Heart rate variability (o HRV) it is the latest hot health measurement. It is being used by athletes to optimize their trainingand as a predictor of health, even in a number from studies on COVID-19. Your Apple Watch tracks it automatically. Here's what you need to know about it and why it's essential.
Note: The author of this post is not a doctor. This is a post about technology that explains a function of the Apple Watch. If you have any concerns about your health, contact your doctor.
What is HRV?
Heart rate variability is a measure of how much the time between two heartbeats varies from beat to beat. It is controlled by your autonomic nervous system (SN), what is responsible for respiration, digestion and other unconscious bodily functions.
The SNA has two large subcomponents: the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (SNP). The NHS reacts to stress and controls the responses of “fight or flight” of your body. The PNS, on the other hand, controls your body's responses to “feeding and reproducing” Y “rest and digest”. It's what happens when everything is normal.
HRV is a way to measure ANS activity. When the SNS is active, In other words, when you haven't slept too well, is fighting with your partner or is a little stressed, the variation between heartbeats is less than when the PNS is active. If you are laid back and relaxed, your heart rate just bounces a little more.
Decidedly, stress isn't the only thing that affects HRV. Age, the gender, the genetic, hydration, the exercise, disease and many other things influence it.. Stress is just one of the big factors that can do it.
What is a good HRV measurement?
There are no absolutes when it comes to HRV, only individual trends.
In general, a higher HRV indicates that you are more relaxed and less stressed than a lower HRV. Despite this, what is abnormally low HRV for one person may be high for another. Whoop, a manufacturer of heart rate tracker, he has a useful graphic on your site showing the 50% mean of the values for people of different ages: it's a pretty wide range.
Instead, what you are looking for are changes in HRV. If your HRV drops to a lower level for a few days, you may be more stressed than usual, don't sleep well or even getting sick. Or you could be exercising a little too much and needing to take a day or two off..
How accurate is the HRV measurement of the Apple Watch?
According to a study comparing the Apple Watch to a dedicated heart rate tracker, it is quite exact. An ECG from your doctor will always be the gold standard, but you can probably assume that your Apple Watch is not totally out of place, at least as far as general trends are concerned.
How to check your HRV with your Apple Watch
Your Apple Watch automatically tracks your HRV while tracking your heart rate throughout the day. There are some different ways to measure the variation between beats, but the Apple Watch uses SDNN, which gives a value in milliseconds.
To view the data, open the app “Health” en su iPhone y vaya a Explorar> Corazón> Variabilidad de la frecuencia cardíaca.
Here you will see a graph of your HRV. Touch “D” to view daily measurements, “W” to see week's averages, “M” to see them over the last month and “AND” to see the trends of the last year.
There are also third-party applications, What Welltory, that can help you drill down into the data.
Contact your doctor if you are concerned
HRV is an increasingly popular health measure, but it is still quite esoteric and there is still a lot of research to be done on it. We have been very cautious in linking to any source that makes bold claims about the benefits of religiously monitoring it..
For now, your Apple Watch tracks you, but he does little more with him. That may change in the future. Even so, you can monitor your HRV and see how it varies over time with different levels of activity and sleep as you go about your daily life.
Decidedly, if you are concerned about what you are seeing, contact your doctor immediately.
