The Mind Spa Blog

The StressEraser and Heart Rate Variability January 14, 2011

We tend to think that our hearts beat with absolute regularity, like a metronome. In fact, a healthy heart is constantly varying the time between beats. These variations are instigated by the nervous system as it continually seeks the most efficient and optimum way for the body to operate.

The variation in the time between heart beats is referred to as Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Because HRV provides a window on your nervous system, it gives us a wonderful way of monitoring how well your body is preserving its equilibrium.

Recently, analysis of HRV has attracted a great deal of interest within the medical community as being an excellent non-invasive measurement of nervous system activity and heart health.

To understand this, it’s important to recognize that our health depends on how well our body can constantly adjust all of its functions to the myriad stimuli and demands that are continually changing. Temperature, light, noise, time of day, blood sugar, an endless list of stress and change of all kinds require our body to regulate itself around a point of balance. The better it can do this the healthier we are. The more our body’s ability to adapt to this constant change declines, the sicker we become. In the case of the heart, it must constantly regulate its output of blood to demands for blood flow that change every instant. Studies have demonstrated that decrease in heart rate variability emerges as the single most common risk factor for all kinds of chronic diseases such as diabetes, chronic fatigue, heart failure, neurological disorders, and many others.

It used to be that instruments that could measure HRV were very expensive and only available in hospitals. Fortunately, technological advances mean that low-cost and accurate system for measuring HRV are now available to us for use at home. Indeed, some devices are so portable, that we can carry them around with us and use them whenever we want to.

Not only that, but some of these system use a technique known as biofeedback to teach you that you can actually improve your HRV and therefore enhance your physical and psychological health and well-being.

The best of the portable biofeedback devices is the StressEraser. The StressEraser, is a small, light device that measures your pulse rate from your fingertip using an infrared sensor. It converts this information into a HRV wave which it displays on a small LCD screen. Best of all, the StressEraser then starts to guide you to breathe slowly and rhythmically which will have an almost immediate, positive effect on your HRV. You’ll see this improvement reflected on the screen as your HRV wave becomes smoother and more regular.

The StressEraser is so effective that it’s even be registered with the FDA (the American health regulatory body) with an indication for ‘Relaxation, Relaxation Training and Stress Reduction’.

The StressEraser is a great complement to the MindSpa. Thanks to biofeedback devices like the StressEraser, we can all benefit from increased HRV and help ourselves to better health and well-being.

— Ivor Murray is the MD of MeditationsUK, an innovative company that sells technology-led aids to help you relax and de-stress. Their main products are Meditation Machines – small, portable machines that use natural light and sound to gently guide you into calm, relaxing states of mind and body, easily and automatically.

You can find out more about them at www.MeditationsUK.com or www.MindSpa-UK.com, or telephone 020 8371 0436

You might also be interested in the StressEraser portable biofeedback system at www.StressEraser-UK.com