If a simple, non-invasive test could be developed that can measure heart health over time, predict impending infectious diseases hours before symptoms develop, or guide improvements in both mental and physical health at all ages of life, such a test would change the face of human health throughout the world.
This type of testing exists today and is widely available for nearly everyone. It is affordable, accurate, and very likely has more applications than we already recognize. The test – called heart rate variability – may someday be as mundane in our everyday lives as stepping on the scale in the morning or checking our heart rate while exercising.
What is Heart Rate Variability?
The simplest definition of heart rate variability (HRV) is that it measures the variation in the intervals between successive heartbeats (called the R-R intervals). While many think their heart rate should be “steady like a drumbeat,” the reality is that greater flexibility and variability in the time between two beats is a sign of better health and resilience.
Heart rate variability comes from the balancing messages the heart receives from the brainstem through the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is the messenger for the entire body, signalling that it is either rested and prepared for daily stressors or stressed, fatigued, and unable to perform adequately.
The brainstem and body communicate constantly through the ANS to allow the heart rate to adapt to mental and physical stressors, stress, and regular exercise. The ANS balance also ensures adequate digestive capabilities, sleep, sexual performance, and immune function.
Uses of HRV
The ANS is the major driver of our mental and physical resilience; HRV is the most effective measure of this resilience because of the ease with which it can be quantified. Short-term measurements of HRV (a few minutes) using a wristband, ring, or chest strap can show readiness for sports or signal instead that reduced activity is recommended.
Longer readings of HRV overnight can rely on algorithms to accurately screen for arrhythmias and sleep-related disorders such as sleep apnea, which silently affects up to 20% of adults – 85% of whom don’t know they have it. Sleep apnea contributes to high blood pressure, diabetes, sudden cardiac death, and injuries from daytime sleepiness.
Long-term, repetitive readings of HRV can track mental and physical health for days, weeks, or months, giving individuals a window into their own resilience against everyday stressors.
Other algorithms linked to HRV measurements can detect or screen for:
- Stress or anxiety
- Parkinson’s disease
- Atrial fibrillation
- Acute illness or inflammation
- Altitude sickness
- Carbon monoxide poisoning
- Electrolyte disturbances
- Many disorders yet to be uncovered
HRV can be affected by sleep adequacy, hydration, postural changes, breathing, alcohol, drug use, age, genetics, diet, ethnicity, physical activity, gender, and stress. When an individual understands their HRV patterns, they can use it as a powerful tool to drive the trajectory of their own health.
HRV with Brainstem Digital Health
When HRV data is applied to populations rather than individuals, it can become a driver of health and public policy reform, particularly when used to create solutions directed at the people who need it the most.
Brainstem Digital Health is at the forefront of HRV detection, aligned with providing individuals with solutions to their own healthcare concerns plus the secure provision of the same data using advanced blockchain encryption and incentivization to allow researchers to advance health in ways impossible to do before the present time.
Brainstem Digital Health has developed an accurate device for HRV measurement and an algorithm for sleep apnea screening at home. We have also created a secure sharing mechanism to study populations at risk for a variety of physical and mental disorders.
HRV is not just a passive biomarker; individuals can improve their HRV through various lifestyle choices, physical exercise, breathing exercises, and other biofeedback treatments – now tied to an accurate measure of the effectiveness of the interventions they choose. Brainstem Digital Health has developed tools to help users of this technology improve their HRV numbers and long-term health.
Just as we step on the scale to indicate that we are eating right and exercising adequately, we can use HRV to track progress on many fronts, whether we are an athlete, suffering from stress, or dealing with a chronic disease. Measuring HRV is safe, convenient, and painless; it accurately measures the balance of our brainstem-controlled autonomic nervous system.
HRV is the future driver of enhanced human health and is available now so that each of us can choose the direction of our own health and wellness journey.
