3 Things You Should Look at When Considering Heart Rate Variability as a Health Tool
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Heart rate variability (HRV) is a valuable health indicator related to stress recovery, sleep, and performance, with effectiveness dependent on the data capture method, accuracy, and technology used. The location of the wearable device significantly affects data quality, with finger and chest placements preferred over wrist and leg locations. Advanced wearables that utilize red photoplethysmography provide deeper penetration and more accurate data, making them a better choice for monitoring health effectively.
3 Things You Should Look at When Considering Heart Rate Variability as a Health Tool
- 1. 3 Things You Should Look at When Considering Heart Rate Variability as a Health Tool Do you wonder what all the fuss is about when it comes to Heart Rate Variability (HRV)? Well, Heart Rate Variability is a simple relatively inexpensive tool with a lot of value as a health key performance indicator in the area of stress recovery sleep, and performance. If you want to be knowledgeable about HRV as a useful tool you want to focus on where the data is captured, the accuracy of the data captured, and the technology used to capture it. Where It’s Captured Heart rate variability measures the dynamic balance of your nervous system. To capture these details, where the device is worn matters, furthermore not all tools are created equal. We are comparing non-medical commercially available devices which are usually worn on the wrists legs, fingers or chest.
- 2. Accuracy It’s all about the data. Where the device is worn dictates the quality of data the device can harvest. Chest, arm, and leg were where the first crop of wearable devices were worn. It has since come to light that arms and legs aren’t the best places. The wrist and ankle have bones which doesn’t make for good data collection points. On the other hand (pun intended) late-to-the party finger worn devices use the fleshy base at the finger palm juncture which is a richer source of data without any obstruction. The chest is a good capture site however the original chest straps suffered because of the technology they used. Now sports-oriented straps can be paired with an app but leave the interpretation up to you. Wellness oriented straps come with a service provider to help you utilise all the data harvested. Technology The first crop of heart rate variability wearables used green far-infrared light, green photoplethysmography (PPG). The better tools use red far-infrared light, red photoplethysmography (PPG). Red is better because green light is dispersed in the body better than red. Therefore red penetrates deeper, gets more accurate data, and does a better job. Medical grade devices use red PPG. The amount and quality of data you might want is determined by your goals. Some data is better than none as a baseline to work from. To make good progress health-wise, accuracy is better to help build patterns and consistency you can manipulate and optimise around. At a time where health is a premium this is one tool you can use to help move your health forward and there are tools devices and services for every pocket. Copyright Nucentricals Ltd 2021. All rights reserved.