HRV Measurement: What Your Heartbeat Says About You

How regular is your heartbeat? Or to be more precise, how irregular? A high variability between heartbeats is essential for a healthy organism and enables conclusions about the body’s ability to recover. Read on to find out how you can improve your heart rate variability and how an HRV measurement works from Dr Georg Stossier at VIVAMAYR Maria Worth.

“If our heart is beating, we are alive – and stress, as incredible it might initially sound – is the engine of life,” says Dr. Georg Stossier, holistic medicine practitioner at VIVAMAYR, making us sit up and take notice. He then explains how recovery is important, specifically in relation to prior strain, so that we stay healthy and in balance in the long term. “If you are under a massive amount of pressure for an entire week due to a deadline, you should consciously take time to recover the following weekend. If the period of increased pressure lasts longer, sometimes months or even years, then a longer period of regeneration is necessary to appropriately recover and rediscover your equilibrium. Acute stress only has a negative effect when it becomes chronic,” he explains.

Heart rate variability: the body’s answer to stress

If something triggers “stress” in our body – a call from the boss, deadline pressure, arguments, too many people in one place, etc. – then the sympathetic nerve in our body is activated, which influences our heartbeat, increases heart rate, slows down digestion and expands our pupils, among other things. It prepares us internally for “fight” or “flight”. However, nowadays we generally tend not to respond to a challenging situation with either of these reactions. We make a great effort to maintain our composure externally, teetering from one stress-inducing situation to the next in our jam-packed day-to-day lives. This doesn’t leave much time for adequate recovery. Yet a couple of useful tips can help you recognise stress early on and reduce it effectively.

Ultimately, our heart rate variability is crucial for determining how well our body can adjust to changing circumstances – both positive and negative. Heart rate variability describes the duration of the intervals between heartbeats. These vary in length in healthy people. This is so that the heartbeat can adapt immediately to pressure and its alleviation. The success of this gives us an insight into our overall state of health and physical fitness. Although this heartbeat adjustment, which takes place in a matter of milliseconds, is unconsciously, it can be influenced and improved through certain activities. These include, for example, all methods of relaxation such as massage treatments, breathing exercises, yoga and moderate exercise, as well as Kneipp therapy, saunas, active breaks, laughing and sports. Simulated altitude training, known as intermittent hypoxic-hyperoxic training in technical jargon, also promotes heart rate variability by improving the energy production in the mitochondria. These are the parts of the cell in which the body produces energy. The IHH method is also used as a form of therapy at VIVAMAYR.

“While the heart rate increases and the sympathetic nervous system is activated with each inhalation, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated as we exhale, lowering our heart rate. This is also referred to as respiratory sinus arrhythmia. A certain level of arrhythmia is essential for our organism to remain healthy,” Dr. Georg Stossier explains. He goes into more detail, “Especially among athletes, this respiratory sinus arrhythmia can be very easily detected using an ECG. The higher it is, the better somebody is able to physically adapt to changing circumstances. However, the exact opposite occurs in the event of a burnout. The heartbeats become more regular and the adaptive capacity is lost, because the entire system is overloaded.”

How HRV measurement works

HRV measurement: understanding heart rate variability in the ECG

Healthy heart rate variability thanks to balanced stress levels

Stress is always expressed in the body as an activation of the sympathetic nerve of the vegetative nervous system and is intrinsically neutral. How this stress ultimately effects our organism and our well-being – positively or negatively – depends on our individual tolerance and assessment of stress. While a challenge may quickly become overwhelming to some people, others may be able to handle more before reaching their limit. To become aware of this decisive point and be able to react accordingly, slow exercises performed consciously (breathing exercises, physical exercises) are helpful, on one hand, while it is also important to develop a healthy amount of self-esteem so as to be able to know and protect your own limits, on the other hand. What is more, methods that train your own ability to relax can provide relief in the event of too much stress and – by having a positive effect on the heart rate variability – can increase our tolerance for stress.