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When Joan Fair bought guard Garmin runner to help her get back in shape after contracting a Coid-19 contract, she had no idea she would save her life. During one sleepless night, the 75-year-old watch constantly sounded and sent warnings that her heart rate was high.

For the month of the heart, Yahoo Canada emphasizes some of our best content of heart health. This article was originally published in July 2024.

“I had no indications of any heartbeat problems before that,” Fair said Yahoo Canada.

After some research, she eventually invested in the Apple Watch, which helped her overwhelm her heart health. One night, Fair woke up with a 220 heart rate, alarmingly high compared to a normal speed that usually ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. Fair said that she failed to see the heartbeat and call an ambulance, she would die.

“No doubt. It saved my life,” said Fair, who lives in Hamilton, on.

According to Fair’s opinion, the heart rate monitoring feature is “110 percent reliable and useful.” After the night she called an ambulance, she began to check for forcibly to check her watch. She would move or lie down, outlining any irregularities that were not uncommon until then.

She said she also became more proactive in her health and seek medical assistance. The fair would go to an ambulance if things seemed and eventually had a successful heart surgery at the end of 2023. And although she now describes her heart as “steady as a rock,” it does not prevent it from still not carrying a clock only in case.

“What is interesting is that I don’t use this [watch] To exercise or … any of the other 2,000 reasons why people use Apple Watch. I only use it for one thing. I stopped all e -mail, phone calls and everything that comes. It’s just my heart – that’s the only thing I look out for. “

Fair is one of the many Canadians who have turned to technology to help them better understand and monitor their health. In June 2024, a 44-year-old firefighter in Nova Scotland said that Apple Watch warned him of irregular heart rate, which proved to be a heart attack. Both for him and for fair, the ability to recognize this irregularity was the most important thing for their survival.

But are there any restrictions on this technology? Can it provide a false sense of security? Yahoo Canada Talking to the cardiologist about heart rate monitoring technology, such as Apple Watch of other ways that one could recognize the red flags in their heart health.

Can I wear devices to bring heart health?

As a heart electrophysiologist, Dr. Jason Adrade focused on heart rhythm disorders and watched patients with abnormal heart rate. In an interview with Yahoo CanadaAndrade said that there are cases where technology can play a useful role in heart health and saw that patients were coming for notification from their devices.

“Wear devices have an advantage to watch what happens to the rhythms of the hearts of people with long windows of time,” said Andrade, who works at Vancouver General Hospital. He added that it can sometimes be difficult to capture the symptoms such as palpitations of the heart or abnormal heart rate through typical tests, as the test can only look at the final time window, like 24 hours. “For something that happens occasionally or rarely, [devices] Give you the opportunity to diagnose something you can’t find with conventional testing. “

Andrade said that the most common arrhythmia that these heart monitoring devices could be found is atrial fibrillation (AFIB), a type of irregular heart rhythm where the upper heart chamber beat from synchronization with lower chambers. Because someone with AFIB may not have symptoms, the first sign can be something difficult, like a stroke.

“Having monitors who can see atrial fibrillation before it becomes a stroke means that we are warned about this and there is an opportunity to prevent treatments from preventing devastating complications,” Andrade said. “It can reveal things that are elusive and some of the elusive things can be very significant.”

However, Andrade adds that people should keep in mind the technical limitations of the heart monitoring device. For example, a notification or warning of heart rate cannot necessarily indicate why this is happening. Andrade said that some of the warnings might be benign or it will take more testing.

“You have to deal with the device to work,” he said, adding that if someone wears a clock until he sleeps, he may not benefit from monitoring.

According to Andrade, some watches have the ability to shoot a heart rhythm such as an ECG (electrocardiogram). He added that these devices can be much more useful because people who feel symptoms can record an ECG of 10 seconds that an hour can interpret or you can bring it to your doctor to interpret.

How do you heartily escape devices?

Smart watches and fitness extension usually measure your heart rate by scanning blood flow near your wrist by illuminating it with ice. Some devices, such as Apple Watch, use green LED lights because blood absorbs the green light. “When your heart beats, blood flow to your wrist – and the absorption of green light – is greater,” the Apple states.

You usually don’t have to wear an hour in a row to know if you’re experiencing an irregular cardiac rhythm.

Andrade said that people who tend to wear heart monitoring watches are usually a younger population because it can double as a fitness tracker. “In principle, there may be a little mismatch between those who could most benefit from these devices and who actually carry them,” he said

Heart Heart: Symptoms, Red Flags to be careful about

Andrade said irregularity occurs when you have an extra heartbeat from the top or bottom of the heart. “It can be a benign thing, everyone has it to some extent,” he added. The second time, the electricity of the heart can slow down, which means that not every heart rate from the upper or lower chambers may not carry out. “And there are circumstances in which it is benign … And the second time when it is significant and we would have to intervene on it.”

Andrade recommends that you pay attention to how your heart rhythms “feel.” For example, if you feel like your heart is racing or hitting, shortness of breath, your chest discomfort, lightness or weak spells, these are all red flags in the health of the heart and signs that you should seek professional medical attention.

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