Jul 3, 2020
Read Your Heart Rate Like a Pro
RHR and Its potential use for early signs of heart disease and COVID-19
Do you know that you can start to manage your health by simply reading your Resting Heart Rate (RHR), which is not only an important health indicator for heart health but also your immune systems’ status?
RHR is the heart rate measured when you are static, and there are plenty of devices available to help you do that, including Apple Watch, Alivecor, or most blood pressure machines. If your RHR is higher than 120bpm (beats per minute), it can be a sign that something needs further attention.
Why is RHR significant to our immune system?
Scientific evidence has shown a strong link between RHR and influenza (1), which usually triggers strong immune responses. With help from widely available wearable devices, we can collect RHR data frequently at home. This is a reliable indicator that our immune system has been triggered because when the Sympathetic Nerve System (SNS)(2) rises, our RHR will also rise. This is an early indicator that something is wrong and can be identified even before your body temperature rises.
How can RHR analysis be applied to COVID-19 Detection?
RHR can be very useful when it comes to early #COVID19 and help us manage #COVID19 in a more efficient fashion. Wearable devices play a key role in collecting massive amounts of information, while Medical AI( Artificial Intelligence) is crucial to building the disease model and making early warnings possible.
More work still needs to be done, but the good news is that we have all the tools we need. In the current pandemic, we need all the help we can get to understand the infection risk and to re-shape our world for the better.
Read more about Smart Care For Heart Disease Patients During and Post-Pandemic
1: “Harnessing wearable device data to improve state-level real-time surveillance of influenza-like illness in the USA: a population-based study.” Jennifer M Radin, PhD, Nathan E Wineinger, PhD , Prof Eric J Topol, MD, Steven R Steinhubl, MD Open AccessPublished:January 16, 2020DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30222-5
2: Li X, Dunn J, Salins D, et al. Digital health: tracking physiomes and activity using wearable biosensors reveals useful health-related information. PLoS Biol 2017; 15: e2001402.
