A nursing student in Australia is encouraging Apple Watch owners to enable heart rate notifications after the wearable picked up symptoms months before a thyroid disease was diagnosed. Apple’s heart rate notifications have helped countless people discover their heart problems, prompting them to seek further medical assistance.
In a recent post on TikTok, it was shown that wearables can detect very early changes that could eventually be diagnosed months later. In a video posted on Feb. 2, TikTok user Lauren encouraged viewers to enable notifications to detect low and high heart rates, irregular rhythms, and cardiorespiratory fitness levels.
In a video spotted by The Independent, the Sydney-based nursing student admits she should have enabled the features ahead of time because of the medical consequences.
In Lauren’s explanation, she said she was diagnosed with thyroid disease a few weeks ago. But she said if her apple alerted her to a change in her body values, then she would realize something was up.
Rather than having me wait for the symptoms to get really bad, I went to the doctor as early as October when this sharp drop occurred within a few days,” Lauren added, alongside a Screenshot of the chart from the Health app. “It dropped dramatically, which means my cardiovascular system isn’t working as well as it used to.
This decline was also associated with other symptoms, including fatigue, heat sensitivity, weight gain, dry skin, and increased irritability. In December, she was diagnosed with thyroid half-life and is being treated.
Lauren said the Apple Watch wasn’t an item she considered because it’s often a provider of health and medical advice, but it’s still useful.
Don’t get me wrong, your Apple Watch is definitely not medical advice you should follow, but it can come in handy, I guess, as a tool to prompt you to investigate things further. But in this case, I really hope I turned all the settings on, noticed the changes, and went to the doctor early.