#10 Mending a Broken Heart with Heart Rate Variability Feedback

Sometimes it’s hard for people to believe that breathing with feedback (HRV-F with the StressEraser or emWave) could result in significant, enduring changes in the body.  “Dude, it’s just breathing, I do that pretty much every day." 

But imagine if you could heal a broken heart with HRV-F.  Not poetically or metaphorically, but literally.  This is the subject of some cutting edge research at the Cleveland Clinic.

Like many chronic health conditions heart failure results from a progressive downward spiral.  The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), or "fight or flight response", gets turned up to compensate for the failing heart’s inadequate output.  Initially this helps, but it also makes the heart work harder.This increases the demand for oxygen, and the only way to meet this demand is to turn up the SNS even more!  Combined with inflammation, this vicious cycle leaves many people needing a new heart i.e. a transplant. 

Often a mechanical pump called a “ventricular assist device” is implanted to rest the heart, and buy some time, until a new heart is available.  With the rest provided by this pump, evidence of healing can be seen in the heart when it is removed for transplant.

Knowing the effects of HRV-F raises an interesting possibility.  HRV-F turns up the Parasympathetic Nervous System or "rest and digest" response.  It also turns down the SNS, and reduces inflammation. (Future Post). Could HRV-F help the failing heart?

Using a stress management program that includes HRV-F as a core component, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic are testing this hypothesis.  Preliminary results show positive changes in the heart tissue comparable to those seen with implantation of a ventricular assist device. HRV-F causes enduring changes in the body that can be measured, and seen on the microscopic level.

"Whoa, dude. Science Rocks."

Moravec, C. S. and M. G. McKee (2011). "Biofeedback in the treatment of heart disease." Cleve Clin J Med 78 Suppl 1: S20-23.

# 6 What is “Coherence” and how does the emWave™ or StressEraser™ measure it ?

Coherence is a tricky concept to master because it is used in several different ways in the literature of HRV.  To facilitate understanding I’ll explain “coherence” from the perspective of someone opening up and beginning to use an emWave/StressEraser.

Auto-coherence of the Heartwave. – Breathing deeply and rhythmically, the display of the heart-rate will be a smooth, regular, undulating wave.  A  “sine-wave”.

Given it’s regularity the parts of the wave are all “organized, consistent, and logical” with each other.  It is coherent with respect to itself, or “auto-coherent”.  The HRV device calculates exactly how regular or “auto-coherent” the waveform is.  This gets represented as low (red on the emWave, one box on the StressEraser), medium (blue/two boxes) or high (green/three boxes) “Coherence”.  Achieving “High Coherence” (Auto-coherence) means that there is the potential to achieve other types of Coherence that have profound effects on the mind and body. But you’re not there yet.

Physiological Coherence-The body contains many oscillators, that is, systems that cycle.  For example the heart beat, breathing, blood pressure and brain waves. When two or more systems are synchronized they are said to be “coherent”. When many systems in the body are synchronized the person is in a state of “physiological coherence”.  To achieve this state takes ten to twenty minutes for most people beginning to use HRV.  Why?

Imagine a middle school orchestra.  If the conductor  keeps regular time (auto-coherence) then as the orchestra continues to play, the instruments will fall into synch.  The drums get in synch with the conductor which helps the bass get in synch  which helps the strings get into synch etc. until the entire orchestra is synchronized or “coherent”.

In the body, the heart and respiration get in synch which then allows the pressure sensitive baro-receptors to get in synch which then allows the brain (thalamus and cortex) to get in synch.  This is a sequential process that occurs over time.

Individual Coherence- After Physiological coherence has been achieved it is possible to see the manifestations at the behavioral level.  The person is more “coherent” –e.g. ideas are expressed more clearly, actions are more fluid and take less energy, and life in general proceeds more smoothly.

Take Home Point. – When you start to score “High Coherence” in an HRV session your mind-body is not yet in a state of “Coherence”.   If you continue to score “High Coherence” and allow the different “players” in your body to sequentially get in synch over ten to twenty minutes you will then be in the “Coherent” state.  And you will know that not because of a score, but rather because of how you feel.