It’s Friday, so we have a new Science 411 available. The paper this week is: Vagal Mediation of Low-Frequency Heart Rate Variability During Slow Yogic Breathing
This was was super neat and important.
Here is the 1 Big Takeaway:
By separately blocking the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems during slow breathing, this study conclusively found that observed increases in HRV during slow breathing are primarily due to increased vagal activity.
And here’s a graphical representation of the key findings:
HRV plots during slow breathing at different rates and under different nervous system blockades. THIS IS NOT REAL DATA. It’s a loose adaptation of Figure 2 of this paper, Vagal Mediation of Low-Frequency Heart Rate Variability During Slow Yogic Breathing. Psychosom Med. 2018.