Rapid Decline in Heart Rate may Indicate Future Heart Trouble by Angela Mohan on April 14, 2021 at 4:35 PM Heart rate decline predicts the risk of future cardiovascular diseases, as per the researchers of the Medical College of Georgia who report a link between a faster decrease in resting heart rate from childhood to adulthood and a larger left ventricle over a 21-year period in hundreds of individuals who were healthy at the start. The faster decrease in heart rate also was associated with a higher level of pressure inside the blood vessels of the body, which the heart has to pump against to get blood and oxygen out, they write in the journal Acta Cardiologica. The associations were generally stronger in Blacks.