As we age obvious changes occur which are visible in the mirror such as wrinkling of the skin and graying of our hair.  We lose muscle mass and tend to gain weight.  These changes are obvious but not very quantifiable.  It turns out that other subtle changes correlate with our general health and degree of fitness which are measurable.  One of these is the best to beat variation in our heart rate.  When we are young we are highly adaptable.  We can move quickly and change directions while running with ease.  Our autonomic nervous system is fine tuned to allow us to adapt to changing conditions by increasing or decreasing our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate and other functions we are not even aware of.

As we age and become less fit our ability to change our heart rate becomes less efficient.  Because the measurement of heart rate is so simple it became of interest to cardiologists and mathematicians as a variable that could be used to measure health.  Computers have allowed sophisticated mathematical analysis to be used on such data to develop algorhythms which demonstrate our state of health graphically.

Computer processing of the variation in heart rate can now be easily done to show a patient’s state of fitness.  It turns out that interventions can be made to improve one’s state which then is reflected by the mathematical processing of the heart rate data.  These interventions include changes in diet, exercise and other lifestyle alterations.

Waters Integrative Health Center has a device known as Nerve Express that can measure your level of fitness and guide us in helping you improve your health.  All new patients will undergo this testing and have follow-up measurements as appropriate throughout their course of care at our Center.

This technology represents a great breakthrough in preventive medical care and long-term great health!