Patterns in Our Lives, Our Hearts

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The human brain is a pattern-recognition system. Like all animals, we need to be able to detect patterns in our environment. Back in the day, if we hadn’t figured out that when we saw a particular pattern of movement in the bushes, it was a tiger and not a deer, it might have been the end of the story! Our  brains are always collecting and comparing sensory inputs to see if we can detect patterns. If a possible pattern turns out to be false, we discard it, even as we add new, proven patterns to our mental libraries.

A healthy heart creates fractal patterns. (Scientists are now using fractal analysis to diagnose heart disease.) Animated fractals are absorbing and calming as we watch them change; a good way to soothe us when we feel stressed.

Change Your Brain, Change Yourself

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Sometimes we hear people say, “That’s just the way I am,” as though they had been fated to be a certain way, and there’s nothing to be done about it. Nothing could be further from the truth!

“Neuroplasticity” is a term that describes the brain’s ability to change structurally and functionally in response to the environment. Once scientists thought that after a critical growth period in youth, the brain became static. We now know that the brain is capable of change throughout life. We can change in response to injury, when the brain reroutes functions to work around physical damage. And we can deliberately create change, as happens when we learn a new language or how to play the guitar.

This means that for all of us, the ability to change what we know, how we feel, and what we do IS “just the way we are”!

Am I Having a Heart Attack, or Am I Just Healthy?

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When we explain that heart rate variability (HRV) is the variation in timing between heartbeats, and that the higher the HRV (the greater the variation), the more resilient and healthy you are likely to be—well, that’s confusing. Aren’t irregular heartbeats a sign of atrial fibrillation?

In atrial fibrillation, the heart beats too fast, or too slow, or irregularly. In any of these cases, however, the heart is beating inefficiently, causing poor oxygenation and other problems. The key is that the heart is beating abnormally, caused by a problem in the heart’s electrical system.

HRV is created by the normal tug-of-war between the body’s parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. The differences in timing from one beat to the next are in terms of microseconds. High HRV signifies low stress and robustness because it shows the body is highly responsive to minute changes in its internal and external environments. Low HRV is a sign that the body is tired, ill, or stressed, and therefore no longer as quick to respond.

Raising HRV Can Provide Relief from Asthma

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According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, more than 34 million Americans and more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from asthma. In addition to taking the right meds, asthma sufferers may have another, non-drug-based way to decrease the severity of asthma attacks. A study published in 2004 in Chest Journal showed that biofeedback training in raising HRV through deep breathing increased HRV in asthma patients while decreasing the amount of meds they needed to control asthma attacks. Read more…

 

Make Your Workouts Work Better

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Some days, you get up energized and hit the road or the gym, and you feel like a million bucks. And some days, it’s just a grind. Why? It could be that on those down days, your heart rate variability (HRV) is low and your autonomic nervous system is out of balance. Training hard on low-HRV days is just not as effective; you might want to consider taking it down a notch or two–or even skipping training that day. You can use the SweetBeat™ iPhone app to monitor your HRV first thing in the morning to assure your workouts are more effective.

Download SweetBeat™ today.

Music Raises Heart Rate Variability

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We are constantly reminded how spirit, mind, and body are all connected. A 2006 study conducted by researchers in Japan showed that during music therapy, elderly subjects’ heart rate variability (HRV)increased, but decreased once the music stopped. You might consider augmenting your relax time or yoga sessions with music that you enjoy to derive even greater benefits from stress relief.

Track Your Stress and Change Your Life

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When you use SweetBeat™, you can upload your sessions to our secure database, then view your sessions from a calendar like this:

If you click on a given session, you will be able to see charts like this one:

This chart allows you to look at your session data in a variety of ways, but we’ve got more charts on the way that will allow you to compare sessions by day, time of day, week to week and more. If knowledge is power, we’re doing our best to turbocharge your health!

Download SweetBeat