Heart rate is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. There is compelling evidence of a clinically meaningful and statistically significant association between heart rate and clinical outcome in the general population, as well as in elderly subjects and hypertensive patients. There is also increasing evidence supporting heart rate as a unifying hypothesis explaining both the favorable cardioprotective effects of heart rate–lowering ß-blockers and calcium channel blockers and the unfavorable effects of calcium channel blockers that do not lower heart rate in patients recovering from myocardial infarction. The wider recognition of heart rate may help clinicians identify patients at an especially high risk for cardiovascular disease and target these high-risk subjects with cardiovascular therapies specifically designed to reduce heart rate...