July 31, 2024- Wearables measure several aspects of health, and heart rate variability might be one of those. It may be surprising when your device informs you that your heart rate variability is high or low, and Elijah Behr, M.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London, explains heart rate variability and how it factors into health. According to Dr. Behr of Mayo Clinic, heart rate variability measures the balance of nerve activity in the body and the way it relates to your heart rate and blood pressure.
The nerve system that heart rate variability relates to is called the autonomic nervous system. It can be thought of as the balance between the effects of adrenaline in the body and the other part of the nervous system, the vagus nerve, according to Mayo Clinic and Dr. Behr.
From beat to beat, or over periods of time, heart rate variability can be measured in different ways to try to assess this balance within the autonomic nervous system In general people who have higher heart rate variability are more likely to have better cardiovascular fitness. Athletes tend to have a very high heart rate variability, for instance according to Dr. Behr. People with lower heart rate variability may be likelier to lack cardiovascular fitness or to have underlying heart disease.
For people who haven’t been diagnosed with a heart condition and are otherwise healthy, heart rate variability alone isn’t information that a doctor can act upon, Dr. Behr says. Ignore heart rate variability as a stand-alone measure. Do use it as a way of pushing you toward being a bit healthier by watching blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, exercise.