Resting Heart Rate and COVID

[Longs1]

I am 60 years old and have been focused on being active and eating reasonably well for a while.  My resting heart rate has been getting lower, was around 66 at the beginning of 2022, has typically been down to around 60.

I contracted COVID at the end of July and noticed that my resting heart rate pretty quickly went to as high as 75, in 6 days, then has come back down to around 62.  I was wondering if anyone else has seen such a distinct spike.   Everything looks more obvious on the Fitbit graphs since it isn't possible to change the Y-axis, but it's extremely obvious. 

I wasn't too "sick" with COVID - some fever, body aches, headache, congestion.  I was tracking my O2 saturation with a pulse oximeter, it never was an issue.  I haven't exercised since July 27th, hoping to get back to exercising in the next few days.

[SebWotan]

Hello @Longs1 

Perfectly normal, RHR is affected by a lot of factors and being sick is one of them. COVID, flu, inflammation of all sorts, food poisoning: all those would increase your resting heart rate possibly significantly. It will also get back down slower than it went up, as your body slowly recover from the stress it endured. 

[xenaFB]

Yes, this is very common with covid. Some people have developed POTS (a type of autonomic dysfunction) after covid. 
I had very mild covid and developed heart issues and waiting to get autonomic dysfunction testing. 
I'm on medication to lower blood pressure and heart rate.
I also developed high blood pressure as a result of covid. I was on no medication before covid. Some of my symptoms have cleared but not all. I'm still disabled and unable to work. Very frustrating.

[Mark.Emagin]

There's a Stanford studyt that will alert you to C19 symptoms based on irregularities in heart stats.

Learned about it on Youtube from Dr. Rhonda Patrick's show.

https://innovations.stanford.edu/wearables

[Prospector]

I’m 65 years old and recently had my first covid infection. It was fairly mild - I felt ill, lethargic and very tired. It took nearly three weeks to get a totally clear lateral flow test, even though I felt back to normal after the first week.

My resting heart rate used to average around 58 bpm. Since the infection peaked at 65 bpm, my RHR settled back to 60 bpm for two weeks and is now fluctuating around 60 to 63. At the same time I have had some minor symptoms that are linked to long covid - muscle twitches and earache. I think it’s just normal body repair. Interestingly, my oxygen saturation has stayed good throughout, and other health indicators appear to have settled back.

I had a cold in November which cause a similar, though less pronounced and shorter-duration elevated heart rate.