Integrative Brain and Body

02/23/2026

We’ve spent decades lowering the wrong number. 🫣

If you’re still fixated on cholesterol… you might be missing the REAL driver of cardiovascular risk.

A massive study of 13 million people showed that the most protective cholesterol range wasn’t low at all—it was 230–240.

So why do we keep blaming cholesterol?

Because it’s always present at the scene… just like firefighters at fires.

The REAL issue?

➡️ Lipoproteins—especially ApoB.
➡️ Not how much cholesterol you have, but how your body packages and transports it.

If you’ve never had ApoB tested, you’re not actually seeing your cardiovascular risk… just a shadow of it.

02/21/2026

02/20/2026

Emerging research continues to explore how omega-3 fatty acids may influence autonomic regulation and cardiovascular risk.📚 This recent paper suggests that omega-3 supplementation may enhance heart rate variability, which could help explain observed associations with lower arrhythmic risk and sudden cardiac death.

The study synthesizes existing evidence rather than proving direct causation, which is important context. Many of the underlying trials vary in dose, population, baseline omega-3 status, and HRV measurement methods, all of which influence outcomes. Still, the consistency of the signal across studies supports the idea that omega-3s may play a supportive role in heart–brain communication.🧠❤️

HRV is not just a cardiac metric. It reflects how the nervous system interacts with the cardiovascular system under stress, recovery, and daily demands. Nutrition is one of several inputs that can influence this balance.
As always, supplementation should be considered within the broader context of lifestyle, nervous system regulation, and individual needs.
(General education only).

02/19/2026

Most people think breathing is just about oxygen.
But physiology tells a much deeper story.

Your breathing rhythm is tightly linked to your nervous system, heart rhythm (HRV), and emotional state.
Not just influenced by emotion...but capable of shaping it.

Research shows that different breathing patterns correlate with anxiety, stress, anger, calm, and even depression.
In other words: your body is expressing emotion before your mind labels it.

This relationship is bi-directional.
Emotion changes breathing…
and breathing changes emotion.

That’s why things like respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart-breath synchronization, and HRV matter so much. They reveal how bodily rhythms influence autonomic balance and even broader brain activity.

As our ability to measure these signals improves...combining breathing patterns, HRV, and other physiological markers...we’re moving toward a future where we can detect emotional states early, train resilience through biofeedback, and intervene before stress turns into disease.

Breathing really is a bridge between the conscious and unconscious, the body and the mind.

And learning to work with it may be one of the most powerful skills for long-term mental and cardiovascular health.

02/18/2026

Did you know that something as simple as slow, deep diaphragmatic breathing could help improve symptoms for those struggling with gut dysfunction? 😮
A recent study found that practicing slow deep breathing for just 6 weeks led to some pretty amazing results, including: 🚀
✅ Less gut symptoms
✅ Improved gut sensitivity
✅ Improved stool consistency
✅ More frequent bowel movements
✅ Enhanced body’s automatic processes, like HRV
To practice slow deep breathing, simply inhale for 4 seconds and exhale for 6 seconds, for a total of 30 minutes. ⏰ The best part? You can do it anywhere! 🏠🏖️🏞️
So, why not give it a try? 💡 It’s a natural, non-invasive way to potentially help improve gut motility🩺👩‍⚕️
Spread the word and tag a friend who could benefit from this awesome technique! 🗣️👫 And as always, stay tuned for more interesting health tips and findings! 📚🔬

02/18/2026

Dr. Matt leans on walnuts for a simple reason, they check multiple boxes at once. They bring healthy fats that can help keep a snack more satisfying, plus they are a notable whole food source of plant omega-3 (ALA), which is a nutrient category often tied to cognitive and cardiometabolic benefits. Walnuts also contribute minerals like copper (about 0.45 mg per 1 oz serving) which has shown to be supportive to cognition. (PMID: 40624281)

If you want a personalized plan for brain health, energy, and blood sugar stability, book a discovery visit, link in bio.🧠

02/17/2026

HRV is a biometric that can tell how well your nervous system adapts to daily stress. The amazing thing about this biometric, is it can be directly influenced by different lifestyle changes and habits.

In practice, I find it’s always best to tackle the basics or low-hanging fruit first. Here, I’m sharing a few foundational lifestyle habits that I personally use and commonly recommend to patients to support HRV and overall nervous system resilience.

This post walks through the three areas I prioritize most often when supporting HRV and nervous system resilience. They are simple, but they are also easy to overlook.

Scroll through to learn what they are and why they matter.
Not medical advice, general education only.
-Dr. Matt Beyer

02/16/2026

🧠❤️ Your heart shouldn’t beat like a metronome...and that’s a good thing.

What if one of the most powerful indicators of your stress, brain health, and overall resilience was hiding between your heartbeats?

That’s the power of Heart Rate Variability (HRV)...a window into your autonomic nervous system and vagal tone.

When HRV drops, we often see:

⚠️ Higher stress reactivity
💤 Poor sleep and fatigue
🫀 Increased cardiovascular risk
😞 Mood changes like anxiety or depression

The good news? You can track it right from your wrist — Oura, Apple Watch, and Whoop all give you access to this critical biomarker.

Want to stress less, sleep deeper, and think clearer in 2026?
Start by listening to your heart. 💓

02/14/2026

Air pollution goes beyond just impacting your lungs, with new evidence showing it can even impact your autonomic nervous system. 🆘
Multiple studies link higher pollution exposure with lower HRV, meaning your body spends more time stuck in a “stress physiology” pattern instead of recovery mode. 📉

What’s really interesting is that people with lower intake of key methylation nutrients tend to show a bigger HRV drop, and higher intake looks protective!

Why would vitamins B6, B12, and methionine matter here?

Because they sit upstream of the liver’s biotransformation pathways. When you inhale pollutants, your body has to process that oxidative and inflammatory load. The liver does a huge portion of that work through Phase 1 and Phase 2 detox pathways, and those pathways depend on methylation capacity, amino acids, and B-vitamin cofactors. If those inputs are lacking, the “processing load” can feel heavier system-wide, and your HRV can take the hit.

TLDR: You cannot control every exposure, but you can raise your body's resilience.

Food first ideas:
-B6: poultry, fish, potatoes, chickpeas
-B12: seafood, meat, dairy, eggs (or a quality B12 source if you avoid animal foods)
-Methionine: eggs, fish, meat, sesame, legumes (plus adequate total protein)
Also, do not ignore the exposure side: indoor air quality, HEPA filtration, and avoiding heavy traffic walks when possible can make a real difference for some people.
(General education, not medical advice).

02/13/2026

Stress doesn’t have to run your life. Simple, intentional techniques practiced consistently can calm your nervous system, improve focus, and support long-term hormone and heart health. It’s not about eliminating stress — it’s about giving your body the tools to recover and reset.

Small moments of regulation create big changes over time. Your mind and body will thank you. 🤍

In this video Dr. Holmes discusses how just a few minutes of stress management can improve hormones and overall health.

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02/12/2026

If you are asking “what is an optimal HRV?”, you are really asking: “Is my body recovering well, or am I running stressed all the time?”
However, there is no single perfect number for everyone. HRV naturally changes with age, sleep, stress, training load, alcohol, illness, and medications. So for this reason, a good HRV is also one that is higher than your usual baseline over time, stable week to week, and improving as your sleep, recovery, and lifestyle improve.

That being said, I’ll try to give some general rules of thumb. If your HRV is consistently under 50, I would treat that as a yellow flag and start tightening the basics, especially sleep quality, recovery between hard sessions, alcohol, and nutrition. If your baseline is not where you want it yet, the goal is simple: keep stacking habits that improve recovery, and let the trend climb.

Sometimes optimizing recovery goes beyond the obvious factors. That’s where functional medicine can come in, with ultra specific lab work and interventions to optimize your physiology. If you’re looking for this type of precision in your recovery or optimization of health or you’re just sick of guessing - click the link in our bio to book at free 20 minute chat with one of our docs.

02/11/2026

Heart Month is a good reminder that heart health goes far beyond just the cholesterol conversation.

The precipitating event of most cardiovascular disease is some form of damage to blood vessels. In other words, the barrier of these blood vessels can become "leaky."

So a smart prevention strategy should involve doing all one can to avoid this initial damage or loss of integrity to blood vessel walls. In his past video, Dr. Matt talks about different metabolic byproducts that can build up in the body, cause this wall damage, and are not commonly tested for. 💡

In this video, Dr. Matt discusses different ways you can bolster resiliency in the walls of blood vessels. These habits include specific forms of exercise, vasodialating nutrients and herbs like ginkgo biloba, and nasal breathing. 🌿

If you want a personalized prevention plan that looks deeper than standard labs, book a discovery visit, link in bio.