Women With Low Resting Heart Rate Are Likely To Be Convicted of Crime [Study]

A heart rate could help determine one's future criminal record. According to researchers, there is a link between one's heart rate and the likelihood of committing a crime.

Women and Their Heart Rate

A new study from the US, Sweden, and Finland followed the criminal records of 12,499 women for up to 40 years. It discovered that those with a low resting heart rate had a somewhat higher chance of being found guilty of a non-violent offense.

The researchers, however, noted that it's crucial to remember that this does not imply that women with low heart rates would inevitably be criminals.

Additionally, these women tended to sustain more unintended injuries, according to the researchers. It's been proposed that people may be more inclined to seek out excitement and take risks if their autonomic nervous system -- which controls basic body activities like heart rate -- is less active.

"Lower autonomic arousal is a well-known correlate of criminal offending and other risk-taking behaviors in men, but few studies have investigated this association in women," criminologist Sofi Oskarsson from Orebro University in Sweden and colleagues said in the paper. "The reported findings have potential implications for the prediction of future female crime."

The researchers followed the Swedish women who enlisted in the military at 18. They monitored them, using physical examinations to record their blood pressure and heart rates. For up to four decades, they monitored these women's accidental injuries and any criminal convictions they may have had.

Researchers discovered that women whose resting heart rates were less than 69 beats per minute (BPM) had a 35 percent higher chance of being judged guilty of a crime than women whose heart rates were greater than 83 BPM.

Additionally, compared to people whose heart rates were above 83 BPM, there was a strong correlation between convictions for non-violent crimes and heart rates below 69 BPM. This correlation was not applied when only violent crimes were considered.

A 2015 study was the first to reveal the curious link between crime, unintentional injury, and low resting heart rate. However, the first study's sample was men. A recent study suggests that the same association applies regardless of gender.

Vitamin B3 Overdose Increases Risk of Heart Attack

Water-soluble vitamin B3, often known as niacin, is a B vitamin. Meat, seafood, nuts, legumes, brown rice, and fortified cereals are some foods that contain it.

Its main job in the body is to maintain the molecular machinery of our cells by making "good" cholesterol and healthy fats, repairing and synthesizing DNA, and getting rid of hazardous metabolic waste products. It also converts sugar into energy. Niacin is soluble in water, thus it's frequently eliminated through urine.

Nevertheless, a recent study from the Lerner Research Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, suggests that taking too much vitamin B3 increases one's risk of heart disease and strokes. The conditions were reportedly associated with two of this vitamin's breakdown products.

For a healthy, well-balanced diet to be maintained, vitamin B3 is essential, but further research is needed to confirm these results.

The authors, however, contend that these findings raise questions about the necessity of the US government's mandate that cereals be fortified with this vitamin and demand further research into these effects.

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