Did your doctor have really curly yellow hair and big red shoes? I ask cause it sounds like he's described atrial fibrillation (which I've been dealing with since Jan 2010) and that is definitely not good. Seriously, I am going to look this up but couldn't resist pulling your chain, a little. Best of luck with your situation.
Todd
There is an EKG showing RR intervals and the calculation and shown on top of EKG report. If there are no irregularities the number would be the same as the heart rate. There are other more elaborate calculations but all involve and EKG.
There has been experiments with different psychological and physiological measures, but it was consistently heart rate variability (HRV), or heart rhythms, that appear to be the most dynamic and reflective of inner emotional states and stress.
It seems clear that the automatic nervous system and any negative emotions lead to increased disorder in the heart’s rhythms and in the autonomic nervous system, thereby adversely affecting the rest of the body. In contrast, positive emotions create increased harmony and coherence in heart rhythms and improve balance in the nervous system.
So the health implications would be disharmony in the nervous system leads to inefficiency and increased stress on the heart and other organs while harmonious rhythms are more efficient and less stressful to the body’s systems. But the potential for heart rate variability to be used widely in clinical practice remains to be established.
eurjhhf.oxfordjournals: "Despite well-established prognostic credentials in a variety of cardiac diseases, its clinical utility will be more apparent when interventions based on HRV are proven to be beneficial. Trials randomising patients to pharmacological or non-pharmacological interventions based on the results of a heart rate variability tests such as the Defibrillator in Acute Myocardial Infarction Trial are currently underway [32]. The accumulating evidence of the prognostic utility of α1 warrants consideration of its incorporation as an inclusion criterion in future studies. Another issue requiring further study that is particularly relevant to the potential utility of the α1measure in cardiac failure, is whether it can be employed in patients with atrial fibrillation or other arrhythmias."
Hope this gives you a perspective. There doesn't seem to be any conclusive evidence from any sudies although there is much interest. It is known that a slower heart rate is beneficial and HRV is in that category.