This article explores heart rate variability (HRV), its importance as a health metric, and how factors like stress, fitness, and age can influence it.
From the moment our heart starts beating in utero to the day we die, a group of cells in the organ’s top-right corner controls the automatic contractions that make it pulse. The rhythm of those contractions is influenced by the accelerator of our sympathetic nervous system (“fight or flight”) and the brake of our parasympathetic nervous system (“rest and digest”).
The interplay between these branches of the autonomic nervous system creates a subtle variation between each beat, referred to as heart rate variability (HRV).Experts say HRV is important and has a key advantage over other health metrics. But it can also be overused, misunderstood and inaccurate.When both the accelerator and brake are functioning well, there is greater variability in the time (measured in milliseconds) between beats. They are closer together as we inhale and further apart as we exhale. So if you look at your resting heart rate of 60 beats per minute, for example, some beats will be one second apart, while others may be more or less. However, when the sympathetic system is in overdrive – from stress, illness, fatigue, poor fitness or poor sleep, overtraining or alcohol – our breathing becomes more shallow and our heart rate faster, lowering our HRV. “This is because the body is less able to switch between ‘fight or flight’ and ‘rest and recovery’ states smoothly, which is reflected in the reduced variability of the time intervals between heartbeats,” says Dr Matthew Ahmadi, a research fellow at The University of Sydney and National Heart Foundation. Sympathetic overdrive – when our body’s stress system is unable to remove its foot from the pedal – is bad for mental health but can also negatively affect organ systems.The average HRV tends to lower with age and lack of fitness, but there are no scientifically validated cutoffs for “good” or “bad”, says clinical associate professor Kegan Moneghetti. In fact, Apple (the) doesn’t offer classifications for high or low in their Health ap
HRV Heart Rate Variability Stress Fitness Health Metrics Autonomic Nervous System
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