How Heart Rate Variability Can Improve Heart Health

Your heart is the centerpiece of your life; it helps regulate energy, stress, hormones, the nervous system, and much more. If your heart is not beating, you are not living, literally. Understanding the health of your heart is crucial for your longevity and overall health. Heart rate variability is the key to understanding the longevity of your heart. This can help prevent cardiovascular disease, prevent anxiety, obesity, and much more. In this article, I will share what HRV is and how it can save your life.

What is Heart Rate Variability?

Heart rate variability is a measure of your autonomic nervous system that is widely considered one of the best objective metrics for physical fitness and determines your body's recovery. Heart Rate Variability is the variance in time between beats of your heart. If your heart rate is 60 beats per minute, it is not beating once every second. Within that minute, there may be 0.9 seconds between two moments and 1.15 seconds between 2 others. The greater this variability, the more you are recovered and ready for performing.

Health benefits of HRV

You can get a cardiogram from your doctor for years now, but that can be invasive and time-consuming. Companies now make wearable devices and heart rate monitors that do the same thing. I recommend a chest heart rate strap because it is the most accurate, but a wrist strap is also a good option. Heart problems do not come with many signs; you could have symptoms for years, and your body adapts to those until it is too late. Having one of the heart rate monitors could help prevent long-term damage to your heart and give you the information you need to see your doctor at the right time. I recommend getting your heart checked twice to 3 times a year after age 30.

HRV may also show imbalances in the autonomic nervous system. If the system is in more of a fight or flight mode, the variation between heartbeats tends to be lower. The variations tend to be much higher if the approach is more relaxed.

People with higher HRV may have more excellent cardiovascular fitness and may be more resilient to stress. HRV provides personal feedback and motivates those considering living a healthier lifestyle. Having progress at your fingertips helps create a sense of purpose behind what you are trying to accomplish. In addition, it takes the stress off knowing when and when not to go to the doctor.

Your Brain & Nervous System

Heart rate variability is connected to our autonomic nervous system. Our heart rate is connected to our brain, which helps us to control our emotions. When we are stressed, our cortisol levels rise, which causes our blood vessels to constrict. When our blood vessels constrict, our heart rate gets out of control, which can lower our heart rate variability.

Over time, our heart rate variability can worsen the more we do not manage our stress. Along with that, when we eat foods that contain inflammatory ingredients, it causes the same stress response that our emotions do. When we have excess weight, high blood pressure, diabetes, or any other debilitating condition that overstimulates our nervous system, it causes damage to our heart rate variability.

Every signal in our body is connected to our heart rate and mental health. The more you can manage your stress and control your heart rate, the better your heart rate variability will be and the healthier your heart will be.

Risks of not having a healthy heart

Our heart keeps us alive; if our heart does not beat, the rest of our body doesn't function. The heart takes all of the stress that we put on our bodies. From physical to mental stress, it handles all of it. Our nervous system sends signals throughout our body to help regulate our stress response, and what benefits that regulation is our heart; the faster it beats, the more constriction we create in our blood vessels and the more oxidative stress we make, which causes plaque build and scar calcification of the heart.

When we do not take care of the heart and let it recover and relax, we put ourselves at risk for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and arithscerlosis and contribute to other conditions that can debilitate our health. The importance of heart rate variability is giving you the control to prevent damage to your heart.

How to naturally improve heart rate variability

Meditation: Heart rate variability measures your heartbeats and their resiliency to stress. Meditation is a great way to keep your heart rate low and in recovery mode. The less your heart has to work, the healthier it will be. That does not excuse exercise from your lifestyle. Moving your body is still vital for your heart's health, but overworking is not good. Taking 10-20 minutes a day to sit in silence and focus on your breath is a great way to keep the heart beating slow and get your body in the habit of keeping your seat at a healthy BPM.

HIIT exercise is fantastic for detoxing your body and helping your heart manage stress more efficiently. We are designed to elevate our heart rate and then slow it down. It is a primary survival mechanism we all have, but when we do not work our heart and have an unhealthy diet, it can promote plaque buildup in our arteries, causing our HRV to be in a sick spot. You do not have to exercise 2 hours a day to have a healthy heart. I recommend 2-3 days a week doing HIIT. Cardio is a great way to move your body in 20 minutes or less. The way HIIT works is you do an exercise for 20-30 seconds as hard as you can and then rest for 10 seconds, and you repeat this for 4-5 minutes and do 4-5 rounds of it. These are great exercises, whether running, swimming laps, kettlebell swings, or burpees.

Breathe work: similar to meditation, breath work is the practice of different breathing techniques to relax the brain, bring yourself back to the present, and improve the function of your heart, lungs, and nervous system. Examples of Wim Hoff, alternate, and deep nasal breathing are the best for improving heart rate variability. Doing 3 to 4 minutes of this each day helps improve the function of your lungs and your nervous system.

Sleep: Getting enough sleep each night helps your heart recover and helps balance out your cortisol levels, decreasing the stress output on your heart. If you don't get enough sleep at night, the best way to counter any adverse effects of no sleep is to take a power nap or practice yoga nidra and meditation throughout the day. These techniques help keep your heart rate stable and rebalance your body's nervous system, which is optimal for recovery.

Nutrient density: The foods we choose affect our health drastically. Especially our heart and the way it functions. The best thing for us to do is to consume foods that contain a dense amount of antioxidants, amino acids, and proper fatty acids for the longevity and function of our hearts. Incorporating high-quality organ meats such as the heart can be a great source of natural amounts of CoQ10, amino acids, creatine, and much more that can benefit your heart. Eating a significant amount of pasture-raised, grass-fed meats contains plenty of amino acids, which are crucial for the recovery and function of your heart. Plenty of fruits such as berries, pomegranate, and cherries have plenty of antioxidants, polyphenols, flavones, and much more that help heal the blood vessels and prevent cardiovascular damage caused by stress. Also, incorporating fatty acids from wild-caught fish such as mackerel, salmon, trout, sardines and other sources such as avocados, coconut oil, avocado oil, grass-fed butter, and ghee all contain fatty acids that can protect the heart.

Supplements: Listed below are some of the best accessories for your heart; always ask your doctor to make any changes to your dietary supplements.

● Resveratrol

● CoQ10

● Beef Organs

● L-Carnitine

● Magnesium

● Folate

● Omega 3-Fish oil

● Quercetin

● Kion Flex

Tools to track your HRV

The following tools have been designed to read your heart rate variability to the furthest degree. Having a wearable that can help you track your heart rate and your HRV keeps you informed on the best decisions for your health.

Polar H10

Suunto Smart belt

Garmin HRM-pro

4iii VIIIIVA

Zephyr HxM Smart HR Monitor

COOSPO H6 Heart Rate Monitor

Wahoo TICKR X

Topeak DB-HRM

Whoop

Take away

Our heart is a fragile and essential part of our organ system. If we don't see what's coming, we can't prevent any catastrophic events from happening. Ensuring you get quality sleep, managing stress, eating good foods, and tracking your heart are the keys to longevity.