Well, a lot of exciting developments have occurred since my last post on HRV about 3 weeks ago! During that time, I attended the first ever International HRV Conference, invested in my very own red light panel, purchased a new HRV monitor, and developed a theory over why my HRV had tanked the last few months in spite of all of the positive steps taken to improve it! Read on for more on each of these!
First, let me introduce a book I read recently:
In her book, Dr. Lagos describes a biofeedback program using resonance breathing geared towards improving one’s HRV. In a nutshell, resonance breathing uses a breathing protocol consisting of a 4 second inhale through the nose followed by a 6 second exhale through the mouth. She promotes using a breathing pacer (there are several available for free on the app store) to help do this practice twice per day for 20 minutes each time. She outlines a ten-week program to master this technique. I read the book. I downloaded a pacer app. I even tried to follow her instructions as to how to determine my own specific resonance frequency. What I didn’t do was commit to the daily schedule of practice… I just didn’t feel the buy-in to the program.
Well, all that changed when I went to the HRV conference…Several of the presentations referred to this technique. As it turns out, it is kind of a gold standard for clinical applications for improving HRV! One of the presenters (Dr. Brenton Laing of Ole Miss) shared a reference with me after the conference to one of the foundational research papers on the topic. You can download a pdf for free at this link:
It also turns out that Dr. Laing had done earlier research in how to improve HRV in shooters! He is working on an app now for training specific to this population. In subsequent communications, he has offered up a copy to me at the time of Beta testing. Stay tuned for that!
Back to resonance breathing… when I got home, I immediately placed an order for a real time heart rate / HRV monitor. The one I got can be found at this amazon link:
I also downloaded the “Elite HRV App” to my phone. It includes daily morning HR checks as well as biofeedback training (among other things) using the resonance technique. I am working with it daily now and enjoying it! My wife has also tried it out. It is very interesting to see how your breathing, HRV, and heart rare interact!
During the conference, I also had an opportunity to speak one-on-one with one of the keynote speakers Dr. Julian Thayer (he holds a PH.D from New York University in psychophysiology with a minor in quantitative methods). While at lunch, I explained my HRV journey. He was able to confirm that many of my findings were right on target. In fact, he has done research on red light therapy and commented that it was the real deal! Based on his comments, I also ordered my very own red-light panel for home use! This is the link to the one I purchased:
I continued to pepper him with questions while he ate his lunch (he sure was a good sport!). The issue as to why my HRV had plummeted recently even though I was doing all of the “right things” was top of mind! I had some theories and wanted to see what he thought. First, I wondered if it was possible that a supplement I had recently started could have impacted my HRV. After much research, I had decided in Oct. to begin supplementing with creatine. Creatine is probably one of the best know and widely used supplements. It is used to improve muscle mass and strength. It is generally considered very safe to use and effective. I had read how it was becoming more widely used by the aging population as a way to avoid sarcopenia (excessive loss of muscle mass). I can confirm that it is effective! I felt like a beast in the gym! I definitely was able to push more weight. Dr. Thayer told me that there was no research on use of creatine and HRV, but agreed it would be interesting to see what would happen if I stopped using it. When I got home, I charted my HRV from before starting to take creatine until 45 days after using it. The results are pretty dramatic. You can see it below. The vertical line shows when I started using creatine and the two horizontal lines are the average HRV values for the periods before and after.
I can’t say definitely that creatine created the decrease, but I have stopped taking it and I have already started to see what looks to be a recovery in my HRV. I will continue to monitor this to see what happens!
The other theory I will be testing out will be to see how thyroid function impacts HRV. I recently had blood work done in preparation for my annual physical and learned that I was once again hypothyroid (meaning my thyroid is underactive). I will be discussing this with my doctor the end of this week – but the expectation is that he will be supplementing my thyroid with oral thyroid hormone. Dr. Thayer also indicated there was no research on thyroid and HRV, so it will be interesting to see what comes from starting the oral hormones.
One of the big take aways from the conference is that HRV can be a very strong indicator of several illnesses as well as an indicator of how well the body can fight off disease (including cancer). I would not be surprised to see a linkage to thyroid function and HRV as well! Stay tuned!
So, as I said, it has been a busy few weeks for the HRV rabbit hole! I will take a break from writing about HRV now for a few posts and get back to other topics, but I hope you have enjoyed this series as much as I have enjoyed living it!
And for those interested in Dr. Lagos book, here is the amazon link: