Heart rate variability is a finding that shows whether the autonomic nervous system is working balancedly. The autonomic nervous system consists of the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. When the body encounters any threat, the first response to this threat is the activation of the sympathetic system, which we call the fight and flight response. The parasympathetic system is a system that says rest, digest and renew.
When we put the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems on the scales, we want the parasympathetic system to dominate in terms of our general health. We create a stress response to any stimulus that threatens our body. Cortisol and adrenaline are secreted from the adrenal glands under the influence of hormones secreted from the brain (hypothalamus and pituitary). So the sympathetic system comes into play. Blood pressure rises, breathing becomes more frequent, sweating increases, heartbeat accelerates, and blood circulation is directed from the internal organs to the arm and leg muscles. When the stress disappears, the sympathetic system has completed its task and the parasympathetic system comes into play. Heart rate slows down, blood pressure drops, blood is directed back to the internal organs and digestive organs. Digestion begins, wound healing and the immune system come into play.
The problem is that stress, which should be short-term, lasts for a long time. Chronic stress feeds all diseases. Short-term stressors are harmless and sometimes even beneficial. The integrative center of the brain is the hypothalamus. Data is collected from every part of the body. Pain, pressure, sugar fluctuations, electrolyte imbalances, changes in the person's mood are all collected, processed, evaluated in the hypothalamus and a stress response occurs. The most serious stress stimulus, both in terms of its strength and continuity, is psychosocial stress. Nowadays, we constantly encounter small or large stresses, and this stress response is active almost in all the minutes we spend awake, even during sleep, that is, the sympathetic system and the parasympathetic system are suppressed. Due to chronic stress response and sympathetic system dominance, the heart works at higher than normal speeds and works overtime, working almost continuously, day and night, without rest. In ideal conditions where the autonomic nervous system is balanced, the time between heart beats is not constant. Changes in the intervals between heart beats in coordination with breathing clarification happens. This variability is called heart rate variability. High heart rate variability is a normal and healthy condition. In people where the sympathetic system is dominant and the parasympathetic system is not activated, the heart works faster than normal and changes coordinated with breathing are not observed. That is, heart rate variability is low, and patients show inappropriate and excessive reactions to even minor stress stimuli. Emotionally balanced individuals have high heart rate variability in the face of stress. People with low heart rate variability have a higher risk of developing chronic diseases, and their survival and recovery rates are lower. A person can increase heart rate variability by conscious effort. A person's ideal heart rate variability is when they are calm and emotionally relaxed, taking 5 to 7 breaths per minute. This is where education and conscious change come into play; meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, heart rate variability and consciously breathing slowly and deeply during exercise with biofeedback devices activate the parasympathetic system. The parasympathetic system, which is first active only during exercise, becomes more active over time and heart rate variability increases.
WHAT DISEASES DO HEART RATE VARIABILITY EFFECT?
It has been revealed that a wide variety of diseases, such as asthma and irritable bowel syndrome, respond to this cardiorespiratory feedback training. In addition to asthma and irritable bowel syndrome, sickling vomiting syndrome, recurrent abdominal pain, fibromyalgia, muscle rheumatism, neck and waist pain due to cervical disc herniation and lumbar disc herniation, shoulder, elbow, knee and hip pain, cardiac rehabilitation, hypertension, chronic widespread muscle pains that occur during pregnancy. It can be effective in many diseases such as hypertension, depression, anxiety, insomnia.
HOW DOES HEART RATE CHANGE BIOFEEDBACK THERAPY EFFECT?
The most important mechanism supported is baroreceptor homeostasis. is to be strengthened. Recently, the effect of the vagal afferent pathway on the anterior cortical region of the brain, that is, the frontal region, has been revealed.
In the 1990s, Lehrer and colleagues began experimenting with cardiorespiratory intervention, followed by respiratory sedation. defined sinus arrhythmia as heart rate variability biofeedback and resonance frequency feedback.
Participants try to maximize respiratory sinus arrhythmia with slow breathing maneuvers and create a sine wave-like curve and match respiratory sinus arrhythmia with heart rate patterns. Heart rate increases during inhalation and decreases during exhalation. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia is a cardiological condition that occurs during this cycle.
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