In functional medicine, we believe that your body speaks to you in patterns—often before symptoms emerge. Two of the most powerful, non-invasive biomarkers that give us daily insight into stress, recovery, inflammation, and overall health are resting heart rate (RHR) and heart rate variability (HRV).
At Longevity Health Clinic in Charlottesville, we routinely assess these markers to help our patients track progress, adjust lifestyle interventions, and optimize performance. These simple numbers—often accessible through wearables like Garmin Venu 3, Oura Ring, or Apple Watch—tell us more than just what’s happening with your heart. They reflect your nervous system, resilience, recovery, and risk.
Resting heart rate refers to the number of times your heart beats per minute while at rest. For most healthy adults, a normal RHR falls between 50–70 beats per minute (bpm), although highly trained athletes may dip into the 40s.
RHR reflects how efficiently your heart and autonomic nervous system are working together. A lower RHR typically means the body is more efficient at oxygen delivery, while a persistently elevated RHR may indicate stress, poor fitness, inflammation, illness, or overtraining.
Heart rate variability measures the subtle differences in time between heartbeats—essentially, how adaptable your heart is. Rather than a “perfectly even beat,” a healthy heart actually fluctuates slightly from beat to beat, and this variability is a sign of resilience.
Higher HRV reflects a well-regulated autonomic nervous system—specifically, a stronger parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) tone. Lower HRV is often associated with chronic stress, inflammation, fatigue, aging, or illness.
While HRV can vary widely from person to person, trends over time are more important than one-off numbers. For most healthy individuals, a desirable HRV ranges from 50–100+ ms, depending on age, sex, and training status.
Both RHR and HRV correlate with symptom patterns and future health outcomes. Elevated RHR and suppressed HRV often show up before symptoms like fatigue, mood swings, or immune dysfunction become obvious. These shifts may signal:
Chronic low HRV has been linked to increased risk of:
Optimizing these markers means improving your body’s ability to recover, adapt, and resist chronic disease.
At Longevity Health Clinic, we focus on lifestyle-first interventions that can significantly improve both resting heart rate and heart rate variability.
Consistent, high-quality sleep is the fastest way to improve HRV and lower RHR. We guide patients in establishing circadian-aligned sleep routines, reducing sleep disruptions, and using wearable data to track progress.
The autonomic nervous system is highly responsive to breathwork, meditation, cold exposure, and HRV biofeedback. Techniques like deep breathing, vagus nerve stimulation, and cold plunges help shift the body into parasympathetic dominance, raising HRV.
Daily movement is essential—but so is strategic recovery. We coach patients to balance strength training, cardiovascular conditioning, and restorative practices like yoga, walking, and sauna use to prevent overtraining and optimize recovery metrics.
Eating a whole-food, anti-inflammatory diet with sufficient electrolytes, minerals, and protein supports cellular and cardiovascular health. Avoiding excessive sugar, alcohol, and processed foods helps stabilize the nervous system and reduce systemic inflammation.
We often recommend the following evidence-based supplements to support cardiovascular balance, recovery, and autonomic health:
Supplements should be customized based on testing, symptoms, and goals.
RHR and HRV aren’t just numbers—they’re real-time indicators of your health, adaptability, and future risk. These markers reflect how well your body is handling stress, recovering from life’s demands, and maintaining balance across the nervous, immune, and hormonal systems.
At Longevity Health Clinic in Charlottesville, we help you interpret these powerful metrics through the lens of functional medicine. Whether your goals are optimizing energy, preventing burnout, recovering from illness, or enhancing athletic performance, monitoring and improving your heart’s signals is a foundational step.
