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Health Assessment products: FAQ


Product specific FAQ:




General questions:




Answers:



What is heart rate variability?
Heart rate variability, or HRV, is the natural rise and fall of your heart rate in response to your breathing, blood pressure, hormones and even emotions. In a healthy heart, the rate should increase as you inhale and decrease as you exhale. HRV is reflective of the general wellness state of the organism.


Why should I use HRV in my practice?
HRV (heart rate variability) is relatively young but one of the fastest developing area of biomedical knowledge. It provides special methods of analysis of variability in heart rhythm caused by various physiological mechanisms of functional regulation of the body and primarily by the autonomic nervous system.

Vast number of recent research studies clearly showed that the autonomic nervous system plays key role in maintaining our body’s well-being by keeping it in the optimal state of inner regulation. There are many factors of stress nature that cause this regulation to fail for shorter or longer periods of time. Such repetitive failures lead to developing various maladies.

Using HRV methods we can enable you to get very accurate quantitative reliable and placebo free assessment of the autonomic function before such failures of the functional regulation lead to full symptomatic clinical cases. Proper autonomic assessment can help to detect health problems at early stages and optimize their proper care.



What is autonomic balance?
By measuring the heart’s rhythmic patterns (heart rate variability) Biocom product can assess the Autonomic Nervous System's state of balance very accurately. 90% of the body’s functions are controlled by the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The ANS is like the brake pedal and gas pedal for an automobile. Sympathetic regulation is the Gas and Parasympathetic activation is the Brake. It is essential to have both to run the vehicle appropriately, safely and efficiently. If too much Gas (Stress) is used, this over charges the vehicle. Apply the brakes (Relaxation) too hard or too often, the system is sluggish. This analogy works in a simplified manner to express how the autonomic nervous system functions in the human body. ANS Balance is an essential key to health and a stable immune system.


What is physiological homeostasis?
Physiological homeostasis is defined as a dynamic state of the body's regulatory functions maintained at their inner balance. Inner balance is the key to longevity, a healthy response to the stress of life.


Please tell me why your products are better than other similar products available?
Biocom products are known for years as the most superior in the market of professional assessment of the autonomic function, physiological monitoring and biofeedback.

Biocom products were designed by top notch professionals in the industry of biomedical technologies with over 25 years of professional experience.

All Biocom products were scientifically validated with special research studies and acknowledged by leading professionals and academic organizations such as Baylor University, Stanford University, University of North Carolina and many others.

While being the products of high quality and superior functionality they are noticeably less expensive than any of their substantial equivalents.



Does any Biocom product allow for continuous measurement and analysis of HRV data along with special treatment procedures in real-time?
HRV Live! product was designed specifically for this kind of use.


I’m a chiropractor. What Biocom product would be best for measuring changes in the autonomic function associated with my treatment procedures?
If you want to have a simple inexpensive tool to measure just the autonomic balance before and after your treatment procedure, we would recommend the Inner Balance Scan 2.0. If you want to obtain more detailed information about the autonomic function derived from resting heart rate variability data and have ability to perform more measurements than just Pre- and Post-, then we would recommend the Heart Rhythm Scanner PE (which includes two challenge tests – deep metronomic breathing and standup tests). If you need to measure changes in the autonomic function in real-time, input event markers and later compare any segments of recorded data, then we would recommend the HRV Live!


What Biocom product can export measured heartbeat intervals (in milliseconds) and in what format?
Heart Rhythm Scanner PE and HRV Live! can export heartbeat intervals in Excel or plain text (ASCII) formats.


I purchased Biocom product with Bioocm 5000 ECG device. What kind of ECG electrodes and from what vendor would you recommend to buy?
Any ordinary pre-gelled snap-type ECG electrodes available in online stores would work well.


I have Biocom 4500 ECG Recorder unit. When I run a new test, I see fuzzy ECG trace on the screen. What can I do to make it clean?
There could be several reasons of having fuzzy ECG signal.
  • Incorrect setting of digital notch filter. Fuzzy signal may be due to presence of power noise induced through ECG cable wires. By default the system is configured to reject 60 Hz power noise (USA, Canada, part of Japan, etc.). If your power source uses 50 Hz frequency, it will definitely cause fuzzy ECG signal. Refer to your product manual to properly set the notch filter for your ECG device.
    • Poor electrical contact between ECG electrodes and skin. Thoroughly prepare skin under electrodes using alcohol swabs to remove excessive skin grease and dead skin cells. In some cases of dry skin using special conductive gel is recommended.
    • ECG electrodes are worn out. Although ECG electrodes are long-lasting, after some excessive use their Ag/AgCl coating becomes worn out. We recommend replacing electrodes. Contact our technical support to request replacement. It is easy to pull old electrodes out and snap new ones in.

    Can any Biocom device record external event markers?
    No.


    Can any Biocom product import raw ECG or pulse wave signal measured by non-Biocom device?
    No.


    Can Biocom products export HRV data in MatLab file format?
    No, there is no direct export into MatLab format. However ASCII of Excel export can be used for that purpose.


    What Biocom products are capable of exporting HRV data and client information in digital format?
    Heart Rhythm Scanner PE and HRV Live! can export heart rate variability data in Excel or plain text (ASCII) formats.


    Why are your products more expensive than the HeartMath products?
    This is not entirely accurate. The HeartMath products have limited use focusing on emotional improvement based on specific biofeedback technique. Their prices are within $200 - $300 range depending on specific model.

    Our products have much broader scope of application ranging from similar biofeedback techniques to sophisticated autonomic assessment and monitoring tools. Many of our products simply do not have substantial equivalents at HeartMath. Our products functionally similar to what HearMath has are within the same price range of less than $300.



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