The heart has been in the news a lot since the Covid vaccines were launched. Much of the discussion stems around myocarditis and pericarditis which have been adverse events resulting from the Covid jabs. Prior to Covid we would think of the heart in terms of coronary artery disease, sometimes necessitating stents or bypass surgery. We’ve known for some time that if the coronary arteries get constricted, they can starve the heart muscle of blood flow which can result in heart attacks and permanent damage.
There is something inherrant in the heart’s function that gives clues to what is going on in the rest of the body, and specifically the nervous system. That something is Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Heart rate variability is a measure of the time between the beats of your heart. To understand why this is important, we need to look at health. The traditional WHO definition is, “A state of optimal, physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease and infirmity”. Now that is a good definition, but it does leave something out about what is vital to health. Adaptability is vital to sustain a healthy body on every level.
The body adapts to many things going on in its internal and external environment. If your body gets hot, it will cause you to perspire on a hot day. It does so by dilating blood vessels in your skin to expel heat from the body. The opposite occurs when you’re in the cold, the surface vessels constrict to retain heat. The sweat glands also release moisture which evaporates off the surface of the skin and cools the body.
When you go outside into the bright sunshine, your eye’s pupil automatically constricts to reduce the amount of light striking the retina. The opposite happens when you go into a darkened room. The pupil dilates to let in more lights.
A million and one changes are constantly happening in your body to allow it to adapt to life’s stresses and changes. So our ability to adapt and how we adapt, is a critical factor in sustaining life and health. Science has discovered that the HRV is a reflection of the body’s adaptability.
The diagram above is a measure of HRV––the timing between the peaks of each successive beat. So why is this important?
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