The Nuance
What You Need to Know About Heart Rate Variability
HRV has emerged as a key indicator of stress — and maybe also impending illness
Chronic stress is a killer. It’s associated with dysfunctions of the heart, brain, and immune system, and it seems to cause or contribute to all manner of health problems — from heart disease and diabetes to depression and dementia.
While just about everyone recognizes the dangers of chronic stress, experts still haven’t figured out a great way to measure it. Typically, they rely on psychological assessments — basically, asking people about their life and state of mind — and biomarkers such as blood pressure.
Unfortunately, these diagnostic methods are imprecise and sometimes unreliable. They give doctors a good idea of whether a person has problem stress, but they leave a lot of wiggle room for subjective interpretation. Their shakiness also makes it tough for experts to determine the severity of a person’s stress and whether a particular treatment is effective.
The science of heart rate variability (HRV) may fill all these gaps.
“If you look at acute and chronic stress, aging, health problems — from the psychological and cognitive domains to cardiovascular and metabolic disease —…
