Category Archives: Change your behavior, Change your brain

Change your behavior, Change your brain

Grounding Improves Vagal Tone and Increases HRV

Grounding improves vagal tone and increases HRV. Check out these studies conducted at Penn State College of Medicine on grounding and preterm infants https://pennstatehealthnews.org/2017/08/grounding-technique-may-improve-health-outcomes-of-babies-in-the-nicu/

Download the SweetBeat HRV app at www.beathealthy.com. You can use a Bluetooth low energy heart rate monitor chest strap or the Zoom fitness band. Go to www.zoomhrv.com and use promo code ZOOMSB10 for $10 off the Zoom. Outside the United States go to Amazon and use the same promo code.

HRV User Story – Ted Stark

Elite athlete and SweetBeat HRV super user, Ted Stark, has recorded over 2,300 HRV sessions! Ted just ran the 10K Wharf to Wharf with his dad and finished with his best time ever. Ted manages his training and recovery by tracking his HRV daily with the SweetBeat HRV app. He also meditates with the Headspace app to balance his nervous system. Ted is a great example of an athlete who uses his biometrics holistically to manage his health and fitness. Ted’s HRV is very high and continues to trend upward.

Download the SweetBeat HRV app at www.beathealthy.com. You can use a Bluetooth low energy heart rate monitor chest strap or the Zoom fitness band. Go to www.zoomhrv.com and use promo code ZOOMSB10 for $10 off the Zoom. Outside of the United States go to Amazon and use the same promo code.

Beat Your Personal Best

Are you training for the next triathlon or competitive event? You need deeper insight into your training and recovery. Measure Your HRV with the SweetBeat HRV app so you know if you’re recovered from the previous day’s training. Train smarter and reach higher levels of fitness by tracking your HRV every morning.

Download the SweetBeat HRV app for iOS and Android at www.beathealthy.com or click on the logos below for iTunes and Google Play. Use the promo code ZOOMSB10 for $10 off the Zoom device at www.zoomhrv.com.

P.S. The Zoom is resistant to 50 meters!

Announcing Compatibility with LifeTrak’s Zoom Device

SweetWater Health is proud to announce a new partnership with LifeTrak. Their wrist-worn device, Zoom, is optimized for SweetBeat HRV and will work with DailyBeat HRV and SweetBeat on Android. Compatibility with our partner HRV applications coming soon.

Attachment-1

How do I purchase the Zoom HRV?

You can purchase the Zoom HRV device at www.zoomhrv.com. SweetWater customers can use promo code ZOOMSB10 for $10 off the Zoom.
ZoomHRV_1
What makes this wrist-worn monitor accurate enough for HRV?

The Zoom device has been extensively tested to work with the SweetWater HRV family of apps.

What do I need to know?
The Zoom is a completely new user experience. Please read over this information before purchasing the device.

You must sit perfectly still while using the Zoom with our HRV applications. No talking, nodding, or any movement for the entire three minute session.

What’s new in SweetBeat HRV?IMG_1248 (002)

Checkup mode is a 3 minute countdown ideally suited for use with the Zoom device. Checkup can be run with any compatible BTLE heart rate monitor chest strap too. The three minute session allows the Zoom user to accurately assess stress and power levels.

Checkup mode is recommended for use during the day after the HRV for Training session has been run in the morning. Checkup can be run as frequently as needed to assess HRV and stress during daily activities. It can also used as a quick snapshot of HRV recovery during the day.

More to Come!
Our R&D team is working with LifeTrak to pull workout data, battery info and blue light exposure in SweetBeat! Stay tuned for updates to your SweetBeat app. Email us with questions or concerns: support@sweetwaterhrv.com.

 

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.

Author of “Less Doing, More Living” interviews Ronda Collier

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Ari Meisel interviews Ronda Collier on HRV. See below for a summary and a list of topics. At the bottom you will find a link to the original podcast.

Summary:

In Episode #104 Ari talks with Ronda Collier, CEO of SweetWater Health™, a company striving to revolutionize mobile health monitoring and stress management by combining verified medical research with the most recent mobile-tech innovations. During their conversation, Ari and Rondatouch on the frequently overlooked value of Heart Rate Variability and the future of health technology. 

7 Key Points:

  1.        The heart does not beat at a consistent interval like a metronome
  2.        Stress isn’t “bad”; How we react to it – our inability to come down – is what makes it bad
  3.        People who are in constant “fight or flight” mode normalize stress in their brains, which makes it difficult for them to institute change because these individuals don’t “feel” stressed
  4.        Monitoring HRV is a great way to maximize recovery from physical training and keep track of stress
  5.        When HRV levels are low do “busy work”; When they are high do “creative work”
  6.        Sensitivity to certain foods can significantly impact stress and HRV levels
  7.        Good nutrition, consistent exercise and self-awareness are the pillars of healthy living

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  •          02:05 – Happy Thanksgiving from Ari and the Less Doing Team!
  •          02:55 – Felix and Ari address tryptophan
    • Editor’s Note: Ari mentions that tryptophan occurs naturally in the body – he meant to say the opposite, we can only get it from outside sources vl
  •          03:25 – Tryptophan is not what makes us tired…overeating makes us tired
  •          07:56 – June 9th-12th of 2015, Ari will speak at the Fortune Leadership Summit
  •          19:27 – Ronda discusses her background and the journey to founding SweetWater Health
  •          20:40 – HRV: Heart-Rate Variability
  •          22:28 – It’s not that stress is a bad thing of and in itself…it’s how quickly we can recover from that stress.
  •          23:00 – Why should we care about HRV? Why even track it?
  •          25:55 – SweetBeat and how the SweetWater apps work
  •          27:00 – The SweetWater and the Vital Connect HealthPatch
  •          29:57 – HRV has been used by athletes for decades to help them mitigate the risks of overtraining
  •          29:05 – How can HRV monitoring work for a non-athlete?
  •          30:50 – SweetBeat can alert people to everyday behaviors that induce commonly overlooked stress
  •          32:10 – Meditation has always been a challenge for Ari
  •          33:15 – How Ronda personally uses her HRV monitoring tools
  •          33:39 – The bucket of willpower
  •          34:30 – When HRV is low; do busy work. When HRV is high; do creative work
  •          34:45 – When you are “in-flow”, HRV starts to go up naturally
  •          35:32 – Food sensitivity and how it relates to stress
  •          39:10 – Most people are not aware of modest heart rate spikes
  •          40:23 – The future of SweetBeat
  •          41:35 – The value of correlation
  •          43:27 – Ronda’s Top 3 Tips for Being More Effective:
  •          43:43 – Improving nutrition; eating fresh
  •          44:00 – Being self-aware of what’s going on inside your body
  •          44:30 – Exercise, even minimally, every single day
  •          45:10 – BeatHealthy.com

Click here to hear the podcast!