What do you need to know about wearable heart monitors?
Dr Ravi Assomull, a Private Cardiologist in London, explains how wearable heart monitors track key health metrics. In this video, he discusses heart rate, sleep and activity data and how these devices support ongoing cardiovascular monitoring.
Have a question about your own heart health? Book a consultation with Dr Assomull – no GP referral needed, appointments typically within one working day.
Transcript
Well, the first thing to say is there are a large number of wearable devices and they are in various formats. They can be watches designed for both the Apple iOS format and the Android format. So plenty of choice.
Another form of wearable is we see in rings. Typically, the popular brands are the Aura Ring, where you wear a ring around your index finger is what's recommended. And what these wearable devices have in common are that they are tracking various parameters.
And those are things such as how many steps you're taking, what your heart rate is, what your heart rate variability is. And also, very interestingly, they are now able to track your sleep, figuring out how much you slept, what the quality of sleep is, how much REM sleep you've had, how much deep sleep you've had. As these wearables evolve, the functionality improves.
So the latest watches can tell you your oxygen saturations. And we suspect in the future, they may even be able to tell you what your blood pressure readings are and what your blood sugar readings are. So these are becoming increasingly important parts of how we look after ourselves and how we recommend you track your own health.
In terms of what wearables I use, I actually prefer to use a watch because this simply tracks everything I'm interested in, heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep. And I have two watches so that I'm never out of a device that has run out of battery. Typically, the watches have between 24 and 48 hours of battery life.
So by having two watches, I ensure that even if one of my watches has run out of battery, I have a backup that I can use.
