Could a decreased heartrate thanks to better hemoglobin lead to an increased lifespan?
When looking at mammals and their heart rates one can find a correlation between the lifespan of a mammal and their heart rate. Namely most mammals seem to get about 1 billion (the American one) of heartbeats in their life (with some slight discrepancies).
Now mammals, such as humans, use blood to transport oxygen. When they enter increased physical activity, e.g. running, their heart rate increases to transport more oxygen to organs and muscles.
My idea is that if we can increase the oxygen transported by the blood we could decrease the heart rate necessary to transport enough oxygen, thus increasing life-expectancy as we have more beats left.
A possible way to achieve that increase in oxygen transported in blood is to use the hemoglobin of lugworms, which can transport ~40 times as much oxygen as human hemoglobin.
Q: Could this increase in oxygen-carrying-capacity in blood lead to a decreased heart rate and thus to an increased lifespan?
Bonus: How many additional years could I get?
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1 answer
You are too focusing on heart rate. If blood had 40x capacity for oxygen it could extend lifespan in many ways (not related to heart rate), decreased heart rate would be just side effect (that would probably lower that capacity).
Increased oxygen capacity would help in cases of heart and brain attacks where fast intervention is required. Looking at mortality rates , A1 (Coronary artery disease) and A2 (Brain stroke) categories contribute to 7,4% of deaths (if my calculations are right). Indirectly it would help with survivability in other categories too.
On its own (without medical intervention) heart has some regenerative abilities so with better oxygen supply it could cope with damage better.
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