Tag Archives: heart disease

Make Your Workouts Work Better

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.

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Music Raises Heart Rate Variability

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

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!

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Own a Pet, Have a Healthier Heart

Our pets have a healthful effect on our hearts, according to a newly-released study from Japan. The study looked at the heart rate variability of pet owners versus non-pet-owners, and found that the people with furry (or scaled or feathered) friends have higher heart rate variability (HRV) than those that didn’t, making them less susceptible to heart disease. Read more…

Customize SweetBeat to Suit Yourself

You can customize SweetBeat to fit your personality and stress sensitivity. You can also make each session more meaningful by noting your current mood and activity. When you look at your sessions online in MySweetBeat , you will be able to compare your HRV and stress levels while you were commuting to work, for example, compared to sessions recorded while exercising or playing with your kids. Information about how your body responds is the first step toward making positive changes.

Download SweetBeat™ for the iPhone to monitor your heart rate variability (HRV) and learn how to detect and manage stress.

How Stress Changes Our Bodies

Stress is not caused exclusively by what happens to us; sometimes our thoughts and emotions are more culpable in producing stress than anything external. Stress—however it is produced—can cause massive physical changes in the body. Human beings evolved in an environment where failure to respond instantly to a threat often resulted in death.  When we perceive a threat, the body floods with stress hormones like adrenalin that accelerate the body’s ability to respond rapidly. Heart rate and breathing increase, muscles tense, we sweat more, and non-essential functions shut down as the body goes into “fight or flight” mode to deal with the danger. Can you recall an incident that produced this kind of reaction in your body—even when your life was not at risk?

Download SweetBeat™ for the iPhone to monitor your heart rate variability (HRV) and learn how to detect and manage stress.

Anyone Can Beat Stress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best answer. Years of research have shown that deep, regular breathing can reduce stress by balancing the nervous system. SweetBeat™ has a “Relax” screen that helps you to beat stress by helping you to time your breathing while gazing at a relaxing image. You can even use your own relaxing images! (Photos of kittens and puppies work for us.)

Download SweetBeat™ for the iPhone to monitor your heart rate variability (HRV) and learn how to detect and manage stress.