Your fitness tracker may be able to do more than count steps. Patricia Lauder believes her Fitbit saved her life.
The 73-year-old Connecticut woman originally bought a Fitbit to help her lose weight, CBS Philly reports. But a few months ago, Lauder began to feel ill, and initially thought she had a sinus infection that turned into pneumonia.
“I went to the doctors to have that checked out and that turned out to be negative,” she told the news site.
But that’s when Lauder started paying attention to her Fitbit. The tracker, which allows users to track steps, sleep patterns and heart rate was quick to show Lauder’s heart rate going up every day.
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Once, she had shortness of breath and her tracker told her heart rate had jumped to 140 beats per minute.
“When it finally got to the point where walking across the room was a major issue, I picked up the phone and knew I needed help,” she continued.
At the hospital, doctors discovered two pulmonary embolisms.
Pulmonary embolisms, the Mayo Clinic notes, occurs when patients have a blockage in one of their pulmonary arteries in their lungs. In most cases, they are caused by blood clots.
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And although they can be life threatening, prompt treatment is key.
In Lauder’s case, her clots disappeared after taking medication.
Don’t rely on fitness trackers for overall health
However, some studies have shown that fitness trackers don’t actually help you lose weight. A 2016 study from the University of Pittsburgh found people who relied on their trackers lost less weight compared to those who didn’t.
Another study in the same year found fitness trackers weren’t pushing users to be more active either, the Telegraph reports.
And when it comes to tracking heart rates, something many brands offer, one October 2016 study from the Cleveland Clinic found none of them were as accurate as wearing a chest strap monitor, Live Science reports. In general, wrist-worn heart rate monitors were more accurate than other types of fitness trackers.
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The study looked at the Apple Watch, Fitbit Charge HR, Mio Fuse and the Basis Peak.
Fitness trackers have helped others in the past
In April 2016, after a 42-year-old New Jersey man went to a hospital following a seizure, doctors ended up looking at data on his Fitbit Charge HR before resetting his heart rate, Gizmodo reports.
It was the first time in medical history a fitness tracker was used to take further action on a patient.
The incident, which was reported in Annals of Emergency Medicine, noted doctors noticed the patient’s Fitbit was synchronized on his smartphone.
“The application was accessed on the patient’s smartphone and revealed a baseline pulse rate between 70 and 80 beats per min (bpm), with an immediate persistent increase to a range of 140 to 160 bpm at the approximate time of the patient’s seizure. The pulse rate remained elevated until administration of the diltiazem in the field,” researchers note.
With files from Carmen Chai
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