Author Archives: sweetwaterhrv

It’s That Time of the Year Again: Apple Releases iOS9!


It’s That Time of the Year, Again!

As we know, Apple rules the world. Every year, they update their operating system and devices. Apple has scheduled the release of iOS 9 for this month. As they update their systems we must update our applications to be compatible. 

While we work on making our code compatible with the new technology, we ask you to remember that you must update your applications as the updates become available.


When you update your device to iOS 9, you must update your HRV application!


  • NOTE: The following applications must be updated: SweetBeatLife, NatureBeat, Stress Detective, Food Detective, PrimalBeat, Wholeistic Coaching & ResilienceZone.
  • If you have one of the following applications you do not need to purchase anything, you just need to update.
  • The updates are available for SweetBeatHRV (previously SweetBeatLife), Naturebeat & PrimalBeat.
  • If you do not update, you will most likely not be able to connect your Bluetooth Low-Energy (BTLE) heart rate monitors. 

In other news, SweetBeatLife will now be called SweetBeatHRV!


How Else Am I Affected?

Apple makes certain things obsolete after updates are released. Due to this, we are not able to update SweetBeat or HRV Sense any longer. These two applications will be removed from the iTunes app store. It is unfortunately, out of our control.


SweetBeat & HRV Sense can no longer be updated and will be removed from the iTunes app store.


We are here to support you through this difficult but necessary change. If you are using SweetBeat or HRV Sense, we have several solutions for you:

  • Update to SweetBeatHRV. The new application has many more features and interactive graphs.
  • If you purchased one of these applications within the last three months, please email us at support@sweetwaterhrv.com and we will take care of you.
  • This will affect those of you using ANT+, as it is not included in SweetBeatHRV. If you are a long time user of ANT+, please let us know. We’d love to hear from you!
  • You can choose not to update your device to iOS9. As a warning, we have noticed that older operating systems do not work as well when a new one is released.
New features coming soon!
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Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns: Support@sweetwaterhrv.com

Coaching and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) for Improved Sports Performance – Webinar

We are very happy to announce our “Coaching and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) for Improved Sports Performance” Webinar. Most athletes know that getting enough rest after exercise is essential to high-level performance, but many still over train and feel guilty when they take a day off. In competitive sports, improved performance is achieved by alternating periods of intensive training with periods of relative rest. While standardized training programs produce well documented results, they do not take individual responses into account. In the past decade, college sports teams and world-class athletes have been increasingly using HRV to monitor fatigue and recovery from workouts. In this webinar you will be able to understand:

  • The Science and Physiology of HRV
  • In depth explanation of HRV metrics rMSSD, LF and HF
  • How to interpret the HRV metrics
  • Using HRV for Individualized Endurance Training
  • The Relationship Between Stress, Food, HRV and Peak Performance
  • The basics of the Kubios HRV analysis software

REQUIREMENTS:

  • Download the freeware, Kubios! When you are asked to enter an email to download the software, use beathealthy@sweetwaterhrv.com.
  • In addition, email yourself one of your sessions from within SweetBeatLife. To do this select History > Choose a Session > Share > Email. This way you can plug it into Kubios with Ronda and see your results.

The cost of the webinar is $49.99 and includes access to a recording of the webinar.

Below is a little background on your presenter:

Ronda Collier, B.S.E.E., M.A. Psychology

Ronda has more than 25 years of experience in high technology product development with a proven track record of delivering leading edge consumer electronic products within both privately held startups and Fortune 500 corporations. She spent 3 years as an independent scholar researching non-invasive health monitoring techniques to improve overall personal wellbeing. This research led to the founding of SweetWater Health, L.L.C. in 2011 and the release of SweetBeat, the HRV measurement app in 2012.

Ronda has presented HRV basics and applications at the 2012 and 2013 Quantified Self conference and SweetBeat was featured at the 2012 Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco. In addition, she has been interviewed by several popular podcast hosts, including sports physiologist and author Ben Greenfield, and The Bulletproof Executive’s Dave Asprey. She is known for presenting HRV in a simple and understandable fashion.

In other news:

Happy Quantifying!

The SweetWater Health Team

New Graphs: SweetBeatLife Update!

Yes, you read it right! There is a SweetBeatLife update available, which includes brand new enhanced graphs. The graphs are completely interactive and allow for a better view of your SweetBeatLife metrics.

Key features of the new graphs:

  • Zoom in by putting your pointer finger and thumb on the graph and moving your fingers away from each other. Double tapping the graph can also be used to zoom in.
  • Zoom out by using the same two fingers and making a pinching motion.
  • By holding your finger down on the graph, you will create cross hairs to pinpoint.
  • There is a yellow circle with an “I” in the middle of it in the top right corner which opens up the graph’s key.
  • Turning your phone to the left will give you a landscape view.

Note: If you do not see these graphs when you open SweetBeatLife, this means you have to manually install the update. You can do this by going to your App store, click on the bottom right tab labeled Updates, and install the SweetBeatLife update.

See below for examples of the new graphs:

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We have been constantly working on SweetBeatLife to make it the most full functioning heart rate variability (HRV) application you’ve ever used. We hope you enjoy these new graphs as much as we do!

Happy Quantifying!

Increase Your HRV, Lower Your Stress

You’ve just found the most powerful nervous system enhancement & stress relief tools in the world

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holosync

 

 

 

 

Every person experiences stress from time to time.  Just the word may be enough to set your nerves on edge. Some, though, cope with stress more effectively, or recover from stressful events more quickly, than others. Some are chronically stressed and easily fall into coping strategies such as anxiety, anger, depression, overwhelm, sadness, overeating, and many others.

Effec­tive stress management and emo­tional reg­u­la­tion depends on your ability to flexibly adjust your phys­i­o­log­i­cal response to a chang­ing environment. This flexibility is also referred to as resilience and can be measured via Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

What does flexibility look like?

A flexible nervous system has a few components:

  • Balance between Sympathetic and Parasympathetic branches of the Autonomic Nervous System
  • The ability to carry a variety of electrical impulses throughout the body
    • Called power levels of the nervous system

SweetBeatLife measures these 2 branches of the Autonomic Nervous System via LF (Sympathetic/fight or flight) and HF (Parasympathetic/rest and digest). While a healthy balance of LF and HF power is a ratio of 1:1 to 2:1 respectively, many customers find that their LF response is consistently 5x, 10x, and even 20x greater than their HF response!

In addition, many people show LF power levels in the thousands while their HF power numbers are in the low hundreds. We even see LF readings in the hundreds and HF of less than 100. These low readings are indicative of chronic stress.

The Good News Is….

…you can re-wire your nervous system, increase your power numbers (and your resiliency) and measure your progress via HRV. How? By using Centerpointe Research Institute’s Holosync® audio technology in combination with the SweetWater Health iPhone app called SweetBeatLife.

Holosync® audio technology provides a super-enriched environment for your nervous system, causing enormous, beneficial changes in the brain. SweetBeatLife is the easiest and most accurate way to measure your HRV and track the changes in your nervous system as you progress through the Holosync® program.

By creating resilience via Holosync® meditation, people and situations that used to stress you no longer affect you the same way. Your nervous system becomes more balanced and resilient.

What is Holosync®?

Holosync® is an audio technology you listen to using stereo headphones, which enables the left and right brain hemispheres to be targeted separately. By gently altering the electrical patterns in your brain, Holosync® creates states pf profoundly deep meditation usually only experienced by advanced meditators meditating for several decades (e.g. Zen Buddhist Monks). Holosync® is based on research by Dr. Gerald Oster of Mt. Sinai Medical Center, a pioneer of the effects of binaural beats on the brain, and the world-famous Menninger Clinic.

Holosync® has been around for twenty-five years, and has been used by over two million people in 193 countries.

Most people know that an EEG measures the different frequencies of electrical brain activity. Alpha brain frequencies are associated with relaxation, focus and concentration and enhanced learning ability; theta frequencies with dreamless sleep, creativity, and visionary meditation experiences; and delta frequencies with deep sleep, access to the unconscious mind, and charisma and persuasiveness. It is believed that in these brain wave patterns, usually experienced during sleep, the nervous system and body repair and recover from the previous day’s stressors.

Research has shown that meditation alters the alpha, delta and theta EEG patterns significantly, thus aiding nervous system repair and recovery. Holosync®, by directing specific sound frequencies to each brain hemisphere, gently creates alpha, then theta, and delta brain patterns.

Your brain responds by creating new neural pathways linking the left and right hemispheres and similar links between the amygdala (the brain’s more primitive emotional center) and the pre-frontal cortex (the source of executive control). This enables the Holosync® user to mitigate emotional reactivity and self-sabotaging behaviors as well as experiencing the other benefits of deep meditation, but without the long learning curve.

HRV during Holosync Meditation

Below are some examples of HRV measurements during meditation using SweetBeatLife. While HRV is dynamic and not the same for everyone, there are average ranges for the general population. Image 1 (below) is from an individual meditating without Holosync®, and who has never used Holosync®. Notice the HRV maxed out at around 695. Image 2 is from an intermediate Holosync® user during Holosync® meditation. During this session the HRV was more than 5400 (higher HRV is a sign of higher nervous system flexibility). The advanced Holosync® user shown in Image 3 maxed out at 12,430 during a Holosync® meditation, clearly signifying a very high and healthy nervous system.

As you can see, the Holosync® users show a significant difference in HRV, a difference enabling them to navigate life’s challenges with more flow and happiness.

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Special opportunity for a limited number of current SweetBeat and SweetBeatLife users:

SweetWater Health and Centerpointe Research are partnering to study the effects of Holosync® on HRV. We’re looking for a limited number of SweetBeatLife app users to participate! Each participant will receive a free personalized HRV assessment valued at $100.00 consisting of a brief assessment at the beginning of the study and a comprehensive report when the study concludes.

If you’re accepted to participate, you’ll not only get the above assessment, you’ll also contribute to scientific understanding of HRV, its relationship to stress and resiliency, and the effectiveness of Holosync® meditation in improving both.

To participate, you must have the SweetBeat or SweetBeatLife app and a supported heart rate monitor, and you must purchase Awakening Prologue, the initial level of the Holosync® program ($179 for CDs or $159 for downloadable MP3s). Centerpointe Research even offers an unheard of one-year money back guarantee on Awakening Prologue. They have millions of satisfied customers around the world (including me—I’ve been using Holosync® for 6 years).

To apply for participation, click here.

Even if you aren’t interested in participating in this study, we strongly suggest that you try Centerpointe’s Holosync® program. It will improve your overall HRV—and give you many other mental, emotional, and even spiritual benefits associated with meditation. Please check out their website.

In a Nutshell

  • Every person has stress
  • Chronic stress may lead to serious health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and other illnesses
  • HRV is associated with nervous system flexibility
  • A high HRV is indicative of a healthy resilient nervous system that can cope with a wide variety of situations
  • Meditation has been scientifically proven to reduce stress, anxiety and emotional well being
  • Holosync meditation dramatically accelerates the benefits of meditation
  • Holosync and SweetBeatLife provide the perfect toolset for you to achieve and track the benefits of deep meditation

Visualizing HR, HRV, and GSR While Watching ‘Interstellar’ by Bob Troia

This blog repost is from one of our more “connected” users, Bob Troia, also known as Quantified Bob.  Bob enjoys tracking and analyzing his metrics based on the effects of many factors such as, his Bulletproof Diet, his glucose reading, even his personality type. To see exactly what Bob is tracking and read into his prior experiments go to his blog.

Interstellar

In this case, Quantified Bob took something as simple as watching the movie, Interstellar, and turned it into a Quantified Self experiment. He used a Polar H7 to capture 3-hours of biometrics, specifically RR-Intervals. The SweetBeatLife app then uses clinical grade algorithms to analyze the data. Anyone with one of our applications and a heart rate monitor chest strap (BTLE) can do the same. Bob exported his heart rate and heart rate variability data from SweetBeatLife, and his Galvanic Skin Response from a Basis B1. Read below to see his heart rate and heart rate variability response.

Heart Rate

“Interestingly, my heart rate trend (on the left, below) looks very similar to the original Reddit user (on the right)! Both of us are using data from our wrist-worn Basis devices – in my case, the older B1 model, and for the Reddit user the newer Basis Peak. Although the Peak is capable of capturing more samples, the data returned from Basis is always an average value for each minute.

Interstellar HR comparison

However, SweetBeatLife is recording data at a resolution of 1 sample per second via the Polar H7. The per-second pulse data is a little bit jumpy and hard to follow (in gray), so I’ll also include a 60-second moving average as well (in blue):

Interstellar Heart Rate Polar H7

It looks very similar to the data recorded by my Basis. Good!

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Heart Rate Variability uses a technique in which the spaces between heart beats are measured, and is a good way to measure stress via an individual’s “flight or fight” response (the higher one’s HRV, the better). There are a number of ways HRV can be calculated, and in this case we are using what’s known as rMSSD (root mean square of successive differences). You can check out Wikipedia for a pretty good overview of HRV.

Interstellar Heart Rate Variability

Not only can Bob see when the movie had him in sympathetic versus parasympathetic but he can point out when he was having deep thoughts of gravity and space. Bob was also able to determine that there is, “an inverse relationship between heart rate and HRV, which makes sense – if your heart starts beating faster, you are most likely encountering more stress, which increases your sympathetic response and thus lowers HRV.”

Read more about his Galvanic Skin Response and how Bob interpreted this data, read the original article here. If you want to better understand HRV and the many benefits of tracking it, I recommend browsing around the SweetWater Health Library.

Interview with Ronda Collier: How Heart Rate Variability Can Help You Manage Stress by Primal Blueprint

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Description: Host Brad Kearns talks with Brock Armstrong (the voice of the MDA blog podcasts and a Sweetbeat ambassador/product tester) and Ronda Collier, CEO of Sweetwater Health, makers of the Sweetbeat Life iOS application. Sweetbeat Life allows for convenient Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measuring and information storage. This discussion will acquaint listeners with the basics of HRV, and proceed quickly to discuss some of the finer points of HRV’s effectiveness in monitoring stress and recovery. Heart Rate Variability is a measurement of the variation in intervals between heartbeats. More variation indicates better cardiovascular fitness and stress management, and is represented in a higher HRV number on a 1-100 scale.

Finer details of this show’s discussion include: how Low Frequency (LF) and High Frequency (HF) values correlate with sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity; techniques for how to moderate your stress response and improve your recovery through breathing exercises, yoga, meditation, and extra sleep; and a step-by-step process for how to get started in HRV monitoring (buying the proper equipment, operating the Sweetbeat Life app smoothly, and understanding how to best use the informational graphs generated by the app). This is a fantastic show to help you jump head first into the amazing health technology of Heart Rate Variability!

Topic timestamps:

  • What is HRV?: 01:19
  • Autonomic nervous system: 03:01
  • You want a high HRV: 08:32
  • Crossover point: 13:46
  • Look at other stressors: 21:31
  • The brain’s job: 23:37
  • Getting quality sleep: 30:31
  • Analyzing sleep cycle: 33:09
  • How to get started: 35:42
  • How did Ronda get into this?: 42:29
  • Stress measurement: 44:2

Listen to the full podcast here!