Water consumption as a source of error in the measurement of heart rate variability

Abstract

Abstract.Heart rate variability (HRV) is a common measure of the autonomic modulation of the heart. To ensure accuracy, various external factors known to affect HRV such as medication use and concurrent illnesses are frequently controlled during measurement. While the influences of such confounds on accurate measurement of HRV are accepted, the influence of seemingly innocuous daily activities such as drinking and eating have received remarkably little attention. In fact, water consumption is known to provoke a powerful pressor stimulus that is buffered by changes in cardiovagal outflow yet it is sporadically controlled during experimentation. This paper examines the dose-dependent magnitude of the effect of water on HRV, the loss of HRV during a common attentional task after water consumption, and the typical scenario of water and mixed meal ingestion. Our findings show that water affects HRV in a dosedependent manner, and exaggerates attentionally-mediated HRV reduction. This effect is antagonised by simultaneous mixed meal consumption, which strongly increases cardiac sympathetic activity. Water consumption during or previous to HRV measurement should be carefully controlled, if possible.Considering the diverse nature of experimental protocols and populations, we suggest a hierarchy of methods to control for water consumption in HRV research.

Utility of an Isotonic Beverage on Hydration Status and Cardiovascular Alterations

“…Monnard and Grasser observed a similar decrease in HR up to 45 min with no alterations to CO, however they observed an immediate decrease in SBP following water (335 mL) consumption [ 38 ]. The extended response of HR in the current study may be due to a dose dependent response considering that our dosage of fluid (1 L) was higher and ingested across a greater time frame (i.e., 30 min) than previous studies [ 18 , 40 ]. Grasser et al found a prolonged depression in HR following the ingestion of 800 mL of water for up to 60 min when compared to 200, 400, and 600 mL [ 18 ].…”

“…While interpreting the findings of the current study, it is important to note the current study design differed from others as it did not include a baseline measure of cardiovascular parameters prior to fluid consumption [ 19 , 23 , 38 , 39 , 40 ]. Instead, the first measurement of cardiovascular and fluid composition was obtained immediately following fluid ingestion.…”

Heart Rate Variability and Direct Current Measurement Characteristics in Professional Mixed Martial Arts Athletes

“…Portable short-duration HRV assessment methods of~1-5 min have been demonstrated to be effective [11,13]. However, factors such as the choice of HRV measures (e.g., root mean square of sum of differences (RMSSD)), measurement position (e.g., supine, seated, standing), water intake prior to measurement, sex, time of measure (e.g., nocturnal, upon awakening, upon arrival at training or after submaximal exercises) and breathing rate may all affect HRV measures [11,[14][15][16]. Of particular interest for coaches is if there are differences between HRV measures taken upon awakening (which are recommended as best practice when using heart rate measures to guide training prescription) [17] and measures taken upon arrival at training (which may be preferred by coaches for compliance reasons) [18].…”

The effect of ambient sounds on decision-making and heart rate variability in autism

“…While we controlled for medication use and comorbidities known to impact HRV, it is possible that the signal may have been affected by variables that were uncontrolled, such as smoking (Kemp, Koenig & Thayer, 2017;Murgia et al, 2019), body mass index (Föhr et al, 2016;Koenig et al, 2014), physical activity (Kemp et al, 2017;May, McBerty, Zaky & Gianotti, 2017), and alcohol (Ralevski, Petrakis & Altemus, 2019) and water (Heathers et al, 2018) consumption.…”