In women, exercise may keep high pulse in check

Not "exercise," but training.

A speedy ticker could increase your chances of suffering a fatal heart attack, according to a new study. But in women, regular workouts might help keep the risk low.

Based on more than 50,000 healthy adults, researchers from Norway found that with each increase of 10 beats per minute in resting heart rate, a woman's risk of dying from a heart attack climbed by 18 percent up to the age of 70 years. For men, the risk rose by 10 percent.

A healthy heart beats about 60 to 70 times a minute, with some normal variation on either side. If the rate exceeds 80 for an extended period, doctors start to worry -- that is, if they notice, because an elevated pulse may go undetected in otherwise healthy people, said Javaid Nauman of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, who was involved in the new study.

Training is the way to decrease your heart rate.