HRV & the Harmony Within

A stronger life starts with better signals, not bigger effort. We pull back the curtain on heart rate variability and show how those tiny beat-to-beat changes reveal your real-time capacity to handle stress, recover deeply, and perform with clarity. Instead of chasing perfect sleep hours or a single “ideal” number, we focus on the story your HRV trends tell about autonomic balance, mitochondrial energy, and hormone stability.

I share how my view shifted from bedside EKG calipers to modern wearables that track HRV during sleep, why optical sensors are good for trends even if they’re not EKG-precise, and what ranges look like across decades of life. More importantly, we connect the dots between HRV and mineral status using Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis. From calcium shell patterns and sodium-to-potassium ratios to low magnesium and copper-zinc imbalances, we explore how your body’s “electrical wiring” can quietly lower vagal tone, fragment sleep, and flatten readiness despite decent habits.

You’ll get a practical blueprint to lift HRV: lock in consistent sleep and circadian rhythm, use slow diaphragmatic breathing and humming to strengthen the vagus nerve, steady blood sugar with protein-fat-fiber, and replete key minerals with intention. We also break down smart tools—Oura Ring, Whoop, Apple Watch Series 6+, Garmin, Polar, and chest-strap plus Elite HRV—for different needs, plus how to read dips as cues to pivot training and life load. By pairing real-time recovery signals with long-term mineral patterns, you can build a flexible nervous system that shifts smoothly between go and grow, stress and repair.

Ready to map your stress signature and raise your readiness? Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves data, and leave a review with your biggest HRV win or challenge.

Chapters

• 0:00 Mission And Care Philosophy
• 0:33 From EKG Calipers To Wearables
• 1:34 HRV Explained And Why It Matters
• 3:19 Sleep Data Needs Recovery Context
• 4:20 Autonomic Balance And HRV Levels
• 5:13 What Is Normal HRV By Age
• 6:19 Trends Over Single Numbers
• 6:52 Stress Load And Vagal Quieting
• 7:39 HTMA As The Missing Piece
• 8:40 Common Mineral Patterns Linked To Low HRV
• 9:54 Best Tools For Tracking HRV
• 11:08 PPG Versus EKG Precision
• 11:29 Modern Causes Of Low HRV
• 12:05 Seven Ways To Raise HRV
• 13:20 Integrating HRV With HTMA
• 13:58 Invitations, Contact Info, And Disclaimer

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to Harmony Hub Health, where my mission is to provide comprehensive, affordable, integrative care that addresses the root cause of health issues. At the Hub, the focus is on individual patient journeys. I strive to optimize health, vitality, and longevity, fostering a community where each person can thrive in body, mind, and spirit. So today I'm gonna age myself a little bit because about 20 years ago when I was a bedside nurse, we did not have this wearable tech, these sleep trackers, or any of these recovery dashboards. Do you know what I used? So we used EKG strips and a pair of metal calipers. And I can still remember sitting at the nurse's station aligning those sharp little points to measure the intervals on a cardiac rhythm strip. They still do this to this day, but the PR interval, the QRS, the QT, marking tiny millimeters to determine conduction time, rhythm stability, and whether the heart's electrical system was firing properly. Back then, we only cared about stability. You know, if it wasn't exactly right, then you had an arrhythmia, it was a bad thing. So we wanted perfect, predictable intervals and not a single millisecond of deviation because variability meant that something was wrong. Now, fast forward to today, and I look at the heart in a completely different way. So we still measure rhythm, but we've shifted from disease detection to health optimization. So the same heart that we once hoped would beat in perfect rhythm, now I want it to vary. And that is what the heart rate variability is. It's also known as HRV, it's the subtle difference in time between each heartbeat. And it's one of the most powerful indicators of how well your nervous system, your metabolism, and stress response are working in real time. So if you're wearing an aura ring, you're probably noticing that it's become a bit of a secret handshake. I call it the modern day Jeep wave, even though I no longer have my Jeep, but you spot someone else wearing one, you make eye contact and give that knowing nod, like, yeah, you track two, you know what I mean? But when I talk to people about it, they almost always say the same thing. Usually the answer I get is that they're just trying to track their sleep. And that's great, but then I think you know they're really missing the bigger picture because just knowing how many hours you sleep doesn't automatically improve your health. Sleep data without recovery context is kind of like checking your gas tank without knowing if your engine is running hot. HRV is that context. It tells you if your body actually recovered, um, if your cells repaired, um, your hormones rebalanced, and your stress response calmed overnight. And you can get eight hours of sleep and still wake up with a nervous system waving a white flag. So that's where HRV transforms your data into insight. Each beat of your heart is influenced by your autonomic nervous system. It's the tug of war between your sympathetic system, which is your fight or flight, it's your push and perform, and your parasympathetic, which is your rest, digest, and repair. A high HRV means your body is flexible and adaptive, it can easily switch between stress and recovery. A low HRV means that your nervous system is locked in survival mode, often due to chronic stress, poor recovery, or inflammation. Now, the heart rate variability is measured by analyzing the tiny differences in time between each heartbeat, which is called the R to R interval. It's the time between two R waves on in EKG. And your heart doesn't beat perfectly evenly. For example, one beat might occur 0.85 seconds after the last, the next might be 0.82 seconds. Um, HRV measures that variation in those intervals in milliseconds. And a lot of people ask me, well, what is a normal HRV? And there's no single perfect HRV number. It is highly individualized, it's influenced by your age, your genetics, your gender, and your overall fitness. And instead of comparing to other people, you really compare it to yourself. So the general idea is if you are 20 to 30 years old, a good average would be between 60 and 120. I know that's a big range, but the optimal range for longevity would be greater than 80. If you're 30 to 40 years old, the average HRV is 50 to 100, but optimally you'd want it to be greater than 70. If you're 40 to 50, and I fall in this range, um, pretty soon to go up in range, but an average HRV is 40 to 90 with your optimal range for a longevity greater than 60. If you're 50 or up, your average HRV is 30 to 80 milliseconds and optimal is greater than 50. Now, 40 to 50, I said optimal is greater than 60. I started my journey with my first tracker at 16 for a whole entire year. I finally have made it up to the 40s, but my goal definitely would be in the 60s. And it's the trends that matter the most. If you have an upper trend that shows improved recovery, balanced hormones, better mitochondrial health. If you have a downward trend, then that really shows chronic stress, um, poor sleep quality, nutrient depletion or inflammation. And if you have big day-to-day drops, that really signals overtraining or an illness brewing or just emotional exhaustion. When I review HRV data with my patients, I'm not looking for one good number. I'm looking for consistency and adaptability. Now, stress, whether it's emotional, physical, or biochemical, is the single biggest factor that can lower your HRV. When cortisol and adrenaline dominate your vagus nerve, which is that main parasympathetic control center, it goes quiet. Your sleep suffers, your digestion slows, you have more inflammation, and you wake up feeling unfreshed even after a full night's rest. The body can't tell the difference between a true emergency and chronic low-grade stress from maybe having a deadline at work or just eating like crap that day or unresolved inflammation. To your nervous system, it's all just load. So this is where the hair tissue mineral analysis or the HTMA becomes the missing puzzle piece. While HRV shows how your body responds to stress, HTMA shows how your body stores and manages it. So your minerals are like the electrical wiring behind the heartbeat. When they're imbalanced, your signal weakens and your HRV follows suit. So common HTMA stress patterns that are linked to low HRV include calcium shell, which I almost did the podcast this week on calcium shell because I did have two different HTMAs that did have calcium shells just this past week. That's high calcium, low potassium. The body is emotionally and physiologically shut down and stuck in a parasympathetic burnout. Um, another pattern can be high sodium potassium ratio. This is the acute stress response and it's adrenaline-driven. Um, or there's a low sodium to potassium ratio that is chronic fatigue or adrenal depletion. Um, then there's low magnesium with poor vagal tone, muscle tension, and restless sleep. And then another one I see a lot is the copper and zinc imbalance. This is emotional reactivity, oxidative stress, and neurotransmitter disruption. That was actually me. I was that story. Um, but by combining HRV tracking with HTMA, you can get both the real-time dashboard and the long-term wiring diagram. If you're curious about tracking your HRV, there are some top options that I recommend to my patients. There is the aura ring. I do wear one of those. I don't get paid for advertising it, but it is the gold standard for sleep and recovery trends. Um, it measures HRV nightly during deep sleep. Of course, I think the most accurate is going to be if you have an EKG, but no one has continuous EKG on themselves. Um and who wants to measure all of that by themselves anyway, if unless you have your own pair of calipers. There also is the whoop band. This is continuous monitoring with detailed recovery and strain metrics. It's great for athletes. Um, the Apple Watch, as long as it's a series six and up, that does measure HRV through short heart rate sampling during rest and breathing exercises, um, a garmin and polar devices. They are solid HRV data for those focused on training load and fitness recovery. Um, and then there's the Elite HRV app with that polar H10 chest strap. It is one of the most precise clinical grade ways to measure HRV short term. I do prefer the Aura because it ties HRV to sleep stages, your body temperature, and your readiness. So it gives a great holistic picture of recovery. All of these types of trackers, like the Aura ring, the Apple Watch, the Whoop or Fitbit, they all use PPG or um photoplethyl somography. They use light sensors to detect blood volume changes with each pulse from either your wrist or your finger. So it is less precise than an EKG, but it is useful for trend tracking over time. So common causes of low HRV. It can stem from any modern life stressors like poor or inconsistent sleep, blood sugar instability, chronic emotional stress, nutrient deficiencies, especially magnesium and potassium, um, overtraining. I see this with my crossfitters or under recovery, um, hormone imbalances if you have low progesterone or a thyroid dysfunction, or infections, inflammation, or toxin exposure. Um, you might not even feel stressed, but your HRV definitely knows the truth. So, how can we improve our HRV naturally? Number one is always going to be to prioritize your deep recovery. Sleep is your number one supplement. You want to aim for seven to nine hours and protect your circadian rhythm. I know it's easier said than done. It took me years to make sleep a priority. Um, and people often joke that I don't even sleep, but I'm telling you honestly, I sleep every night. And usually I'm going to bed and waking up at the same time every single day, seven days a week. Number two is to breathe intentionally. Box breathing, humming, or slow diaphragmatic breath strengthens your vagal tone. I also do use that pulsetto. It's great. Number three is replenish or minerals. You can use HTMA guided repletion, um, magnesium glyconate, potassium-rich foods, and mineral balancing formulas like my orthomolecular. Um, I love reacted mag, um, true adapt, and adrenavive with orthomolecular. Number four is to balance your blood sugar. Every crash or spike tells your nervous system that it's under threat. So combine protein, fat, and fiber with every single meal. Number five is reduced total stress load. Maybe um it that might seem impossible. There may be some life changes. I made big life changes of my own. You can use infrared sauna, you could use pemph mat, yoga, or even gentle grounding can reset your nervous system tone. Number six is supporting that mitochondrial energy. This can be with CoQ10, NAD, um, B vitamins that enhance the cellular power supply for your heart and your nerve recovery. Um, and number seven, track trends, not perfection. So your daily HRV will fluctuate. What matters is the long-term trend upward as your body does find that equilibrium. Um, I love how far we've come from measuring heartbeats with calipers at the bedside to interpreting real-time nervous system trends on your hand. But today, HRV is not just a number, it's your daily check-in on resilience, recovery, and readiness. When I combine HRV data with that hair tissue mineral analysis, I can see both your electrical vitality and your biochemical stress pattern, the full picture of how your body is truly adapting. And because knowing your sleep is good, but understanding your recovery is transformational. When your minerals are balanced, your nervous system recovers and your HRV rises, your energy, your focus, and your longevity, they all follow. Would you like to learn your stress signature? You can book a functional medicine consultation at harmonyhubhealth.com. You can email me at Michelle, that's with one L M-I-C-H-E-L-E at harmonyhubhealth.com, and I can help you map your HRV. We can look at your minerals, and we can come up with a recovery plan together. You could even call or text 410-575-4274. You can also come and see me in person at Monarch Beauty and Spa in Manchester, Maryland. The information shared in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and should not replace personalized medical advice from your healthcare provider. Discussions about heart rate variability, wearable devices, or recovery metrics are based on current research and clinical experience, but individual results and interpretations can vary. Always consult your licensed healthcare practitioner before making any changes to your wellness, your exercise, or your treatment routines. Listener discretion is advised, especially if you have a cardiac condition or use medical monitoring devices.