Apple Watch 4 & self monitoring
I'm running out of things to work on with longevity so am going after miscellaneous leftover improvements this year such as self monitoring and physical safety. On that I got the new Watch 4. I was an early smart watch adopter, but judging them as too early have waited until Apple could mature the platform enough to be useful, which I think they did with the 4. I haven't had it long but am pleased to report it is a useful tool for us longevity enthusiasts. Specifically
- Always having a LTE connection in case you get into any sort of trouble (my phone isn't always with me)
- The heart rate monitoring is great!
- EKG is coming end of year
- They have a patent to estimate blood pressure using EKG and heart rate, possible app addition here
- The exercise reminders ('close the loop') really works. I'm on the computer all day and it really does encourage me to get up and move around more.
- I have a hydration app running on it - as I've gotten older my wife and I have found that hydration gets more difficult - having this app really helps.
- The exercise session monitoring works great
- There's an air quality monitoring app built in - great for keeping an eye on the air quality when going out (I have hospital grade air filters in my house). Maybe not a good idea to go out for a run on a bad day.
- UV index build in - same thing
- There's a mediation app - I use the Muse EEG headset, but this actually is useful when I get steamed at some bit of recalcitrant code.
- I'm hooked into the local emergency response system text messaging - so I'm aware of any wildfires or what not going on
- My health care provider has a Watch app which is useful
- Fall detection in case of a patch of ice, banana peel, or just getting old
- The Apple Health app on the phone is a great aggregator for all your health information, I'm putting more and more into it as the one stop aggregation (I have a BP cuff and weight scale which feed into it)
So, recommended. highly useful for folks like us.
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Another one - if you go for a run (maybe a walk also) the watch calculates VO2max, given your data, and logs it in HealthKit. This is a test that athletes use, and is also widely used as a measure of your cardiovascular health and biological age. The usual way to test is to go into a lab with a treadmill and you breath into a machine. but it can be estimated pretty accurately with the right data. Tracking this regularly has great value as it can tell you (for example), perhaps you've got bronchitis or pneumonia as your VO2 has suddenly decreased.
Pat on the back time - in my 50's I found I have a VO2 of a college athlete :)
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Other devices I use for a regular (daily/weekly) self testing regime, these work with Apple Health and are ones I have tested (or will soon)
- Qardioarm BP
- Qardiobase Weight, water %, muscle %, fat %, BMI
- Qardiocore (soon) EKG, skin temp, other
- Muse headset EEG
I'm looking to add blood glucose (continuous monitor ideally but those are spendy) and blood oxygenation monitoring for the iPhone/Health database.