Healthy
Tech
By Dave Werle
I
t’s been twelve years since the original Fitbit tracker came on the market. Since then, an impressive array of devices and applications has become available and omnipresent. Can these products demonstrate actual health benefits? Which ones might be especially helpful for those of us who hope to “age in place” when our health inevitably declines? Lastly, what futuristic health-related products are coming closer to reality? Healthy tech products fall into two categories: products that serve the needs of people who want to live a healthy lifestyle and those that are trying to manage existing health issues.
alarms attempt to wake you only during light sleep, within a time frame you select. This is based on the theory that waking during light sleep helps you feel more refreshed and energetic during the day. Who wouldn’t want that? Quality of sleep is known to impact overall health outcomes helping these tools gain popularity. Another tool designed to maintain health is the Firefly. This gadget straps to your knee and sends electric impulses to stimulate a nerve in your leg that, in turn, increases blood flow in your lower leg. Athletes use Firefly to help with quicker recovery after a workout. It also can work for people who are going on a long airplane flight and want to maintain good blood flow in the legs.
In the healthy lifestyle category, the many tools already available include wearable devices that have become prevalent in today’s world. The Apple Watch has reached a fifth generation and now has some quite remarkable features. You can get an echocardiogram (ECG) on yourself in 30 seconds and also monitor arrhythmia using the watch. It provides a warning if you are in a dangerously noisy setting, so you can put on some hearing protection. If you are working on stress management, the Apple Watch has a “breathe” app to help with meditative breathing. Fitbit has been around for more than ten years now and claims to have more than 25 million users. One avid user I know is my mom. Her Fitbit gives her regular reminders to get moving. She has a steps-taken goal for each day and sticks to it compulsively. When I’m visiting, my attempts to take out the recycling or trash are regularly rejected as she wants to get in her steps! The second function she uses is the sleep stage analyzer. The Fitbit detects changes in heartbeat and movement to estimate when you are in light, deep and REM sleep stages. Knowing which nights you don’t get enough deep sleep might help you figure out which pre-sleep habits work (such as ending screen time earlier) and which don’t (like eating a pint of double chocolate ice cream at midnight). There are other healthy tech apps that focus entirely on sleep habits. Smart sleep alarms, such as Sleep Cycle and Sleep as Android target the way in which you wake up to improve your health. These smart 16 | 50+ Living | November 2020
Current health care management tech tools are growing in use and benefits. At home diagnostics tools are being used widely to assist with telehealth services. TytoHome is a device that allows you to perform a basic health exam at home and submit the information to your doctor. This can help the doctor to diagnose an acute illness remotely and is used for follow up at home after a medical procedure. For people who want to age-in-place and might have difficulty getting to their doctors’ offices, this could save quite a bit of time and money and improve health outcomes. Biometric devices are now being used to track a range of chronic conditions. Data from pacemakers can
