How To Improve Your Heart Rate Variability - Dr Leah Lagos - #829

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, friends, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Dr. Leah Lagos. She's a clinical psychologist, HRV performance coach and an author. Heart rate variability is one of the most important new metrics that people are using to gauge heart health, longevity and fitness, but improving it can be a minefield. Thankfully, Dr. Lagos has spent decades optimizing the HRVs of some of the world's highest performers. And today we get to hear her best advice. Expect to learn the crucial relationship between HRV and your brain function, plus your heart health, the best way to improve your HRV, what most people get wrong when trying to optimize the most surprising factors that can impact your HRV, the role of breath, stress and fitness, and much more. You might have heard me say that hold luggage is a psyop meant to keep you poor and late, but there are some times when you just can't help it. You're going away for so long or to somewhere where you need to carry more, and this is where Nomatic comes in with their brand new Method Check-In Luggage. It's been designed from the wheels up to be lighter, stronger and hold more. You can pack for 8 to 14 days of clothes and it's lighter, so no more panic attacks every time you wear your bag. Plus, their new carry-on can hold up to 30% more than other carry-ons, which means you can fit more than a week's worth of clothing without checking a bag. And best of all, their products will last you literally a lifetime with their lifetime guarantee. You can return or exchange any product within 30 days for any reason. So you can buy your new luggage, give it a try for a month and if you do not like it, they will give you your money back. Right now you can get a 20% discount site-wide by going to the link in the description below or heading to nomatic.com/modernwisdom. That's nomatic.com/modernwisdom. You might have heard me say that I took my testosterone level from 495 to 1006 last year and one of the supplements I used throughout that was Tonkat Ali. Momentous make the only NSF certified Tonkat Ali on the planet. That means they're so rigorously tested that even Olympic athletes can use it. And that is why I partnered with them because they make the most carefully tested highest quality supplements on the planet. Dr. Andrew Huberman is actually the scientific advisor for Momentous. So if you've ever wondered what supplements he would create or what he really uses himself, this is the answer. So if you're not performing in the gym or the bedroom the way that you would like, or you just want to improve your testosterone naturally, Tonkat Ali is a fantastic research bank place to start. There is a 30-day money back guarantee so you can buy it completely risk-free. Plus, they ship internationally. Right now, you can get a 20% discount by going to livemomentous.com/modernwisdom and using the code modern wisdom at checkout. That's L I V E M O M E N T O U s.com/modernwisdom and modern wisdom at checkout. You probably want to look good and feel good when you're in the gym and Gymshark makes the best men's and girls' gym wear on the planet. They don't do running, they don't do yoga, they don't do extreme unicycling, Gymshark does gyms. Their studio shorts for men are literally the best pair of training shorts I've ever found in my entire life. Their crest hoodie in light grey mall is what I fly in every time that I'm on a plane and their geo seamless t-shirt is what I've been training in every single day for years now. Basically everything they make is unbelievably well fitted and high quality and you get 30 days of free returns globally with global shipping plus a 10% discount sitewide. Head to the link in the description below or go to gym.sh slash Modern Wisdom and use the code MW10, a checkout that's gym.sh slash Modern Wisdom and MW10, a checkout. But now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dr. Leah Lagos.
What's the history of HRV, who discovered it?

**Leah Lagos** (4:03)
You know, it's really interesting. It originated being a metric that doctors looked at before babies were born to predict the vitality of the unborn baby, that they would be healthy upon birth. And then in time, doctors began using it as a metric of cardiovascular health and other conditions. HRV is very much associated with clinical conditions from fibromyalgia to irritable bowel syndrome, to depression, to anxiety. And then a cohort, a small subset of people, including myself, came along and said, well, what about people that aren't afflicted by a condition, but just wanted to get better? And that question has been the last 17 years of my research and practice.