Apple Watch detected user’s illness months before diagnosis

The Apple Watch has once again established itself as an admirable health tool. A young student says the smartwatch picked up symptoms of an illness months before a diagnosis was made by a doctor.

In a video posted on TikTok, an Australian nursing student claims that her Apple Watch managed to detect the presence of a disease before a doctor makes a diagnosis. As reported by our colleagues from The Independent, the connected watch has noticed sudden changes in the vital constants of the young woman.

The Apple Watch is able to continuously analyze constants such as heart rate. All Apple Watches, including the more affordable Apple Watch SE or older models, have a heart rate monitor.

The Apple Watch saved a man’s life after an electric bike accident

Apple Watch has detected symptoms of a rare disease

If the smartwatch notices that the wearer’s heart beats too fast while at rest, a notification will appear on the screen. Generally, the watch considers the rate to be abnormally high if it exceeds 100 beats per minute for 10 minutes. This feature has already saved the life of a student whose heart raced upstream from discomfort.

These notifications can help detect various cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension or congenital diseases resulting in a reduction in the diameter of blood vessels. Unfortunately, Lauren had not enabled heart rate notifications.

After experiencing fatigue, gaining a lot of weight and feeling very irritable for several months, she decided to see a doctor. The specialist promptly diagnosed him with hemiagenesis of the thyroid, a very rare birth defect.

According to Lauren, she would therefore have had a problem earlier if she had consulted the data of her Apple Watch. The young student says that heart rate notificationsand the data concerning the amount of oxygen consumed by her body (VO2), could have prompted her to make an appointment with the doctor several months in advance.

“Instead of waiting for the symptoms to get really worrying, I could have gone to the doctor in October when there was this dramatic drop (Editor’s note: VO2) in a few days”explains Lauren after analyzing the data available in the Health application of her iPhone.

“Don’t get me wrong, your Apple Watch is definitely not something you should consider when making decisions about your health, but it can be useful to you, I suppose, as a tool to trick you into being the subject further medical investigation”, testifies the future nurse. She therefore encourages all users to activate the health notifications of the Apple Watch.

Source: The Independent