Wearable personal monitoring
apps and devices… if not used to develop actionable information, what good are
they?
There are as
many viewpoints on this issue as there are people utilizing the devices… many
are actually using them to improve performance. For example, a runner might use
a device to not only time a training run, but to manage her heart rate during
wind-sprints and track the data with an eye to reducing heart rate while
increasing speed over the training period.
My Samsung
device monitors my activity by the hour, alarming me to get up and move if I am
inactive for the previous 60 minutes. The goal here is to allow circulation of
oxygenated blood to the extremity muscles and allow your heart to pace up, your
lungs to expel gases, your organs to remove toxins and so on… all good. Later
in life this helps avoid leg cramps and poor circulation.
Sleep
monitoring is interesting, as well… My Band from Microsoft lets me know my
sleep habits. When normally I get my 8+ hours of sleep it tells me that my early
sleep was not of high quality… not Stage 3 SWS or REM so to speak (the former
helps the body regenerate and the latter, regenerates and organizes the brain
and memory). Then it comments that among other things, having an alcohol drink
in the hours before going to sleep will disturb several hours, until that toxin
is run through the liver and kidneys enough to get it out of the blood stream…
then in fact, the better Stages III and IV, and REM occur. When I don’t have a
drink for a few evenings, sure enough, sweet dreams early in the rest period. I
suppose this is actionable monitoring in which I should participate… hmmm, do
drink or not to drink alcohol before bed?
So, in some
ways, wearable devices can be useful… but only if we take action, based on the
information they are developing. Much of that information has to be trended in
order to be useful. If the app doesn’t trend the data, or we don’t record it
manually, it usually is useless. As well, if one is going to use it with weekly
interfaces with a coach, or with a visit to a physician, it is a must to have
trended data… allowing us to know if we are getting better, getting worse… is
the new normal being too high or low…
Recently my
blood pressure which I have been trending for over three years started to trend
higher. My resting heart rate had also begun trending higher, from rest rates
around 45 up to 60 and BP moving to 135/90 from 110/70. The trending wasn’t
constant when looking at a daily plotting.
I had a
cardiac check-up scheduled, so I took my data with me… I had a suspicion that
my new work and all the flying I was doing had something to do with it, so I
also plotted my flight schedules against the trend lines. Sure enough the daily
increases in BP and HR a couple of days following extended flights were
significant… and causing the trailing averages to go up. A new medication and
pressure stockings for flights put everything back to my target pressures on
average and daily… that’s action based on a wearable. When I stop flying for
work again, I will return to the past meds and tactics.
If we are
not using the information, why have it… I suppose my Microsoft Band or Samsung
Gear II look cool… but not as cool as keeping things in a healthful status. It
is something that we should work on… how to put all this information to use.
There are Bluetooth weight scales, blood pressure and heart rate cuffs, pulse
Comments