Tips for a Healthier You: Boost Your Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
Dr. Stracks’s top pick for improving your health in 2023? Heart rate variability. Read on to learn more about the benefits of incorporating heart-rate variability into your life and how to go about it.
Heart Rate Variability
The average heart rate for an adult is 60–100 beats per minute (bpm). Intuitively, we would think that if our hearts are beating at 60 beats per minute, that would mean that a beat would happen every second. In actuality, though, that’s not how it works. One beat may take place after 0.98 seconds and the next after 1.05 seconds and the next after 1.01 seconds, and so on. This variation in the interval between beats is what’s known as heart rate variability, or HRV. Data from many decades now has shown that, nonintuitively, a higher HRV is healthier and has been associated with better physical health, lower levels of inflammation, and better mental health in terms of less reported depression and anxiety. HRV also directly correlates with levels of input from the parasympathetic nervous system, the aspect of our nervous system that balances out our fight-or-flight (the sympathetic) response.
Historically, measuring HRV has been challenging, with EKG systems in medical offices being the gold standard. More recently, though, advances in technology resulting in wearable devices has led to the development of mobile apps that give reasonably good data conveniently at low cost.
The patients at Cormendi Health who have used these products have frequently been able to move their overall health forward. One of our clients, for example, found that his overall HRV was low; by working hard on breathing exercises and relaxation, he was able to significantly improve a years-long sleeping problem. Another client who used to have chronic headaches has found that her HRV level directly correlates to days that she’s feeling poorly. When she’s able to keep her HRV higher, she feels better overall.
Our access to wearable devices took a big step forward this month, when Michelle Grim, PA, completed training to use the Lief device with her patients in coaching. Lief offers a wearable device that tracks your heart rate variability, allowing you to monitor your stress levels in real time. It also calibrates specifically to your nervous system, finding the range for your own HRV. Once that range is set, the Lief device will alert you when your HRV drops into a stress range, and will prompt you with a breathing exercise to boost your HRV in the moment. With continued practice, average HRV increases, supporting your overall health. Engaging with coaching with Michelle using HRV also allows you to collaborate with someone who can see your HRV data on the clinician dashboard and help you make connections between what you are experiencing in your life and how that influences your nervous system state (or stress level). By making those connections, you’ll learn where and when you need more support, as well as ways to make that support most effective. We invite you to set up a free 20-minute appointment with Michelle to talk about the process and benefits of using Lief with her guidance.
As healthcare in general moves more and more toward the use of home devices and data to predict good outcomes, HRV has emerged as an important possible predictor of both disease and even mortality, making it my top choice for ways to improve your own health in 2023.
Interested in increase your heart rate variability to help improve your health? Schedule your free 20-minute consultation with Michelle Grim to learn more about how collaborating with Michelle and using a wearable device can help you lower stress levels and improve your overall health. Contact us through our website or by calling us at 312-489-8890 to set up a conversation now!