Resource Using Heart Rate Variability in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Fibromyalgia For Better Health

[Cort]

Cort submitted a new resource:

Using Heart Rate Variability in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Fibromyalgia For Better Health - Karmin on how to use HRV testing to assess the effects of activity levels, treatments, etc.

Check out Karmin's blog series on how to use heart rate variability testing to assess the effects activity, foods, treatments, sleep, etc. have on ME/CFS and fibromaylgia patients health and well-being.

• Your Crash in a Graph? How Heart Rate Variability Testing Could Help You Improve Your Health - Pt I...

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[Joanna]

[bimg] know[/bimg]I have a MIO wristband I have used in the past. Because of my POTS and not having carers present most of the time, staying under the aerobic threshold has proved impossible, specifically because I need to get myself to the toilet, and I also have IBS, making it impossible to get there and stay there as long as necessary, then clean up and wash hands after, without spiking my heart rate up too high for too long. The same happens when having a tub bath twice a week with carer doing most of the work and a bath lift. It is endlessly frustrating to live this way, knowing that every time I get out of bed, I am causing more stress on my body than is good for it. I have the most comfortable chest strap HR monitor available, but it causes me too much discomfort to wear it for more than a few minutes. Is it possible that monitoring with the MIO and apps would be at all helpful, given the limitations of my situation? Does anyone have other suggestions that might improve the situation? I move slowly and do my best not to push, but living alone, even getting to the toilet, especially the two days after a bath and hair wash seems an impossible challenge to pace. I don't want to lose the limited use of my legs, so I lean on a four-wheel trolley to walk. Even with this, going the short distance and then sitting as necessary is over my limit. I often have to wait in the bathroom long enough to get enough energy to get back to bed, also.

 

[TJ_Fitz]

The research I've seen suggests that wrist monitors are sketchy even for HR measurements, and are definitely not to be trusted for HRV, which requires much greater sensitivity to measure. That may change with time, but for HRV measurements, it seems best to measure the electrical impulse causing the beat, rather than the pressure change resulting from the beat.