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The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

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Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#101
I went to sleep wearing my Apple Watch one night and awoke to a few hundred irregular heartbeat notifications.

They weren’t legit. The watch just can’t get a good heart rate reading if it’s not situated perfectly on your wrist, and while sleeping it was pushed one way or another often enough to be useless.

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#102
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't you say that things like hypertension are only the result of something? What I am thinking of is this: Listen to what your body tells you when you do the things that lead to problems like hypertension.

Genetics can be a factor, so you have to get it checked. A bloke my sister knows (she's a nurse), was diagnosed with 'hypertension not otherwise specified', at the ripe old age of 31. But they didn't catch it early because he 'felt fine'. He wasn't overweight unhealthy. But he needs new kidneys now! It's misinformation to say otherwise. I mean, I live in Australia, where you can visit the doctor for free, so it's lik…

> A bloke my sister knows (she's a nurse), was diagnosed with 'hypertension not otherwise specified', at the ripe old age of 31. But they didn't catch it early because he 'felt fine'. He wasn't overweight unhealthy. But he needs new kidneys now!

It's possible that kidney disease caused hypertension in that case. It's pretty much impossible to prove which one came first in many cases. None of this argues in favor or against regular checkups, it was just something I thought was interesting to refer.

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#103

Danger, danger: heavily regulated waters ahead! Remember these words well: "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease."

I came to say "danger, danger" but for another reason. I think a whole generation of fitbit users are going to be horrified when their insurance premiums go up based on data that was purchased by insurers. If Apple watch starts making a health play, I don't see why it would be any different.

Vitality Health has already started down this path [0], and are doing a fantastic job habituating people to accepting sharing this data.

They have borrowed an identical copy of the auto insurance industry playbook [1]. Start out by offering "discounts" in exchange for tracking, and then slowly the cost of the insurance ramps up, unless you have the discount.

[0] https://www.macrumors.com/2017/10/24/vitality-uk-free-apple-...

[1] https://www.progressive.com/auto/discounts/snapshot/

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's certainly possible, though I have noticed more quirky behavior than just this - the stand goal was just the most amusing one to me and that is why I posted that particular one here. I sometimes meet the exercise goal on a very sedentary day, while I don't meet it when I vigorously exercise, etc. I have a two story house and I climb and descend the steps probably 15+ times per day, yet for the current week , it…

When I work from home I have a standing desk, and it looks like the watch does not pick me as standing, so I almost never reach the standing goal there

This happened to me an hour ago. I stood up at my desk and continued working but it didn't count according to the watch. I'd speculate that it wants some lateral movement as well - stand up and get a drink of water, maybe?

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#105

Danger, danger: heavily regulated waters ahead! Remember these words well: "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease."

I came to say "danger, danger" but for another reason. I think a whole generation of fitbit users are going to be horrified when their insurance premiums go up based on data that was purchased by insurers. If Apple watch starts making a health play, I don't see why it would be any different.

I work for Fitbit, but I don't speak for Fitbit.

However, this page does speak for Fitbit: https://www.fitbit.com/legal/privacy

For insurers to purchase data on Fitbit users, they'll have to purchase it from the users themselves.

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#106

Danger, danger: heavily regulated waters ahead! Remember these words well: "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease."

I came to say "danger, danger" but for another reason. I think a whole generation of fitbit users are going to be horrified when their insurance premiums go up based on data that was purchased by insurers. If Apple watch starts making a health play, I don't see why it would be any different.

Current law in the US for individual coverage is that they can vary pricing based on age and tobacco use and can't deny coverage to anyone.

Short term regressions to that seem likely enough. Long term I think you have to consider whether we even stick to anything resembling the model we have now (with mandatory private insurance being something like the baseline expectation).

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came to say "danger, danger" but for another reason. I think a whole generation of fitbit users are going to be horrified when their insurance premiums go up based on data that was purchased by insurers. If Apple watch starts making a health play, I don't see why it would be any different.

I work for Fitbit, but I don't speak for Fitbit. However, this page does speak for Fitbit: https://www.fitbit.com/legal/privacy For insurers to purchase data on Fitbit users, they'll have to purchase it from the users themselves.

Is there a legal structure in place that would prevent a new owner from rewriting the privacy policy and doing whatever the hell they wanted?

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#108
post #97
post #73

The only downside to the Apple Watch in my book is the short battery life which should theoretically make it impractical for sleep tracking. I was recently stupefied to discover Nokia Steel [1] and how virtually unknown it is to the general public, my former self included. It comes with great design, no bullshit digital screen, the usual tracking features, and most importantly seems like it's a return to form for Nok…

This is interesting, I was searching for replacements for Pebble since the acquisition and this is a promising option.

Same here! I love my pebble classic but it's starting to wear out. This looks like a decent, minimal alternative.

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work for Fitbit, but I don't speak for Fitbit. However, this page does speak for Fitbit: https://www.fitbit.com/legal/privacy For insurers to purchase data on Fitbit users, they'll have to purchase it from the users themselves.

Is there a legal structure in place that would prevent a new owner from rewriting the privacy policy and doing whatever the hell they wanted?

I'm not a lawyer. In high school I took a class that covered some aspects of contract law. Want my speculation?

I do know something about the financial incentives, though. Fitbit's users are its customers. Insurers and employers are a small part of revenue. The people Fitbit needs to keep happy are users.

Re: The Apple Watch can detect hypertension and sleep apnea, a new study suggests

#110
post #90
post #73

The only downside to the Apple Watch in my book is the short battery life which should theoretically make it impractical for sleep tracking. I was recently stupefied to discover Nokia Steel [1] and how virtually unknown it is to the general public, my former self included. It comes with great design, no bullshit digital screen, the usual tracking features, and most importantly seems like it's a return to form for Nok…

I feel like there is a huge difference in the capabilities of the Apple Watch and the Nokia Steel. The Steel has a motion sensor, accelerometer, bluetooth and maybe wifi? The Apple Watch, needless to say, has a lot more than that: GPS, GSM, wifi, bluetooth, heart rate sensor, accelerometer, light sensor, etc. I'm sure the Nokia Steel fills a niche but I feel like the Apple Watch is much more interesting from a capabi…

And if the Apple watch also came with a fold-out bottle opener and a tool for getting stones out of horse's hooves, would that make it a better watch? It's not about the number of "features", but whether it's a productive, convenient item to have in your life. A 1-day battery life on a watch is a serious flaw.

The only smartwatch that was ever a good watch, at least that I've seen, was the Pebble. The one-week battery and always-on sunlight-readable screen are the two giant features that make it a comfortable object. It's very disappointing that nobody's making anything like that anymore.

The Nokia Steel looks like a fantastic watch, although not much of a smartwatch. I'd still rather have one than an Apple watch.

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