Heart Rate Variability
Here's an excellent newsletter from Dr John Day explaining Heart Rate Variability and susceptibility to arrhythmias.
Dean
[
drjohnday.com]
“Heart rate variability (HRV) is merely the beat to beat variation in timing. For example, even though your heart rate is 60 beats per minute, which works out to an average of one beat per second, in reality, the timing between your next five heartbeats could be 0.98 seconds, 1.03 seconds, 0.99 seconds, 1.02 seconds, and then 0.98 seconds.”
“The key takeaway is that
the sympathetic response makes the heart beat fast and the parasympathetic response slows it down. When the heart is beating fast there is little beat-to-beat variation and heart rate variability is low. In contrast, when the heart is beating slow there is a much wider beat-to-beat variability and heart rate variability is high.”
“The reason why most people are sympathetic dominant is really quite simple. We don’t get enough exercise, nutrition, and sleep but yet are under tremendous stress from sedentary jobs. If your autonomic nervous system is out of rhythm then your health will also be out of balance. The key is to have the right balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. And tracking your HRV is the best way to see if you are in balance.”
