What Are BrainTap and Heart Rate Variability Monitoring?
Some of the challenges that my clients are struggling with include fatigue, brain fog, and chronic stress. BrainTap and an HRV Scan (Heart Rate Variability Scan) offer a powerful package for measuring how a person responds to stress, and how brainwave modulation can support both focus and rest. Chronic stress, disrupted sleep, and a sluggish metabolism can degrade a person’s health. The HRV scan provides visual images and objective data for what would normally be intangible physiological concepts. BrainTap offers a scientifically proven, highly effective, and simple solution for brain-based wellness.
The data acquired from the HRV scan answers these important questions:
“Is stress aging you prematurely?”
“Is stress depleting your brain function and energy levels?”
“How is stress affecting your metabolism?”
The HRV scan shows how stress has major downstream effects on the body. However, it is also a practical tool for tracking health coaching interventions that aim to resolve underlying issues at the root cause level through dietary changes, supplements, exercise, sleep, detoxification, and emotional/psychological rebalancing.
Is BrainTap Right for You?
BrainTap is for most individuals of any age and health status because it is a great tool to learn meditation, enjoy time to reset after a long workday or support a mindful lifestyle. HRV monitoring and training are great tools for any fitness training program. On top of that, if you are experiencing issues with poor sleep, mental focus, mood imbalances like depression and anxiety, hormonal dysregulation, chronic pain, or if you are feeling tired, overwhelmed, and stressed, BrainTap can help. Contraindications include those with severe nervous system dysfunction and neurological diseases such as epilepsy, or those who suffer from schizophrenia.
What Happens During the Initial Braintap Session?
Your initial consultation with Dr. Manja, DNM, PhD, will include an HRV scan and a BrainTap meditation session, followed by a re-measure of the HRV scan. This way you can experience for yourself if you like this tech-supported way of meditating and how just one BrainTap session affects your nervous system and stress response.
An HRV scan is a painless, non-invasive scan of your heart rate variability. The machine records 300 of your heartbeats while you get to sit back and relax. The underlying software algorithms generate visual data of how your nervous system functions based on your heart rhythm patterns.
During the review, Dr. Manja provides a detailed analysis of your biomarkers as shown by your before and after HRV scans.
What Does the HRV Scan Measure?
- ECG recording
- Stress index (is stress low or high)
- Assessment of the state of the cardiovascular and nervous system (is the body in fight or flight, exhausted, or balanced)
- Assessment of the body’s neurohumoral regulation (energy and metabolism)
- Assessment of the body’s current psycho-emotional state using brain biorhythm mapping (is the brain stressed or balanced)
- Assessment of the body’s adaptation level and level of harmonization of biological rhythms
- Determination of the patient’s biological age, determination of premature aging or reversed aging
The HRV scan is a monitoring tool. It is not a diagnostic tool.
How Does the HRV Scan Gain Information from Decoding the Heartbeat?
FFT, or Fast Fourier Transform, is a digital tool that analyzes the heart rate signal using time and frequency algorithms, measuring periodic oscillations of the heart rate signal’s varying frequencies and amplitudes. This provides information on the relative intensity, or variance of power, in the heart’s sinus rhythm as seen in the ECG.
The Fast Fourier Transform breaks down the ECG into its frequency-component bandwidths that correspond to the nervous system:
- Low frequency (LF) corresponds to sympathetic nervous system regulation, or acute stress/fight or flight mode
- High frequency (HF) corresponds to parasympathetic regulation, or rest/digest/heal/detoxify mode
- Very low frequency (VLF) reflects the central nervous system (CNS) and its regulation through its downstream hormones accessed through HPA axis, as seen in “burn out” mode and a state of adrenal exhaustion
You Enjoyed Your Initial BrainTap Session. Now What?
Following the initial HRV and BrainTap session, it is recommended to do 3 or more BrainTap sessions per week for the next 4 weeks to see maximum results. At MANYA, we offer different, convenient options:
- Clients can book 30-minute appointments at their convenience to use the headset provided in an undisturbed setting.
- We also loan headsets for your use at home for a small weekly or monthly fee.
- Headsets are available for purchase. Coaching clients of Dr. Manja receive a $100 discount on a BrainTap headset purchase.
Following your first consultation, we will develop an action plan for your health coaching goals and work to implement it step-by-step. Depending on the starting point, you should expect measurable changes in HRV within 1 to 3 months for most health-related goals and in as little as two weeks for fitness and training-related goals. It is possible to combine BrainTap with other modalities such as hypnotherapy, auriculotherapy, vagus nerve stimulation, and nutraceuticals, and we will rescan HRV after 4-6 weeks and compare your results. This way, we can review the effectiveness of the intervention strategies and choose the right lifestyle modifications for you.
