What’s Your Heart-Rate Variability? It May Be Time to Find Out(wsj.com)
wsj.com
What’s Your Heart-Rate Variability? It May Be Time to Find Out
https://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-your-heart-rate-variability-it-may-be-time-to-find-out-1498442460
39 comments
It looks like there isn't a good fitness tracker to measure HRV. They aren't precise enough. It would be necessary to use a chest strap. I don't believe I'll be able to do it with my cheap Mi Band 2.
Does anybody here know about a good fitness tracker to measure HRV?
Does anybody here know about a good fitness tracker to measure HRV?
Do you recommend any Android app to measure HRV? I have an ANT+ band that I connect to my phone.
Here’s a non—paywall story that discusses HRV:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/heart-rate-varia...
“heart rate variability is essentially the gap between heartbeats when you are resting. A longer gap between heartbeats indicates you are well rested, whereas a shorter gap could mean you are stressed out and running the risk of overtraining”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/heart-rate-varia...
“heart rate variability is essentially the gap between heartbeats when you are resting. A longer gap between heartbeats indicates you are well rested, whereas a shorter gap could mean you are stressed out and running the risk of overtraining”
Seems like that quote misses the 'variability' bit. Gaps might be longer or shorter, but it's how variable in length the gaps are that indicates HRV.
It seems like a huge jump is being made from a hypothesis to interpretation of data. Has the connection between HRV and the body's preparedness for exercise been tested in repeated experiments?
There's been many studies done on the topic, yeah.
https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/heart-rate-variability-th... has a bunch at the bottom. It's fairly easy to find tens of them with the right search terms.
https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/heart-rate-variability-th... has a bunch at the bottom. It's fairly easy to find tens of them with the right search terms.
See here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-seal-team-six-by-don-man...
> Dr. Morgan also found that the metronomic [non variable] effect is often associated with early heart disease and even sudden death. Apparently, the body chemistry that allows young people to survive under high stress does not translate into optimal heart health past the age of fifty.
> Dr. Morgan also found that the metronomic [non variable] effect is often associated with early heart disease and even sudden death. Apparently, the body chemistry that allows young people to survive under high stress does not translate into optimal heart health past the age of fifty.
This article does not explain HRV very well. Would I be correct in thinking of it as the volatility between beats? Or the erraticness between beats?
Let's say I have a heart rate of 60 bpm. And my beats are
Let's say I have a heart rate of 60 bpm. And my beats are
1 second -> .9 seconds -> 1.1 seconds
2 seconds -> .5 seconds -> 1.5 seconds
Here's the thing: the way HRV is measured reliably when used as a metric is with 'paced breathing'. You synchronize your inhalations and exhalations to a displayed pace (in for X seconds, out for X seconds, or whatever).
The primary source of variability under those conditions seems to be that HR increases when inhaling and decreases when exhaling. Seen in that light, it makes more sense.
Essentially, what HRV may measure is ability to actively and acutely lower HR (which is most naturally performed during exhalation). This is not so unlike how some exercise equipment will provide a fitness measure based on heart-rate recovery: how long does it take you to return to some percentage of your resting heart rate after having exercised?
At this point, I'll make an analogy, which is meant only to be that. If you have a high income, you can afford to spend a lot of money on a day-to-day-basis. Depending on how you set things up, you might see a wild flux in bank balance, and that's just fine -- because you can afford it.
Likewise, performance athletes experience highly-elevated heart rates regularly. Indeed, it's that stress which leads to fitness adaptations. Just as you need to spend money to make money, you need to stimulate the heart in order to strengthen it. High HRV (as far as I can tell), may largely correspond with the naturally-adapted ability to rapidly return to the calm, low-HR state characteristic of the well-trained athlete.
When you live check-to-check, you have to budget very carefully and avoid variability in spending. You can't afford to venture, and you don't gain. When you know huge cash infusions are around every corner, you don't worry about spending.
Likewise, the fit heart doesn't need to damp and suppress stimulus. Elevated heart rate is good (think about the positive moments in life which can cause this), as long as it doesn't lead to chronic stress but instead evaporates in the space of a breath or two.
The primary source of variability under those conditions seems to be that HR increases when inhaling and decreases when exhaling. Seen in that light, it makes more sense.
Essentially, what HRV may measure is ability to actively and acutely lower HR (which is most naturally performed during exhalation). This is not so unlike how some exercise equipment will provide a fitness measure based on heart-rate recovery: how long does it take you to return to some percentage of your resting heart rate after having exercised?
At this point, I'll make an analogy, which is meant only to be that. If you have a high income, you can afford to spend a lot of money on a day-to-day-basis. Depending on how you set things up, you might see a wild flux in bank balance, and that's just fine -- because you can afford it.
Likewise, performance athletes experience highly-elevated heart rates regularly. Indeed, it's that stress which leads to fitness adaptations. Just as you need to spend money to make money, you need to stimulate the heart in order to strengthen it. High HRV (as far as I can tell), may largely correspond with the naturally-adapted ability to rapidly return to the calm, low-HR state characteristic of the well-trained athlete.
When you live check-to-check, you have to budget very carefully and avoid variability in spending. You can't afford to venture, and you don't gain. When you know huge cash infusions are around every corner, you don't worry about spending.
Likewise, the fit heart doesn't need to damp and suppress stimulus. Elevated heart rate is good (think about the positive moments in life which can cause this), as long as it doesn't lead to chronic stress but instead evaporates in the space of a breath or two.
btw, I'm looking for ideas about breathing patterns. I've noticed blood flowing differently[1] if I pause with fresh air in my lungs before releasing it.
Some docs says that breathing influences arteries constriction (or the opposite).
I wonder if it helps increasing oxygenation ..
[1] palms and feets get a tiny heat wave, also a sensation of relaxation in my veins
Some docs says that breathing influences arteries constriction (or the opposite).
I wonder if it helps increasing oxygenation ..
[1] palms and feets get a tiny heat wave, also a sensation of relaxation in my veins
Yes, you're right. It's usually the standard deviation, but there are dozens of competing, correlated ways to calculate it (rmsd etc). But the underlying data is the volatility of beat-to-beat intervals.
About half of my class at university (me included) actually took a deep breath when they learned about HRV because we had all at some point worried about our heart rate seeming to erratically change from second to second. We all just never worried enough to ask anybody.
About half of my class at university (me included) actually took a deep breath when they learned about HRV because we had all at some point worried about our heart rate seeming to erratically change from second to second. We all just never worried enough to ask anybody.
Think of it how the heart adapts to effort. A person who is well rested can have his heart change quickly to the environment or effort. The person is more alert, can pump blood to any desired organ etc
Meanwhile a person who is tired or sick or under stress will have more trouble adapting to the environment. Whatever happens, the heart beats at the same exact rhythm - but it shouldn't. It should go fast when required and go slow otherwise
Meanwhile a person who is tired or sick or under stress will have more trouble adapting to the environment. Whatever happens, the heart beats at the same exact rhythm - but it shouldn't. It should go fast when required and go slow otherwise
Yeah, a very steady heart rate tends to be associated with higher mortality for badly injured people: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1356445/
It's odd, a shallow thinking would make me believe high HRV means potential heart failure. :)
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Is there an app for this yet? I wear an Apple Watch all day -- it'd be great if something were available. Poll every 10 minutes for 30s or something to conserve battery maybe.
I don't believe the Apple Watch is good enough to do this "properly" because the optical sensors don't have the basic resolution or access to the R-R interval (the pertinent bit of information) which things like Garmin HRM straps do (because they're basically mini-EEG machines.)
The Stress applet on Samsung Health on their phones apparently measures heart rate variability by taking your heart rate over a period of about a minute
Yes, there is an app, according to the article: "Every morning, as soon as he wakes up, Iñaki de la Parra, an endurance athlete from Mexico, uses a heart-rate monitor he straps to his chest and an app on his smartphone to measure the tiny variations in the intervals between his heartbeats."
I wouldn't know what the app is, whether anything that works with the Apple Watch exists, or even whether the Apple Watch has an API that would allow an app to measure it.
I wouldn't know what the app is, whether anything that works with the Apple Watch exists, or even whether the Apple Watch has an API that would allow an app to measure it.
At least on iOS, there's a whole range of HRV apps that can read from an ANT+ (with dongle) or Bluetooth HRM strap. I used to use Sweetbeat (not iOS 11 compatible) before the various Garmin watches got apps that could do it (which is a lot easier.)
At least my high end Garmin watch with built-in optical HRM doesn't consider the OHRM accurate enough for HRV measurement purposes. Instead I have to pair a heart rate strap and use that for an HRV measurement. This seems typical:
https://elitehrv.com/compatible-devices
https://elitehrv.com/compatible-devices
ithlete is an app I used for measuring HRV
Look in your health data on your iPhone under heart rate and show all data... the Apple Watch already collects heart rate samples all day long. All that's needed is something to make a nice display for the collected data points.
Apple Watch already polls you every 5mins or so throughout the day. You can use an app like Cardiogram to hook into the Apple Watch data to visualize nice graphs and correlations.
HRV is defined as variability in the interval between individual heartbeats. Pulse data with a 5min-granularity won't help.
As far as I know, the best apps for HRV are Marco Altini's: http://www.marcoaltini.com/apps.html
I wear a heart rate monitor when I stream videogames, and wrote a simple visualization sparkline/beating heart I could throw in as an overlay. I was surprised at the variability of my HR in various situations, from lows of around 60 to highs in the 140s.
Even in 'normal' parts of the gameplay when I wasn't under stress I'd see my heart rate shifting all over the place. One moment of calm I'd be at 65, then 80, then 70. I started playing with it, to see if I could swing the needle with breathing, and quickly found that gamifying it led to my heart rate increasing when I was successful at decreasing it. (I'd get excited that I had lowered the rate, which increased the rate.)
I was also surprised to learn that my heart rate spiked significantly after tense moments in the game. In game combat usually didn't cause the rate to rise until 30 seconds or so after the combat started. I felt the intensity and the rush immediately, but the HR increased later.
I also found that games slowly lose their HR impact over time. A game like Player Unknown's Battlegrounds could get my HR into the 120s pretty easily, and now it only raises my HR into the 90s when it's tense.
It's fun to have access to all this data about ourselves, and I'm glad to see so many different ways of using it -- from dialing in a few extra % on your athletic goals to showing goofy SVGs over a videogame.
Even in 'normal' parts of the gameplay when I wasn't under stress I'd see my heart rate shifting all over the place. One moment of calm I'd be at 65, then 80, then 70. I started playing with it, to see if I could swing the needle with breathing, and quickly found that gamifying it led to my heart rate increasing when I was successful at decreasing it. (I'd get excited that I had lowered the rate, which increased the rate.)
I was also surprised to learn that my heart rate spiked significantly after tense moments in the game. In game combat usually didn't cause the rate to rise until 30 seconds or so after the combat started. I felt the intensity and the rush immediately, but the HR increased later.
I also found that games slowly lose their HR impact over time. A game like Player Unknown's Battlegrounds could get my HR into the 120s pretty easily, and now it only raises my HR into the 90s when it's tense.
It's fun to have access to all this data about ourselves, and I'm glad to see so many different ways of using it -- from dialing in a few extra % on your athletic goals to showing goofy SVGs over a videogame.
> I was also surprised to learn that my heart rate spiked significantly after tense moments in the game.
This is something called cardiac lag. Your heart rate takes time to climb to the rate it needs to match the effort your body experiences. Also, some optical heart rate monitors are poor at dealing with sudden spikes in heart rate so that might impact readings.
This is something called cardiac lag. Your heart rate takes time to climb to the rate it needs to match the effort your body experiences. Also, some optical heart rate monitors are poor at dealing with sudden spikes in heart rate so that might impact readings.
That's not the variability the article is talking about.
Yep, I guess I found the meta point interesting. Not only is the data available today, but it's available to random consumers very inexpensively to use however they'd like.
Care to share the strap you used?
I've been looking for a while and it seems straps are all over the place in terms of being easily accessed without proprietary adapters
I've been looking for a while and it seems straps are all over the place in terms of being easily accessed without proprietary adapters
Polar uses R-R intervals to adjust heart rate high and low limits for for exercise period (unless you set them manually). I think they are called ownindex and ownzone.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4751190/
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100...