Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measures the variations in time between heartbeats. A healthy heart adapts its rhythm to varying physiological demands.
By assessing HRV, we can indicate whether your nervous system is in the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) or parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) state. Additionally, your HRV score tells us how flexible or adaptable your nervous system is.
The lower your HRV, the less adaptable (more strained/stressed) your autonomic nervous system (ANS) is. The higher the score, the better your ANS can adapt to everyday stressors.
In general, higher HRV is associated with greater adaptability, resilience, recovery capacity, and overall health, while chronically low HRV is associated with stress, fatigue, illness, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Take this HRV scan as an example:
This scan shows an ideal HRV result from a neuroPULSE scan. The white dot sits right between the sympathetic and parasympathetic, meaning the nervous system is balanced and can easily fluctuate between the two. It is also within the green region; if it were further down the chart, that would mean the nervous system is overloaded and would not respond in a healthy way to other stressors.
Now look at this HRV scan:
This scan shows a nervous system nearing unadaptability, becoming increasingly stuck in survival mode. The dot also falls well on the left side, indicating the ANS is in fight-or-flight mode rather than balanced by the parasympathetic.
Researchers often describe HRV as a window into how effectively the brain and body communicate through the autonomic nervous system.
A high HRV generally suggests that the body can efficiently shift between states of activation and recovery. A low HRV often indicates that the nervous system is under strain, stuck in a defensive state, or less capable of adapting to stressors.
How To Improve Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
With more health-tracking technology entering the market every day, Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has become a popular tool for monitoring nervous system health and resilience. Research suggests that HRV can improve when underlying stress loads are reduced, and parasympathetic nervous system activity increases.
The primary goal of improving HRV is to increase vagal tone. Read one of our articles on the vagus nerve to learn more! In short, greater vagal tone supports a nervous system that can recover more effectively from stress and strain rather than remaining stuck in sympathetic fight-or-flight mode due to chronic stress.
Regular physical activity, improved sleep quality and duration, deep breathing exercises, mindfulness practices, and a healthy nutritional lifestyle have all been shown to support higher HRV. However, improving heart rate variability requires consistently integrating these habits into your daily life—not turning to a healthy lifestyle only when symptoms or health challenges arise.
Researchers increasingly view HRV as a reflection of how well the nervous system responds to changing demands, recovers from stress, and maintains physiological balance. Rather than simply indicating whether someone is healthy or unhealthy, HRV provides insight into the body’s capacity for regulation and resilience.
When None Of That Seems To Work
Lifestyle changes are an essential part of nervous system healing. After all, it is often a chronically overloaded lifestyle that contributes to nervous system dysregulation and keeps the body stuck in a prolonged stress response.
The brain is designed to adapt to its environment. Through the nervous system, it continuously sends messages to the body about how to function based on the information it receives. At the same time, the body communicates back to the brain, creating a constant feedback loop that shapes how the autonomic nervous system responds to the world around it.
This ability of the brain to change and adapt is known as neuroplasticity. In a world of chronic stress, repeated signals of danger can create well-worn neural pathways that teach the brain to operate under constant strain. Over time, the autonomic nervous system may become conditioned to remain in survival mode. The body continues to function, but it does so while allocating its resources toward protection rather than restoration.
While healthy lifestyle changes can help the body feel more relaxed, the brain may have spent years receiving and reinforcing stress signals. When that happens, the neural pathways associated with survival become dominant, while restorative pathways remain underdeveloped.
This is one reason why habits such as improving sleep can be so difficult to change. If the nervous system is prioritizing survival, the body may struggle to shift into the restorative state necessary for quality sleep, healing, and recovery.
A body that has learned to cope with chronic stress over many years does not always relax simply because healthier habits have been introduced. Building vagal tone and creating new neurological patterns often requires more direct communication with the nervous system. This is where care such as neurological chiropractic may provide significant support by helping the brain and body form new, more restorative patterns.
Increasing HRV With Neurological Chiropractic
In our office, scan after scan has demonstrated improvements in heart rate variability (HRV) following chiropractic care.
Our chiropractors are trained to assess areas of overload within the nervous system and communicate directly with the brain to begin restoring healthy function. The body does not lack the ability to heal; it often lacks the neurological safety and adaptability necessary to prioritize healing. When the brain receives signals that it is safe enough to shift out of survival mode, the body can begin doing what it was designed to do: heal and regulate.
Neurological chiropractic adjustments rely on the body’s innate ability to heal and adapt. Rather than forcing change, they support the nervous system’s natural capacity for regulation and recovery. As nervous system function improves, heart rate variability often improves as well. Sleep becomes more restorative, stress resilience increases, and the mind gains the clarity needed to support healthier, more regulated patterns.
Creating Lasting Change
Are you ready to maintain healthy heart rate variability and experience the benefits of a more regulated nervous system? Schedule an assessment at our office today to see where your HRV stands, identify areas of neurological stress, and discover how we can help your body build lasting, restorative health patterns.
Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology. (1996). Heart rate variability: Standards of measurement, physiological interpretation and clinical use. Circulation, 93(5), 1043–1065. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.CIR.93.5.1043
Thayer, J. F., Åhs, F., Fredrikson, M., Sollers, J. J., & Wager, T. D. (2012). A meta-analysis of heart rate variability and neuroimaging studies: Implications for heart rate variability as a marker of stress and health. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 36(2), 747–756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.11.009