Changes in Continuous, Long-Term Heart Rate Variability and Individualized Physiological Responses to Wellness and Vacation Interventions Using a Wearable Sensor.

Abhishek Pratap,Elias Chaibub Neto,Lizzy Weiss,Stephan W Wegerich,Christine Tara Peterson,Steve Steinhubl,Paul J Mills,Deepak Chopra,Sheila Patel

doi:10.3389/fcvm.2020.00120

Abstract

There are many approaches to maintaining wellness, including taking a simple vacation to attending highly structured wellness retreats, which typically regulate the attendee's personal time and activities. In a healthy English-speaking cohort of 112 women and men (aged 30–80 years), this study examined the effects of participating in either a 6-days intensive wellness retreat based on Ayurvedic medicine principles or unstructured 6-days vacation at the same wellness center setting. Heart rate variability (HRV) was monitored continuously using a wearable ECG sensor patch for up to 7 days prior to, during, and 1-month following participation in the interventions. Additionally, salivary cortisol levels were assessed for all participants at multiple times during the day. Continual HRV monitoring data in the real-world setting was seen to be associated with demographic [HRVALF: βAge = 0.98 (95% CI = 0.96–0.98), false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.001] and physiological characteristics [HRVPLF: β = 0.98 (95% CI = 0.98–1), FDR =0.005] of participants. HRV features were also able to quantify known diurnal variations [HRVLF/HF: βACT:night vs. early−morning = 2.69 (SE = 1.26), FDR < 0.001] along with notable inter- and intraperson heterogeneity in response to intervention. A statistically significant increase in HRVALF [β = 1.48 (SE = 1.1), FDR < 0.001] was observed for all participants during the resort visit. Personalized HRV analysis at an individual level showed a distinct individualized response to intervention, further supporting the utility of using continuous real-world tracking of HRV at an individual level to objectively measure responses to potentially stressful or relaxing settings.

Highlights

Stress, in varying degrees and of varying durations, impacts every single human and has a major influence on their health [1]
We further explored if changes in Heart rate variability (HRV) sustained over a period of time by remotely monitoring participants 1 month after the interventions
No significant difference in baseline demographic characteristics was seen between the participants in PH and RELAX cohorts including the subset of participants that were non-randomly assigned to PH intervention (Supplementary Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

In varying degrees and of varying durations, impacts every single human and has a major influence on their health [1]. Healthy individuals typically can manage short, acute episodes of routine stress without health consequences. If stress becomes persistent, the long-term effects can significantly impair mental and physiological well-being [2]. Chronic stress is often insidious and develops slowly, making it difficult for an individual experiencing it to recognize it [4]. The marked variability in stress responses among individuals can make it difficult to be clearly recognized by others, including family and even mental health professionals [5]. There is a critical need for objective, reproducible measures of an individual’s ability to recover from stress

Results

Discussion

Conclusion