Aging Well: How to Improve HRV as We Age

Age is often divided into two categories: biological age and chronological age. Biological age refers to how old your body seems to be, while chronological is the number of years you have been alive. Your biological age can be older or younger or the same as your chronological age, it all depends on how well you take care of your body.

One of the ways we can monitor our biological age is with heart rate variability (HRV). We’ve talked a lot about heart rate variability and the ways we can improve it through sleep, exercise, and breathing. Now, we take a look at how age changes our HRV and what we can do to compensate for those changes.

How Does Age Affect Our Bodies?

As we age, the different subsystems of our cardiovascular system begin to experience a decline in efficiency and ability¹. As we get older, the heart and the cardiovascular system begin to experience fatigue from the decades of nonstop function, and as a result, the heart is unable to beat at the same capacity.

Research has seen a decrease in cardiac output occurring after age 30, with output dropping by 1 percent every year². Cardiac output refers to the volume of blood that the heart can pump into the circulatory system in one minute. The amount of blood a healthy 20-year-old’s heart can pump is almost double the amount a healthy 80-year-old’s heart can pump³.

Aging also causes increased stiffness in our arteries, the blood vessels that deliver blood from the heart to different areas of our body⁴. This increased stiffness often leads to high blood pressure or hypertension. High blood pressure, especially at an older age, may cause health concerns, especially heart disease.

Our nervous system is also impacted by age, with the autonomic nervous system beginning to take longer to react to stimuli⁵. The autonomic nervous system is in charge of involuntary actions, it ensures that activities like breathing, heartbeat, and digestion can occur without conscious effort. As we age, the speed at which our neurons fire also decreases, which means it takes more time for our brain to register and react to stimuli⁶. As our nervous system slows, our parasympathetic nervous system decreases in activity. On the opposite hand, our sympathetic activities tend to increase with age⁷. This combination means that our bodies are more often stressed than relaxed.

As our systems begin to deteriorate with age, our heart rate variability also decreases⁸. As we age, monitoring HRV becomes much more important because it becomes much more indicative of possible cardiovascular disease and autonomic imbalance.

How to Improve HRV As We Age

It feels like we just learned a lot of bad news about the inevitability of age and its effects on our bodies, but there is a bright side. There are steps we can take to balance the effects of age on our HRV and our body systems. Previously, we went into detail about how and why sleep and exercise are so important to regulate HRV, and that is still true as we age.

Research has continuously shown that regular physical activity in adults is correlated with higher HRV and overall, a better quality of life⁹. An increase in total outdoor, mild physical activity, and walking is correlated with more favorable results in autonomic function indexes¹⁰. Improvements in nervous system balance and reduced sympathetic activity have been seen as well. A study observed participants and their walking habits for over five years, finding that those with a faster average walking pace and further walking distance had better HRV readings than slower, shorter walkers¹¹.

Stimulating the Vagus Nerve

As we’ve discussed previously, the vagus nerve is an important link between our brain and other organ systems, and it is indicative of autonomic health. Vagus nerve stimulation aims to boost parasympathetic activity and decrease sympathetic activity¹², leading to an overall healthier vagus nerve. However, one of the big drawbacks of directly stimulating the vagus nerve is that it involves an invasive application of a device that can only be done in a clinical setting. It’s definitely not practical for our day-to-day routine.

Luckily, there is a type of indirect stimulation called transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation, tVNS. The vagus nerve extends into the ear, and through tVNS, we can stimulate the outer parts of the ear and reap the same benefits¹³. tVNS uses a TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) machine with electrode clips that attach to the inner and outer ear¹⁴.

Studies of tVNS have seen an improvement in HRV, especially in older adults, where the baseline HRV is especially low¹⁵. A study saw improved autonomic function and improvements in mood and sleep in patients who underwent tVNS for 15 minutes every day for two weeks¹⁶.

You can easily DIY your own machine by combining a TENS unit with specific ear clip electrodes, both of which can be purchased easily online or at some drugstores. As always, before starting any treatment, make sure to consult your doctor or healthcare professional.

Acupuncture

Another slightly more invasive and expensive way of offsetting the effects of age on HRV is acupuncture. Acupuncture is a form of traditional Chinese medicine that involves inserting thin needles through your skin at very specific points. Acupuncture is often used for pain management, but it is gaining popularity as a way to maintain wellness and general health.

Research suggests that acupuncture helps to enhance vagal health and suppress sympathetic activities to promote relaxation and reduce stress in your body¹⁷. Specifically, acupuncture decreases the LF and LF/HF ratio, both of which indicate an improvement in HRV¹⁸. See this article for an explanation of LF and LF/HF ratios. Acupuncture in older adults can help regulate HRV, however, it can be expensive and nerve-wracking at first, especially if you have a fear of needles.

Our bodies experience a variety of different changes as we age throughout our lifetimes. Some of those changes are welcomed, while others, like the slowing down of our organ systems, are very much not. Despite our chronological age being unchanging and ever-increasing, we have a certain amount of control over our biological age. Keeping these things in mind and implementing small changes in your lifestyle reflect in the way you age, and ultimately, let you lead a happier, healthier life. Remember, it’s never too late or too early to start taking care of your health.

Endnotes

1. Takahashi, A.C.M., Porta, A., Melo, R.C. et al. Aging Reduces Complexity of Heart Rate Variability Assessed by Conditional Entropy and Symbolic Analysis. Intern Emerg Med 7, 229–235 (2012).
2. Heart Health and Aging. National Institute on Aging. nia.nih.gov/health/heart-health-and-aging.
3. Boss, G. R., & Seegmiller, J. E. (1981). Age-related Physiological Changes and Their Clinical Significance. The Western Journal of Medicine, 135(6), 434–440.
4. Boss and Seegmiller, (1981).
5. Reardon, M., & Malik, M. (1996). Changes in Heart Rate Variability with Age. Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology: PACE, 19(11 Pt 2), 1863–1866. doi.org/10.1111/j.1540–8159.1996.tb03241.x.
6. Reardon and Malik, (1996).
7. Reardon and Malik, (1996).
8. Shaffer, F., & Ginsberg, J. P. (2017). An Overview of Heart Rate Variability Metrics and Norms. Frontiers in Public Health, 5, 258. doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00258.
9. Soares-Miranda, L., Sattelmair, J., Chaves, P., Duncan, G. E., Siscovick, D. S., Stein, P. K., & Mozaffarian, D. (2014). Physical activity and heart rate variability in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study. Circulation, 129(21), 2100–2110. doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.005361.
10. Soares-Miranda et al. (2014).
11. Soares-Miranda et al. (2014).
12. Soares-Miranda et al. (2014).
13. Bretherton B, Atkinson L, Murray A, Clancy J, Deuchars S, Deuchars J. (2019). Effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in individuals aged 55 years or above: potential benefits of daily stimulation. Aging, 11:4836–4857. doi.org/10.18632/aging.102074.
14. Bretherton et al. (2019).
15. Bretherton et al. (2019).
16. Bretherton et al. (2019).
17. Wang, J. D., Kuo, T. B., & Yang, C. C. (2002). An alternative method to enhance vagal activities and suppress sympathetic activities in humans. Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic & Clinical, 100(1–2), 90–95. doi.org/10.1016/s1566–0702(02)00150–9.
18. Chung, J. W., Yan, V. C., & Zhang, H. (2014). Effect of acupuncture on heart rate variability: a systematic review. Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine: eCAM, 2014, 819871. doi.org/10.1155/2014/819871.