The best way to lower your heart rate is with regular exercise. I recommend a daily one-hour walk or other moderate activity.

In addition to lowering your heart rate, exercising may also help prevent atrial fibrillation and stroke, according to research presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress. This study looked at 15,450 healthy men and women, average age 55, and calculated their fitness on a treadmill test according to a metric called metabolic equivalent of task (MET), which is a ratio of your working metabolic rate relative to your resting metabolic rate.

For instance, one MET is the amount of energy used while sitting quietly. The higher the MET, the fitter the individual. The participants were followed for more than 11 years for new-onset atrial fibrillation, stroke, and major cardiovascular events, a measure that was referred to collectively as MACE (major adverse cardiovascular events).

The researchers found that each one-MET increase on the treadmill test was associated with an 8 percent lower risk of atrial fibrillation, a 12 percent lower risk of stroke, and a 14 percent lower risk of MACE