A very thin but marginally interesting article.
(No, don't make anything of the fact that it is being published just over one week before Apple launch their latest Apple Watch. Pure coincidence!)
Can a Fitbit or Apple Watch Help Fight Thyroid Disease?
Anand Narayanan, MD; Aaron Neinstein, MD
July 21, 2022
medscape.com/viewarticle/97...
(You will have to sign in to read the full article.)
Imagine a watch being better than the GP at diagnosing a thyroid condition - says it all. Next hurdle: getting the GP to believe the watch probably easier than getting them to believe us!
Well I think my Fitbit has helped with monitoring heart rate and sleep. It helped me reduce my dose when my HR was climbing sky high which then made me feel much better. It’s motivational as well ..keeps me moving around 😊 Not sure about presenting it to my GP but good for those of us quietly working it all out ourselves!
I do agree that they are very helpful in this way
I had to give up on my Fitbit as each time I moved in bed the light came on and woke me up. I was certainly doing worse with it than without as far as sleeping went.
I was obsessing about my resting heart rate on my FitBit and it was making my anxiety worse…. I’ve now stopped wearing it and feel much better. If I need to check my BP or pulse I use a heart rate monitor. I’m one of those people whose BP goes up as soon as I get in a GP surgery, so it does help to have a monitor at home, but not one to wear 24/7!
Yes - my BP rises as they look at the BP machine!
I think a lot depends on whether it is displaying or alerting you in any way. Or just recording so that it can be looked at later.
Same here, as for those digital ones they are agony just thinking about the impending pain is enough to send ones BP sky high! Bring back manual sphygmomanometers that’s what I say! A pal does mine now and again and it’s a lot lower than at the docs the it’s difference between normal and high.
The manual machines require maintenance.
That was the main reason that the old mercury machines had to be removed from service. The people doing the maintenance (which is required to keep them accurate) were receiving large doses of mercury. And it was assessed that there was no sensible way of protecting them while still doing the maintenance.
I am happy for mercury devices to no longer be in use. But I do understand the pain issue.
Knowing that, a little bit of pain from a digital one is a small price to pay to save anyone from getting mercury poisoned for doing their job. I will no longer think longingly of the old ones I’m glad they have gone. Why didn’t they hurt like the digital ones do? Is it just down to automation.
Thank you for enlightening me.
I've been pondering that for years - and again since reading your earlier reply.
Can't think of anything except that the manufacturers push the pressure up higher than an intelligent, trained human would. Maybe this is to compensate for lack of intelligence and training in the device itself. 
When a human operates a traditional sphygmomanometer, they listen to the pulse and can stop inflation when that is no longer detectable. Perhaps the automatic ones pump up above that level to avoid any need to detect pulse while pumping? Could the pulse detection get thrown by the pumping? So it just ploughs on and pumps to a higher pressure.
That is pure guesswork!
Yes I’ve now read everything I can on sphygmomanometers there are a few variations on how they work but it seems to be based on swishing noises between the systolic and diastolic or oscillations in the vessel wall but the basic principal is the same as a manual one so it must pump up the cuff less exactly and more over the top than a human being listening to the disappearance of the pulse doing the cuff manually.
It’s all rather clever 😉
I certainly find giving printed records of Apple Watch data helps at annual review
On levothyroxine plus T3….like many others …my TSH is suppressed
Ft4 and Ft3 approx 80% through range
Of course medics tend to freak out at low TSH
But my resting heart rate is 45-58bpm sleeping
Drops under 45 if been a particularly busy day …..
so with printed records…..I have been able to argue that dose should NOT be reduced
In fact….I have shown with weekly summaries….that if levothyroxine is reduced by 12.5mcg …..can see average heart rate dropping lower at each subsequent month…..after 20 weeks ….regularly dropping under 50bpm most nights ….and increasing numbers of nights below 45bpm. Yet TSH only moved from 0.01 up to 0.02
So it was agreed by GP, despite suppressed TSH …..I should put dose levothyroxine back up
Very interesting. Mine went up after treatment it would be 50 walking around doing non exertional things, now it’s well over 80. Is it dangerous to be that low?
I feel weird if heart rate drops below 50 …..but not keeled over yet!
I passed out on my bike and I have wondered if it had anything to do with the thyroid problems. I believe syncope can be a symptom due to sudden drops in blood pressure & perhaps heart rate too? My mother passed out many times before she was finally diagnosed. I am sure these episodes were something to do with her thyroid disease.
I wear a Nike Apple Watch. It helps me by knowing what my heart rate is. If my medication starts to get too high my heart rate drops. It’s normally in the mid to upper 50’s but if I’m going over medicated it drops into the 40’s. This happened when I was over medicated on Levothyroxine a few years ago when it dropped into the 30’s. I was later put on combination treatment of Levo plus T3 medication as I’m a poor converter. I read a lot about peoples heart rate increasing but mine drops. Same thing happened once when over medicated on Liothyronine T3. It really does motivate me also to keep myself fit. I try to do 10,000 brisk walking steps each day sometimes much more depending if it’s dry outside. Also you can look back over a period and see how you’re doing. I did like wearing my fit bit too a few years back and the app is great for monitoring the type of food you eat. I think I’ve become much more conscious of my general health since starting to wear my watches.
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