Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
76-Year-Old Gaston D'Aquino Latest to Say Apple Watch Saved His Life
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm hoping that glucose monitoring makes it into the watch in the future. I'm a diabetic and had no idea for years until I was diagnosed by my doctor. I'm a bit overweight but not every diabetic is, and uncontrolled diabetes can be fatal and lead to amputations and blindness.
Improving screening by perfecting noninvasive monitoring (current monitors use a sensor placed under your skin, though that is painless once inserted) would mean more people will know what their sugar levels are and whether they need to be concerned.
Unfortunately, the problem is proving harder to solve than anticipated, though I hope I'll have a watch that can do this within a decade. We'll just have to see. For now, I use the Dexcom G5 system, which does display on the watch face. I love being able to quickly check, though sometimes the watch stops syncing with the phone and I have to touch the complication to get it to reload.
After reading the last story like this, I turned on the heart rate alerts. I'm surprised they are not set to a sensible default instead of being turned off to start.
Improving screening by perfecting noninvasive monitoring (current monitors use a sensor placed under your skin, though that is painless once inserted) would mean more people will know what their sugar levels are and whether they need to be concerned.
Unfortunately, the problem is proving harder to solve than anticipated, though I hope I'll have a watch that can do this within a decade. We'll just have to see. For now, I use the Dexcom G5 system, which does display on the watch face. I love being able to quickly check, though sometimes the watch stops syncing with the phone and I have to touch the complication to get it to reload.
After reading the last story like this, I turned on the heart rate alerts. I'm surprised they are not set to a sensible default instead of being turned off to start.
Yeah, guess it's up to the person. I know I would take it seriously. A few years ago, even before his death, I had my own bad experience. I kept getting this feeling of impending doom that was getting worse. It was really wild and I'd never felt anything like it before and my chest felt so tight, but mostly on the right side which the internet said was fine. Went to the ER anyway and my blood pressure was about 180 over something like 100-110. They checked out my heart and everything seemed pretty normal (well, except that I also had an echocardiogram in college because in health class they were worried about my 210bpm during exercise, but turns out everything was fine and I just have a really high peak heart rate).
Anyway, turns out I was having a lot of anxiety from having my first child—mostly brought on by my overwhelming fear of being a horrible, abusive father like my own dad. Got some counseling which helped a lot, and it helped to verbalize it with my wife and friends, along with removing my father from my life as he started acting the same way towards my kids. But through that process I also found out that I did have elevated blood pressure. Nothing crazy, but enough to be put on the lightest dose medicine. Even my younger sister who is super skinny was on that too.
The thing that really woke me up, though, was my uncle. I don't want to die while my kids are still in high school/college. But yeah, I've learned to not mess around when it comes to health stuff, and I tell everyone I know to not mess around either. I suppose it can be difficult for people who don't have health insurance or very good insurance, but is it worth dying? That first time I went into the ER I didn't have good insurance and had to pay thousands of dollars, but I was glad I did.
Standard disclaimer - I'm not a medical doctor. However, you might want to get checked for sleep apnea. People with sleep apnea stop breathing due to airway restrictions and their blood O2 level drops until they gasp for air (sounds like loud snoring). During this time, the person's heart rate will spike. Apnea can be weight related but it isn't always weight related. The condition is quite dangerous as it puts a severe strain on your heart but it can be treated. I know one person who has sleep apnea and he had his AW heart rate alarm go off on a plane when he fell asleep.
Hmm...interesting. I know nothing about sleep apnea. Looking at the health app the last time I had an elevated heart rate was March 13. My sleep tracking app says I hit 130 bpm at 2:30 in the morning.
Last edited:
What does this have to do with the story about technology saving lives. And exactly how many lives were ruined to smartphone addiction vs how many were saved to even owning a smartphone?
Texting while driving causes a lot of accidents and deaths. I’ve read that it may be as high as 25% of all auto accidents in the US are caused by texting and driving.
One day, those people will discover that they're not forced to buy Apple products and leave these forums.
Hah, who am I kidding...
But you can't say that is because of smartphone addiction. Clearly it's stupid, distracted, behavior against the law and people should know better. However, knowing better does not equal addiction. And a lack of common sense is not addiction.
In 2016, 10,497 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for 28% of all traffic-related deaths in the United States. Now as unfortunate as this was, can you say these people that are part of these unfortunate statistics are addicted to alcohol?
https://www.google.com/search?q=how....69i57j0l3.12888j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Last edited:
...and the resultant use of these devices while driving, which has resulted in deaths both inside and outside of vehicles.
It will only take a few of these stories and they will practically be given to high risk patients but the insurance companies.
A $250 dollar watch to prevent tens of thousands in medical bills thats a no-brainer.
A $250 dollar watch to prevent tens of thousands in medical bills thats a no-brainer.
Did you stop to think that his first step towards making life changes was purchasing (or receiving as a gift) an Apple Watch? Practice what you preach, don’t assume.
As a cardiologist, are you saying Haskell & Fox have devised the most reliable formula? Wikipedia sounds more skeptical:
And, in particular:
Well, that $149 watch is pretty useless without the additional expenditure of the cost of an iPhone. And the $149 is almost certainly a Series 0, which appears to be on the way out (it is ineligible for the current heart study, for instance).
I have a Series 1, and overall I like it - but let's not pretend the price of entry here isn't rather high.
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2017/10/vitality-insurance-free-apple-watch-3.html
(Plus various others.)
The pointlessness of this point has already been pointed out.
The feature is available worldwide on Series 1 (i.e., not on the original Watch) and newer. You're thinking of the Heart Study, which isn't relevant here.
That's good advice. But as you can see from this discussion, lots of people say "don't trust the machine." They aren't going to allow objective evidence take precedence over how they feel.
I don't see that happening for years.
[doublepost=1526074401][/doublepost]
Apple Watch measures continuously during a workout, and every one to five minutes outside a workout.
How often does your two-finger method measure your heart rate while you're asleep? How about while you're awake but not suspecting a problem?
This post makes no sense. The heart rate is in no way connected to coronary disease. He just got lucky... it has nothing to do with the apple watch.
V.
V.
I'm mostly happy with their LibreLink app, but them not integrating with HealthKit (and thus also not with the Watch) is one of the things I'm not so excited about. Also, requiring a user account is kinda iffy. But yes, not having to carry a separate device helps (and its touch screen was astonishingly bad compared to an iPhone's).
I think eventually machine learning will get to the point where it knows us better than we know ourselves. It will pick up on all the little nuances and cycles and figure out when something is out of alignment. Imagine getting a notification that says "You seem to be coming down with a cold. You should take some Vitamin C and go to bed early." before you even know you're sick. Then imagine a future beyond that where actual nanobots are dispatched into our bodies to aid the white blood cells in our immune system (or maybe even organic approaches such as CRISPR to rewrite our DNA to boost the body's own systems), or perform regular maintenance to clear our arteries, break down excess fat, etc. That's my vision for the far future.
The heart study is not at all what this article is referring to.
[doublepost=1526075052][/doublepost]
It didn’t. And, he wasn’t. It’s a standard feature on every watch (but Series 1 I think).