The Freeze-Framer FAQ
What is the Freeze-Framer?
The Freeze-Framer ® is an innovative, easy-to-use interactive software program that displays your heart rhythms in real time and shows you how stress may be affecting you. Much more than a heart monitor, this revolutionary technology will help you transform stress and anxiety into free energy for personal and professional effectiveness.
Quickly and easily install the software, plug in the sensor and start to have fun with this unique interactive technology that enables you to see and control the dynamics of your body's most powerful system-the heart.
What are the benefits of using the Freeze-Framer?
The Freeze-Framer is designed to help people prevent, manage and reverse the effects of stress. With the simple fingertip or earlobe pulse sensor that plugs into the USB port of your computer, you can watch in real time how thoughts and emotions affect your heart and autonomic nervous system. Using the HeartMath ® coherence-building techniques, taught in an included tutorial, you will learn how to intentionally shift to a positive emotional state and will be able to see the resulting changes in your heart rhythms immediately on your computer screen. These shifts in your heart rhythms create a favorable cascade of neural, hormonal and biochemical events that benefit the entire body and mind. Blood pressure drops. Stress hormones plummet. The immune system pumps up. Anti-aging hormones increase. You gain clarity, calmness and control. The effects are both immediate and long-lasting.
HeartMath research has shown that emotions are reflected in our heart rhythm patterns. The analysis of heart rate variability (HRV), or heart rhythms, is recognized as a powerful, noninvasive measure that reflects heart-brain interactions and autonomic nervous system dynamics, which are particularly sensitive to changes in emotional state. Clinical research identifies HRV as a key indicator of neurocardiac fitness and overall health: abnormally low HRV is a predictor of premature mortality and is associated with a wide range of health problems, many of which can be stress-related.
What is the Freeze-Framer used for?
What would you like to improve? Your work performance; your schoolwork; your test scores; your golf game; your creative efforts; your health; your fitness; your work, home or social relationships; your peace of mind?
The overwhelming pace and intensity of life affect all of these things today. The Freeze-Framer technology can help you break through stress that's preventing you from feeling good, being in control and achieving your goals.
Find out how global companies use the Freeze-Framer to retain key talent, strengthen customer relations and improve employee health and performance.
What are the minimum system requirements in order to run the Freeze-Framer?
. Pentium ® II-compatible processor 233 MHz or faster
. Microsoft ® Windows ® 98-ME-2000-XP
. 50 MB available disk space (without tutorial)
. 450 MB available disk space (with tutorial)
. 800 x 600 resolution, 16-bit color display or better
. CD-ROM drive
. Direct X ® 8-compatible
. One available USB port
Does the Freeze-Framer run on the Macintosh?
No. We do not yet have a Mac version of the Freeze-Framer; however, we do have plans to support the Mac in the future.
What are the features of the Freeze-Framer?
Features include: Fingertip pulse sensor; real-time pulse wave recording; real-time heart rate variability monitoring; coherence scoring and ratios; real-time coherence score feedback; frequency spectrum summaries; three fun, self-reinforcing games; on-demand session review; session-to-session progress review; in-depth, online reference menus; and free technical support.
Is the Freeze-Framer ® technology like biofeedback?
It is a type of biofeedback; however, it is important to understand that there are many types of biofeedback, which all feed back information about different physiological changes in our body. The simplest form of biofeedback is looking in a mirror and making different faces, which can affect how we feel.
The Freeze-Framer is quite different from other forms of technology-based biofeedback, such as feedback of simple heart rate, skin conductance or brainwave activity. The Freeze-Framer is an educational system that provides feedback of a people's heart rhythm patterns, which, in turn, allows them to see and better understand how stress and different emotions are affecting their autonomic nervous system dynamics. It does this by measuring the naturally occurring changes in beat-to-beat heart rate, which is called heart rate variability (HRV), or simply the heart rhythm. Whereas common methods of HRV analysis typically quantify the amount of variability in a given recording, additional information can be gained by heart rhythm pattern analysis, which is unique to the Freeze-Framer.
Research has shown that sustained positive emotions lead to a highly efficient and regenerative functional mode associated with increased coherence in heart rhythm patterns and greater synchronization and harmony among physiological systems. The patented Freeze-Framer technology monitors heart rhythm patterns, objectively quantifies heart rhythm coherence, and helps people develop skills to maintain states of increased emotional and physiological coherence. The use of pulse wave sensors makes this technology portable, time-efficient and easy to use in a wide variety of settings.
As people practice coherence-building techniques, they can readily see and experience the changes in their heart rhythm patterns, which generally become less irregular, smoother and more sine-wave-like as individuals enter the coherent mode. This process enables people to easily develop an association between a shift to a more healthful and beneficial physiological mode and the positive internal feeling experience that induces such a shift. The Freeze-Framer also analyzes the heart rhythm patterns and calculates a coherence ratio for each session. The coherence level is fed back to the user as an accumulated score or success in playing interactive games designed to reinforce coherence-building skills. The software also includes a tutorial in the HeartMath positive emotion-based techniques for building and sustaining coherence, as well as a multi-user database to store results and track progress.
Heart rhythm coherence-building technology is currently utilized in medical, mental health, corporate, sports and academic settings to improve clinical, psychological and performance outcomes. This technology holds promise as a powerful and practical tool for the enhancement of health and human potential.
Is there any research related to congestive heart failure?
Yes, a study was conducted by Stanford University investigating the effects of the HeartMath program in patients with congestive heart failure. Patients demonstrated significant improvements in functional capacity and significant reductions in stress and depression, among other improvements.
Have HeartMath techniques been shown to help people with atrial fibrillation?
Yes, many people with atrial fibrillation have benefited substantially from the HeartMath techniques.
A large hospital in Orange County, California, conducted an internal study with a random sampling of 75 patients with atrial fibrillation. Many of these patients had severe conditions and were on aggressive antiarrhythmic and antihypertensive medication regimens; a large number were on "last resort" medications with extremely toxic side effects.
The patients learned HeartMath's Freeze-Frame and Heart Lock-In techniques through coaching and home learning materials and were asked to practice the tools over a period of three months. At the end of the three-month period, 71 of the 75 patients reported substantial improvements in their physical and emotional health. Fifty-six patients had significantly fewer symptomatic episodes of atrial fibrillation and were able to reduce their anitarrhythmic and antihypertensive medications under their physician's guidance. Fourteen were able to discontinue their antiarrhythmic medications altogether. The reduction in pharmacy costs to the HMO as a result of these improvements in patients' health was in thousands of dollars per month. The hospital study coordinator concluded: "The overall benefits to the patients were significant, life-changing, and priceless."
In addition to this study, numerous patient case histories have documented dramatic improvements in people suffering from atrial fibrillation and other cardiac arrhythmias after learning HeartMath tools and techniques.
