Understanding Heart Rate Variability (HRV) for Practitioners

Course Description

Heart rate variability, or HRV, is gaining a great deal of attention lately as more and more people, from athletes to meditators to biohackers, are tracking it. With so many apps and wearable devices monitoring all of our biometrics, having a better understanding of HRV and the numerous ways to measure, assess and influence it can help practitioners not only speak to patients, but also provide a foundational method for restoring balance and improving the quality of their lives.

HRV has been assessed for decades, and as researchers and cardiologists can attest, it is a useful indicator of overall health, including mortality and morbidity across numerous diseases. In this workshop, you will first learn precisely what is meant by HRV and how it is measured. Then you be introduced to HRV biofeedback - a simple, noninvasive method of self-regulation that combines breathing, focused attention and heart rate monitoring to strengthen vagal tone and improve overall psycho-physiological health.

Regardless of degree or specialty, understanding HRV can be a useful tool in any clinical practice.

As a participant, you will have access to numerous online videos, allowing you to review the material after completion of the workshop.

What you will learn from this workshop:

• Define heart rate variability.

• Articulate the importance and significance of HRV values on physical, mental and emotional health, and describe the relationship between HRV and health.

• List the factors that influence and impact HRV.

• Compare and contrast the different types of instrumentation used to measure HRV, as well as describe what instrumentation varies wearables use.

• Understand the basics of HRV measurements (time-domain, frequency domain, nonlinear readings, HRmax - HRmin); and reasons for their use.

• Learn how to analyze HRV measurements.

• Outline  ways to incorporate HRV measurement into clinical practice.