As wearable technology has grown more popular, it’s not just researchers and cardiologists who are paying attention to heart rate.
You might be monitoring your own all day long via a fitness tracker you wear on your wrist. This kind of wearable deviceHere are what heart rate and other measurements derived from this biometric can tell you about your body’s health.The heart’s primary job is to contract and generate pressure that helps pump blood to the lungs to be oxygenated and then on to the rest of the body to deliver oxygen and other nutrients. Heart rate is simply how fast your heart is beating.
The parasympathetic branch of your nervous system is responsible for keeping lots of your body’s functions running smoothly while you’re at ease. Via the vagus nerve that runs from the brain all the way to the abdomen, the parasympathetic nervous system actively slows the heart down to resting values betweenper minute for the average healthy adult.
The chart of a heart rate reveals tiny differences in spacing between the peaks representing heartbeats.One specific way to understand the balance of the nervous system’s influence on heart rate is to look at, or HRV – the slight fluctuation in the time between each heartbeat. Even if your heart rate is 60 beats a minute, that doesn’t mean your heart is pumping exactly once every second.