Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is an accurate and powerful tool for anyone looking to make changes in their habits - whether it's to lose weight, manage stress, monitor health, train for or run a marathon - HRV tracking should not be overlooked.
What is Heart Rate Variability?
Heart rate variability (HRV) is an important health indicator that can help athletes optimize their training, help people reduce stress, and monitor overall health and recovery.HRV measures the specific change (or variability) in time between consecutive heartbeats, measured in milliseconds (ms) and known as the “R-R interval.”
A healthy heartbeat contains healthy irregularities. For example, if your heart rate is 60 beats per minute, your heart will not beat once per second; there will be a different length of interval between each heartbeat. High HRV means that the heart can flexibly adjust its beating rate as needed; low HRV indicates a more constant heartbeat that is less adaptable and easily fatigued.
Heart rate variability even changes with breathing: it decreases with inhalation and increases with exhalation.
How is HRV measured?
Although the heart rate can be felt, HRV needs to be assessed with the help of a measuring device. Each contraction of the heart produces a pulse of blood volume that travels through the large arteries to the small capillaries. The pulse can be felt by placing a finger on the top of the carotid artery or on the palm of the wrist.
The blood volume pulse signal (PPG) can be tracked using optical methods, such as wearing a device like the Qring ring. The presence of suitable arteries and capillaries in the fingers provides a clear pulse signal, making optical measurements more reliable and accurate. In addition, with no moving parts between the finger joints, the ring can be worn securely to avoid movement.
Qring uses the RMSSD calculation method with a measurement time limit of 1 minute average, automatically detects the reference heart rate variability and compares it to the daily heart rate variability, providing recommendations for training and recovery.
Applications of Heart Rate Variability
Training
Research has shown that athletes train better at high intensities under favorable physiological conditions. Good physiological conditions mean that the daily HRV is within the normal range or has a positive trend. If HRV is low, training intensity should be reduced. Heart rate variability quantifies recovery, and heart rate variability usually decreases after high-intensity aerobic exercise but picks up after recovery.
Health Analysis
Healthy individuals have high heart rate variability and high HRV. Studies have shown that low heart rate variability is associated with depression, anxiety, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Tracking heart rate variability can quantify health and provide feedback on lifestyle.
Stress Analysis
HRV is a non-invasive measure of stress. Stress is associated with a variety of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Changes in HRV can reflect stress levels and help identify and manage stress.
Improved Meditation
High HRV is a sign of relaxation and low stress states. Measuring HRV during meditation can improve the effectiveness of meditation, and some meditation and breathing techniques can increase HRV in the short and long term.
Anxiety Treatment
Low HRV is associated with anxiety disorders, and monitoring HRV can reflect the effectiveness of treatment. Anxiety disorders increase the risk of heart disease, so it is important to monitor HRV in patients with anxiety disorders.
Conclusion.
High HRV is a marker of overall health and fitness and can reflect changes in the body earlier than heart rate. Heart rate variability can help to identify signs of frailty in advance and make adjustments to lifestyle and training.The Qring ring can monitor and advise automatically, but manually checking heart rate variability readings can also help to understand how the body is responding to the environment.
Heart rate variability is a useful tool to quantify physiological changes in the treatment of a wide range of pathological conditions. It has clear clinical relevance in predicting the risk of arrhythmic events following acute cardiac disease and diabetic neuropathy. As research progresses, HRV will play an increasingly important role in health monitoring.
