What you need to know
- Apple Watch detects elevated heart rates and notifies wearers.
- Some coronavirus patients have noticed their Apple Watch going crazy.
- They're sharing screenshots of their heart rate on Reddit.
Everyone wearing an Apple Watch while they read this has the benefit of having a heart rate monitor strapped to their wrist at all times. And it turns out that comes in pretty handy when we're in the midst of a pandemic, with coronavirus patients sharing screenshots of their heart rates to Reddit.
There are a few threads going on at the moment with people sharing just how high an Apple Watch has recorded their resting heart rate. Reddit user "mattkeil" shared a screenshot of a heart rate of 139 bpm. That would be fine if they were doing laps of a track, but this was their resting heart rate!
Seen a few posts about COVID-19's impact on heart rate. This was my resting heart rate. When it hit 139 I called for an Ambulance.
They went on to say that while "recovery was long" they found that "the Apple Watch was genuinely useful in monitoring the symptoms" of coronavirus.
Another example saw user "LambHoot" post a screenshot showing their heart rate increase dramatically when they woke up feeling ill.
Woke up to a fever-like state, tough breathing, etc. The hr limit warnings were the big tip off though. Being able to monitor hr all day and notice I couldn't get it below 100 even at rest was the freaky part.
While it's true that these people didn't need an Apple Watch to tell them that they were unwell, this is another fine example of the power of data. The more we have – particularly about ourselves and our bodies – the better we can prepare for, and react to, difficult situations.
The Series 5 Apple Watch is more than just a watch, and for the first time in its existence, it actually acts like a watch.
