If you've ever glanced at your wearable in the morning and felt a small wave of anxiety over your recovery score, this episode is for you. And if you've spent years feeling like your body is stuck in some kind of alert mode, tired but wired, never quite settled, this conversation might put language to something you've been feeling for a long time without knowing what to call it.
Why This Episode Matters
Heart rate variability, or HRV, gets talked about constantly in wearable culture, but most people have never had it explained in a way that actually makes sense. It's not a heart measurement. It's a window into your nervous system, specifically the balance between your fight or flight response and your ability to rest, recover, and digest. Understanding that difference changes how you interpret your own data and your own body.
What Listeners Will Learn
What HRV actually measures, and why it has almost nothing to do with your cardiovascular system directly
How a healthy nervous system responds to stress and recovers from it
Why comparing your HRV number to someone else's tells you nothing useful
How often you should actually be checking your HRV data
The difference between how a consumer should use HRV and how a practitioner uses it
Why some people benefit from tracking daily, and why others are better off not tracking at all
Key Moments or Themes
Vivek's path from Dartmouth to co-founding SPREN (formerly Elite HRV) after a decade at NxStage Medical working in dialysis care
The autonomic nervous system explained in plain language, fight or flight versus rest and digest
Why HRV shows up differently across your pupils, skin, temperature, and heartbeat, and why comparing devices or people is close to meaningless
The real story behind why some of SPREN's most successful users eventually stopped tracking altogether
How a practitioner might use HRV data differently than an individual tracking their own recovery
Vivek's honest take on where HRV research is headed, and why it isn't going away
Dr. Su's Perspective
Dr. Su brings this conversation back to something he sees constantly in his patients. So many people are living in a state of chronic stress that their nervous system has simply adapted to it as the new normal. HRV gives language and data to something that root-cause medicine has always paid attention to, the nervous system is not separate from the rest of the body, it's central to it.
Guest Bio Placeholder
Vivek Menon is the co-founder of SPREN (formerly Elite HRV), a company that has spent over a decade turning wearable and smartphone data into insights people can actually use for their health, wellness, and performance. Prior to SPREN, he spent ten years at NxStage Medical, working to improve quality of life for dialysis patients. He's a Dartmouth graduate with dual degrees in economics and biology.
If you're focused on optimizing your health long term, Dr. Su has something in the works for you. Stay connected at rootseekhealth.com.
If this conversation had you thinking about your own nervous system, your own stress patterns, or what might really be going on in your body, Dr. Su opens a small number of spots each month for a direct conversation.
Ask Dr. Mark: Clinical First Steps Call
Once a month, Dr. Su opens one hour to five people only. Real questions, real answers, real direction.
Book your spot: https://go.rootseekhealth.com/askdrmark
Connect with Dr. Su:
rootseekhealth.com | @rootseekhealth | @drmarksu
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Learn more about SPREN:
www.spren.com
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.
