run up to 120 or even higher, or it may drop as low as 40, per minute. Indeed, Mr. Macfadden records a case in his practice in which the pulse went down as low as 20 and was so feeble it could scarcely be felt. It is the usual thing to have the pulse rate increase at the beginning of the fast and then, after a day or two, to drop. In chronic cases that are confined to bed during the fast, the pulse usually, after its temporary rise, drops to 48, or 40, where it may remain for a day or two days and then mounts up again to 60. After a few days it will settle at 60 and remain there until eating and activity are resumed. It is, of course, understood that the pulse is subject to all the variations, while fasting, as at other times of life, and that where there is "disease" of the heart, or nervous troubles, it will often vary greatly from the above standard. Where stimulants are employed during a fast, these occasion more heart activity than if taken when one is eating.

Discussing what, to the uninitiated, are alarming heart symptoms which may arise during a fast, Mr. Hereward Carrington says: "I may here remark, however, that such extreme variations invariably denote some profound physiological change taking place at the time--a crisis, in fact. The fact that hitherto weak hearts are actually strengthened and cured by fasting proves conclusively that any such unusual symptoms, observed during this period, denote a beneficial reparative process, and not any harmful or dangerous decrease or acceleration, due to lack of perfect control by the cardiac nerve."--Vitality, Fasting and Nutrition, p. 464.

A very rapid pulse is seen in exercise, excitement, nervous shock, and gas pressure, etc. Exertion may increase the pulse rate more in the faster than in the regular eater. As there is nothing essentially abnormal about this and the pulse rate soon settles back to its regular fasting level, there need be no concern over it.......................
The Hygienic System Vol III CHAPTER XXVII.

Chrisb1.


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