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I'm glad you're ok! Heart rate data is such a window into our emotional lives. There was the guy who recorded a breakup on his Fitbit:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemlee/a-mans-fitbit-captured...

Even more traumatic, there's what Game of Thrones does to your heart rate:

https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/08/13/what-game-of-thrones...

And there are potentially life-saving applications of heart rate data, like the collaboration we're building with UCSF cardiology to detect abnormal heart rhythms:

https://mRhythmStudy.org

Even with "just" 11 million Apple Watches sold, that's about 2,400,000,000,000 heart rate measurements per year. I think that will lead to all sorts of downstream applications.

3 comments

My cardiac system is very sensitive to emotional loss. Grandmothers = tachycardia. Last break up nearly killed me. I wish I had a fitbit so my doctors wouldn't look at me like a sad puppy who cannot find a new woman and is making things up.

I have an autonomic nervous system disorder (postural tachycardia) that causes my heart rate to skyrocket at any kind of physical or emotional stress. Basically it's like my fight-or-flight response is broken and over-reacts to everything (even from seeing blood or just standing up). Serious emotional issues can triggers panic attacks for me pretty easily.

I went through a battery of heart tests that all turned up normal and I was diagnosed with anxiety, until years later when someone thought to test my nervous system. So yeah, I can relate.

But those heart tests even included wearing a monitor that didn't tell them anything useful other than that it was elevated at times... but not that there was a real physiological underlying cause beyond simple anxiety. Not sure they'd put any more interest in a Fitbit's data.

I don't have your condition but on its worse times my circular system was about to shut down, my 4 limbs were cut to sustain the rest. For months Any activity in one part of my body would cause the rest to feel numb. Even typing with two hands would saturate my brain. The story makes them smile as in "you wouldn't be speaking anymore if you experienced this". If I had a trace of the sudden lack of blood pressure they'd at least have something quantitative to consider rather than borderline incoherent speech. That said most generalist wouldn't consider it anyway as you said.

That's really interesting - I havent heard of those kinds of problems outside of autonomic issues. You actually got diagnosed with something else related to cardio that causes that?

And yeah if it's low blood pressure-related that's hard to show them, since it changes so much and will be different in the doc's office than normal, and because there's no real way to do continuous BP monitoring the way you can with heart rate. Luckily in my case there's a simple test you can do at home or in a doctor's office to see the BP drop quickly.

So far not, I have tests booked next week. My 'wikipedia' self diagnosis was something similar to takotsubo syndrom. Emotional pain -> hormone flush -> broken heart muscle functions -> BP shut -> vaso-constriction reflex attempting to restore BP. Few weeks later I had a feeling of 'clogged artery' on my left side. No pain though, otherwise I'd have gone to a hospital because it would have seem like an infarctus. Looked like a very bad BP, very bad diet (sadness->eating shit), fat deposit, occlusion, near infarction. I suspect it affected my brain too, I lost control of my left side for sophisticated movements, for months I couldn't type with both hands while reading what I was typing (had to alternate one word, check, next word). Things are coming back now but still I'd love to have a full checkup (angiography, brain scan) to avoid pushing too hard on my system before the time is right, problem is no doctor will send you for such tests unless you're crashing in front of them. Takes time. For a year I wished for more non invasive medical monitoring and tests..

I'm curious, do you have low blood pressure?

Yep. I've been diagnosed with orthostatic hypotension too. I have bouts of low blood pressure, so it can drop when I stand too quickly or for too long, or when I exercise. My resting pressure doesn't read as low but I still feel the effects of it and treatments for low BP help my other symptoms...

Was there any solution found to your problem?

There's no cure or anything, just a handful of treatments for the symptoms and to keep things under control. For the heart rate issues I take Xanax periodically as needed - it keeps anxiety from building up and setting off my heart rate (which then feeds the anxiety in a vicious circle).

The autonomic problems also cause periodic drops in blood pressure so I take a medication for that, but also have weird treatments for it like a high-salt diet and compression stockings I wear very day. I also take an ADD med for the cognitive impairment that comes along with drops in blood pressure.

I also have major on-going fatigue and gastrointestinal issues related to the autonomic problems (turns out your autonomic nervous system runs EVERYthing), and I'm about to be tested for food sensitivities to see if changing my diet might help those.

I recently learned how the SNS, pSNS and SNS are linked to every part of your body. Changed my mind about the potential spread of psychosomatic disorders.

Cardiio app on iOS—measures heart rate via camera covered by your finger—seems to reliably graph my arrhythmia. It doesn’t save the graph though, have to screenshot the result screen after finishing. You can see the out-of-order beats, should they happen during the measurement.

If I felt it was getting serious I’d look into a specialized device that can make it even more visible, letting me go to a doctor without awkwardness.

So far my arrhythmia seems like more or less episodical PVC though, if I interpret Wikipedia correctly. Happens reliably only during mentally / emotionally pressing moments, up to a beat every few seconds on bad days. Noticed that mild cardio, like jogging in place, helps ‘warm up’ the heart (feels cold during the episodes somehow).

You mean exercise avoid the misplaced beats ? averaging the rhythm ? Since my 'accident' I felt some for of orgasm when able to run for more than a few seconds. The warmth of blood reaching your cells, the heart pumping a little bit stronger but still regularly. The joy of living tissue.

Anecdotally, during a couple of more intense episodes, a bit of basic cardio (mild jogging in place, a few limp jumping jacks, not trying too hard) helped me reduce perceived ‘bad’ beat frequency, and yeah, felt nice, warmer, etc.

I read this comment-thread recently which documented somebody who noticed their heart-rate had been elevated for some time:

https://np.reddit.com/r/fitbit/comments/445ppj/hr_reading_co...

The reason? She was pregnant.

Probably enormous for individuals and society, by detecting abnormal heart rate conditions we can medicate people to prevent a stroke, which is very very serious condition which requires allot of care.

But you do not need a watch, you can detect this by yourself with simple means, today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_KZlOSOOTg

I encourage you to see the above video, it may help you or someone you know.

What is great about these watches ist that you don't need to worry about that and it just measures it for you. Even in situations where you can't do it yourself, or simply have other things on your mind. Could you imagine someone measuring their pulse while being robbed or watching game of thrones? A wearable measures your puls in situations where you can't do it and that is the helpful part. Your heart read in controlled environments or after physical activities is Rather uninteresting because it has already been explored in depth.