Apple Watch

[jp1]

I’ve got a friend that also has a ‘hobby’ of collecting vintage watches. I offered him the Apple Watch and he politely declined.

[JaneV2.0]

I'm bemused by the currently popular compulsion to monitor one's every bodily function 24/7. I really don't understand it.

[catherine]

I'm bemused by the currently popular compulsion to monitor one's every bodily function 24/7. I really don't understand it.

Yeah, I know... I understand. Sometimes someone will ask me when I get up, "Did you sleep well last night?" and I'll say "Let me check my watch."

One of the main reasons I do it is because I have a very low HRV which my doctors won't recognize so I'm trying hard to raise it on my own without their direction. The reason I'm worried about that is because there are many published studies that say that HRV is associated with poor outcomes like sudden cardiac death and other cardiovascular issues. That's my main area of interest in wearing the watch.

So there are a lot of metrics that correlate with that goal, like reducing heart rate, monitoring sleep apnea, deep breathing, meditation, and staying active.

That's why I do it.

[Tybee]

I would like my husband to wear one because he has heart arrhythmias and it would be nice if he had a printout to show the doctor.

[Tradd]

For those who don’t know about tweaking notifications, go into watch app on your iPhone. Then go to Notifications. Scroll down a bit and there is a section about mirroring iPhone notifications. Go through each app and set as needed. Mirror iPhone means you get every notification on your watch that you would on iPhone. Custom you can tweak. I have a lot set to no notifications. Besides iMessage, I have WhatsApp, FB Messenger, and Signal on my iPhone. Those and weather notifications are the only notifications I make sure to get on watch.

[Teacher Terry]

My kids wanted me to get one now that I live alone and I did. Being able to call for help and the heart feature were the biggest draws. However, it’s very inaccurate in counting steps. I have a Fitbit that I wear in my sock and it’s always recording between 1-2k steps more than on my watch. The watch relies on arm movement and once in awhile it only records half my steps.

[iris lilies]

I heard on the news that the new Apple Watch will be able to measure blood pressure. Now I’m even more skeptical about accuracy of that.

I have a digital blood pressure cuff and I haven’t been happy with. It’s reading high for months now. Every time I go to Red Cross or my doctor’s office and they take my blood pressure those professional readings are 20 points lower. I’m on another blood pressure lowering medicine, but I’m not convinced I need it. I really just need to run down to my doctor every day for about a week and have them take my reading. I can do that because I belong to a direct care physician where one price equals unlimited visits.

[bae]

I heard on the news that the new Apple Watch will be able to measure blood pressure. Now I’m even more skeptical about accuracy of that.

Hmm.

I know there are bluetooth-capable blood pressure measuring devices (cuff + controller) that can communicate with an app, and I'd imagine that one properly certified for accuracy, with the correct cuff size, and with proper use(*), could deliver accurate results. In which case the watch would simply be a data recording/display device.

I'm having trouble imaging the watch alone performing a measurement strapped to your wrist.

(*) Even with a correctly calibrated and approved device, considerable variation in readings happens due to user errors in placement and such.

[Teacher Terry]

IL, if it’s a wrist cuff they are usually inaccurate. If it’s an arm cuff and is reliably 20 pts over just use it and subtract the points. If it varies buy a better one.

[jp1]

Iris, try taking your cuff with you to the doc or Red Cross and compare your cuff against theirs at the same time. I did that with mine because I consistently get lower numbers at home. It turned out that I must just be nervous at the doc or whatever because at the doc’s office mine also showed higher numbers than at home and was within a couple of points of the doc’s.

Now that we’ve established that mine gives decent results I just take it at home from time to time and record the results on the medical practice’s app. Then when I go to the doc and have a higher reading he doesn’t worry about it since he can see that outside his office I’m fine.