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Heart Rate Variability – Does it matter?

Heart Rate

In simple words, Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a measure of the variation which happens between each heartbeat. The heart is not a metronome that there would be regular intervals between each heartbeat. The HRV is controlled by your autonomous nervous system (ANS). Besides regulating heart rate, the ANS also controls other involuntary body functions like blood pressure, temperature, respiration rate etc. Basically, the ANS is your body’s fight-or-flight system which tells the heart when to speed up or when to slow down during our day-to-day activities.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

At Tres Care we calculate HRV using RMSSD, the root mean square of successive difference between each heartbeat. To see your HRV click on the vitals button in the health band menu, stay still till the band captures your vitals. The screen shows your HR as the first vital you can scroll up to see all the vitals captured on different screens.

Tres Care Health Band

Heart Rate Variability Range

“Is my HRV good? “This question always comes to your mind when you see the HRV score in the band. Here we should understand that HRV is different for each individual and it is dependent on lots of factors like Age, Sleep Patterns, Lifestyle etc. But for general purposes the chart below can be used to see where you stand.

PoorHealthyAthletic
0-5050-100100 +

A better HRV value means better stamina, vitality, and health. A low HRV reading does not always indicate a bad health. As some factors like over exertion, stress, anxiety, and lack of sleep can also cause a low score. One should watch this score regularly and for all healthy individuals it would come back into normal range within few hours or days. Regularly monitoring your HRV pattern can give you a complete picture of how healthy your heart is.

Improving HRV Score

For healthy individuals HRV score can be improved by correcting your lifestyle which includes proper sleep, regular exercise, proper nutrition and not taking too much stress.

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