Mental Health, HRV & Antidepressants with Dan Quintana

How deep do changes in mental state impact our physiology? Today’s guest is Daniel Quintana. Dan is a Research Fellow at the University of Oslo and received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Sydney in 2013. His research focuses on the role of heart rate variability, the autonomic nervous system and hormones on mental health. In this episode, we’re going to pick Dan’s brain on the relationship between mental and physical health, autonomic dysregulation, how HRV reflects mental health condition, antidepressants and other interventions. -- topics listed below HRV Course (enrollment open for a limited time! Check it out here: https://hrvcourse.com/ep-14 Leave a quick podcast review: https://elitehrv.com/review-ep-14 (Thanks in advance!) TOPICS: 1:23 – Dan’s Background and Introduction 2:50 – Some alarming figures with respect to mental health costs 4:25 – The focus of Dan’s research: mental health, autonomic nervous system, and psychophysiology 4:47 – What exactly is psychophysiology, one of Dan’s research focuses 6:26 – How did Dan first start out in this field of study 7:37 – Dan’s first job out of college and what it is like working in a research center 8:16 – What role does the autonomic nervous system play in mental health? 10:07 – What is Psychological Flexibility and Emotional Self Regulation 12:48 – Examples of resetting your autonomic nervous system 15:24 – How to regulate your thoughts with emotional self regulation 17:02 – Constant worryings effect upon heart rate variability 19:09 – The largest influence on heart rate variability 20:02 – How over quantifying and optimizing your life can be a detriment 21:53 – The bidirectional relationship between worry and heart rate variability 23:49 – An interesting and powerful note regarding diseases and immortality 26:35 – Using heart rate variability as an early marker for cardiovascular illness and psychological illness 27:45 – Specific heart rate variability metrics and standards of measurement 30:46 – Depressions link to low heart rate variability 33:34 – Antidepressant medications effect on heart rate variability 35:47 – How tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors work 37:10 – Additional implications antidepressants have including metabolic effects. 38:05 – Continued long term use of antidepressants and their implications 41:01 – Do certain drugs that affect HRV have a lasting effect on health? 43:09 – Non pharmacological interventions that improve heart rate variability 46:27 – Cognitive behavioral therapy and the patient therapist relationship 49:46 – Guided breathing and long exhales lead to improved heart rate variability 50:45 – Increased aerobic fitness levels and researching extreme athletes 53:02 – Am I too old or too young to measure heart rate variability 54:45 – The benefits of performing an at home HRV recording as opposed to a lab 57:25 – Dan’s own self quantification and data collection 58:42 – Additional ways to increase heart rate variability 59:30 – HRV improvements from acute temperature changes HRV Course Enrollment: https://hrvcourse.com/ep-14 Leave a quick review: https://elitehrv.com/review-ep-14 (Thanks in advance!) Guest: Dan Quintana https://twitter.com/dsquintana Host: Jason Moore https://elitehrv.com/podcast --