Heart Rate Variability: Physical Therapy Technology for Long COVID

What makes Heart Rate Variability the preferred Physical Therapy Technology for patients with Long COVID symptoms?

Let’s start with three facts we know.

1. The Autonomic Nervous System works within us to regulate our internal systems like blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory, digestion and more – all directly affecting our immune system. When something is wrong with our ANS, it can have severe consequences on the body’s functionality and recovery.

2. A recent “spin off” of COVID-19, known as Long COVID, is now affecting 10 – 30% of patients who have previously been infected with the SARS CoV-2 coronavirus according to The New York Times. Guess where the lion’s share of symptoms target those afflicted with Long COVID? The Autonomic Nervous System. 

3. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is an existing, state-of-the-art technology that has a specific use case for physical therapy programs. What makes it so special? It promotes a healthy ANS that isn’t sympathetic dominant, and it ultimately creates a healthier lifestyle with increased functionality and recovery.

How Heart Rate Variability Helps Treat Long COVID Patients

Preliminary studies on Long COVID show that symptoms center around the vagus nerve, specifically how the symptoms decrease the nerve’s ability to regulate the central nervous system. This, in turn, fuels the chronic symptoms associated with how the ANS regulates those internal organ functions mentioned earlier like digestion, heart rate, breathing, and even certain reflex actions. 

So, to combat this, physical therapy programs have to find ways to improve and optimize full-body system functionality by stimulating this nerve and returning it to “rest and restoration” rather than the energy-zapping “fight or flight” response to relieve persistent chronic long COVID symptoms. 

To achieve that outcome, physical therapists need a mode of measurement to gauge the patient’s current status in real-time. HRV makes it possible for clinicians to assess a post-COVID patient’s heart rate variability score before and after treatment. This provides feedback via electrical activity in the patient’s heart which will uncover the patient’s overall wellness and recovery capacity. 

Driving the Long COVID use case home: This is the perfect tool for patients with long-term illnesses. In just 5-minutes, a non-invasive HRV analysis gives a clear indication of the body’s inability to switch between “fight” and “rest” phases. Next, physical therapists can leverage this important data to design or alter their plans of care based on the real-time data they receive from the HRV score. Finally, they can create more effective programs to improve the patient’s health status and increase functionality for the activities that have become difficult or impossible due to Long COVID symptoms.

By treating the patient from the inside out with evidence-based physical therapy technology, your Physical Therapy Private Practice can help relieve the pain and unknown surrounding Long COVID patients. 

Make HRV Part of Your Physical Therapy Private Practice Program

NeuPTtech offers a full-service HRV assessment system built for physical therapy clinics. It comes with everything you need, from equipment to training, to get this implemented into your practice immediately. Plus, insider pricing is currently available for a limited time with free shipping. Buy today and start treating patients within a week.

We have the equipment, knowledge and experience developed by physical therapists for physical therapists to get you up to speed quickly on how to utilize, interpret and incorporate HRV effectively and immediately into your treatment plan.

As always, if you have any questions about HRV or the physical therapy technology currently improving patient and practice outcomes for clinics all over the country, contact NeuPTtech.