Heart Rate Variability
An indicator that we can regulate our internal state and therefore health
Heart rate variability is the investigation into our very own heart’s complex rhythms. This measurement examines the heart at a beat-to-beat interval. When we look at this we see the space in between each heartbeat. As health care practitioners, we learn about heart rate, resting heart rate, beats per minute, and the link between this and blood pressure. These are very common feedback tools to measure our health. We are taught very little, however, about the measurement of the spaces between each beat.
This amazing technology of measuring the space or variability between each heartbeat gives us an open door look at our subconscious stress level. You see, our heart is much more than a pump. Our heart is out of this world! Literally. Let me explain…
The heart has its own brain! Yes, that’s right the heart has its own intrinsic brain. This heart-brain sends signals to the brain telling the brain what is going on, in and around our body. The brain listens to the heart’s information and then processes a response in our body. This is all happening at a quantum level. This is fast, so fast that it’s not happening in time as we know it. The heart is tapped into a field of information that our consciousness only gets glimpses of. The really cool thing is we can access our heart’s innate intelligence at any time. This allows us to tap into the field that is creating everything in our reality. By learning more about our heart rate variability we are stepping into a new realm of health awareness.
HRV offers us data on the intricate dance between our parasympathetic (rest and digest) and sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous systems. The heart is sending this information to the brain on a moment-to-moment basis. We have always thought the heart is just simply a pump that pumps blood. But as it turns out, the heart is way more. It is an information driver both to the brain and also from the brain to the rest of the body.
These two nervous systems - parasympathetic and sympathetic - make up the autonomic nervous system (ANS) of our body. The complexity of this system is truly a miracle. The ANS is what is responsible for controlling our body’s automatic functions. It is responsible for our survival as a human species via our sympathetic nervous system. Our sympathetic nervous system or fight, flight, or freeze as it is often called is responsible for our ability to sprint away from a mountain lion in order to not get eaten, fight off an attack or hide in order to keep safe. Our parasympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, is responsible for our heart rate, body temperature, sleep and wake cycles, digestion of food, and how well all of that interacts with our immune system. Both of these two systems are “automatic”, we don’t have to do a thing.
In the days of our ancient ancestors, after their stress response caused by the mountain lion scare, they were able to bounce back into a balanced emotional, physical, and chemical state of homeostasis. In today’s world, we aren’t so balanced. Today, we don’t have a mountain lion prowling around our campsite, but we do have a steady stream of stimulus coming into our nervous system, triggering this stress response all day long. You see, our brain and body don’t know the difference between stress as actually being a real threat or just a habit of thought alone.
We live in a very stressful world, from checking our Instagram feed constantly to see how many likes we got, to hearing about the worst possible case scenarios that the news, insurance companies, and our fearful friends talk about constantly. The stress doesn’t just stop or start with the emotional component, we are also bombarded with unseen toxins in our food, air, and electronic devices.
We are living in a world of stress and this means we are living in the fight or flight nervous system WAY too much.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the fight or flight (sympathetic) nervous system, we need it and it has gotten us to this point of our human existence. But when we are living in fight or flight for months, years, and decades it causes some serious problems in our bodies. This is where all chronic dis-ease begins.
The exciting thing, though, is we can do a thing or two to decrease our stress level. To decrease stress we have to increase our vagal tone (parasympathetic nervous system). This is where measuring our heart rate variability comes in extremely handy.
The vagus nerve is the only cranial nerve that travels past the brain stem and into the body. It has connections, like the branches of a tree extending from its roots, to nearly all of our internal organs. The vagus nerve travels all the way down to our anus. Scientists are recently finding how crucial this nerve is to our overall health and longevity.
Vagal tone simply means the activity of the vagus nerve. The more coherently active the vagus nerve is, the more resilient we are to stress. This means a harmonious vagal tone correlates to a healthy human being.
We are learning that the vagus nerve is THE major driver of this resilience, allowing our body, brain, and mind to recover and balance. The vagus nerve essentially is our parasympathetic nervous system. Remember this is the nervous system of love. The more relaxed and safe that we feel, the more the vagal tone improves. This allows our body to do what it does best – heal, regenerate and fight off dis-ease.
This is where the biofeedback of our own HRV can help us tremendously.
So What Exactly is HRV Measuring?
When measuring HRV we are using a special sensor that actually measures the biopotential that is generated by the heart. These electronic signals are controlling or causing the contraction and expansion of the chambers of the heart. HRV is simply a super accurate way of reading our heartbeat. It gets complicated, but in this measurement, we are able to measure the space between beats in milliseconds.
As you can see from the image above, HRV looks at the interbeat interval between each heartbeat down to a very small window in time. We see how in a 2.5-second interval that there is a variability from .859 sec to .793 sec to .726 sec.
HRV is highly individualized, so ultimately, we want to look at the larger trends over time. There are many different wearable devices out there that use different software to analyze the data they record. But for the most part, the majority are giving us, the user, an average of the interbeat interval over the time of the measurement. The higher this score is for our personalized measurements the better. As we analyze this data for ourselves - not comparing to others - we want to notice that the higher our score, the more refreshed, renewed, and resilient our overall health function is.
Logically, when we have a lower heart rate (measured in beats per minute) we are usually calmer. A higher heart rate means we are more alert, stressed or active. And when you think about the space between heartbeats, it makes sense that there is more space between a slower heartbeat than a faster heartbeat. This allows more variability to happen between beats over time.
The critical point here is that if we can learn to calm ourselves down at any given moment and slow our heartbeat we can, therefore, have a better chance to raise our HRV. As noted in the extensive research of the Heart Math Institute, “An optimal level of HRV within an organism reflects healthy function and an inherent self-regulatory capacity, adaptability, and resilience.[5, 58, 59, 85-88]”
https://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/heart-rate-variability/
A slower heart rate per minute will give us a better chance to get a higher HRV score and a higher HRV score links to health!
What’s fascinating, is the more sporadic or variable the space between the heartbeats, the more healthy our bodies are. This gets convoluted because a steady metronomic beat would seem as if it was more healthy, but it actually is not. A more random or variable space in between beats correlates to a healthier body. This means less stress.
When we think about resilience or adaptability this principle makes more sense. With variability, we are more elastic, less rigid. This means our cells are too. When they have resilience they can “adapt” to the environment around them in a much more regenerative way. This means both insides of the body and outside of the body. The more resilient our cells are to all stressors the better our health.
So when we are less stressed (physically, chemically, emotionally) the Vagus nerve does what it does best. It communicates from the brain to the body and body to the brain all of our automatic health functions - the immune function, cell proliferation, cell regeneration, cellular repair, detoxification pathways, blood pressure, blood sugar regulation, emotional reactivity, etc., etc., etc. EVERYTHING!
So here is the absolute best way to improve your health on a global level-
Besides the obvious, eating real whole, organic food, quality exercise, and proper rest and recovery after exercise, we have to look at our emotional state of being.
What we find, when we dig deep into the research of HRV is that our thoughts and therefore emotions/feelings influence the activity in the autonomic nervous system. This means the way we think, the way we feel, and how we act has a dramatic influence on our health.
In fact, our brain’s regulatory systems and our autonomic nervous system have disorder when we have negative emotions/feelings. Furthermore, feelings such as love, gratitude, and appreciation create an increased order in our overall health, autonomic nervous system, and brain. Not only do these heart-felt elevated emotions enhance our cognitive function but they improve our hormonal and immune system function as well!
So we gotta get into a state of love, gratitude, and appreciation for life! This, in fact, is crucial for our health. Love, in truth, heals ALL!
Now imagine having the feedback from an HRV measurement to know whether you are in a more of a state of stress or more in a state of rest and digest? This valuable tool will give your mind and body the insight it needs to make a change from fear to love. You will begin to have “aha moments” that create new neural connections in your brain for you to be the creator of your health.
As we literally feel more love in our mind and body, HRV is the key to unlocking an even greater understanding of love and therefore health. The feedback that gives us is a magical unraveling of our own self.
Just as a golfer must practice their swing over and over again so that when they get on the course it becomes second nature, we to must practice “being” in a state of love (parasympathetic nervous system) over and over again throughout our waking day.
After that, the body will take care of the rest.
Oh, and by the way, you will feel absolutely amazing. Just being grateful to be alive and have this amazing body that takes care of us.
Practice the steps below while you are monitoring your HRV to see how high your score can get. The more you practice the more you will learn how to get your body to that sweet spot of love. But, you don’t just need to do this while measuring your HRV, you need to remember and then embody this all day long.
Here’s a way to get started
Find a quiet place to sit – with no distractions
Set a timer for 5 minutes
Play inspiring and relaxing meditative music with no words (headphones help decrease distractions)
Bring up a memory, person, place, thing that fills your heart with love
While remembering that loving memory – feel your heart with your hands and/or with your own awareness
Continue this until the timer sounds
The point is to elevate your emotion. To feel more love. To feel love more than fear.
The more you practice this, the better your HRV. The better your HRV the better your overall health.
If you want an even greater understanding of the “how-to” come into LifeSTRENGTH and visit with Cason our Functional Health Coach. By using our in-house HRV monitor, Cason can give you a personalized coaching experience to uplevel your health and life to the greatest degree.