Measuring the heart: Wearable tech boosts cardiovascular health

14 Feb 2023 --- On the occasion of Valentine’s Day, we look at technological advancements targeting broader aspects of consumers’ heart health. NutritionInsight speaks with experts from PhytoGaia and PharmaLinea about the good and the not-so-good influences of technology.

“With the aid of connected health technology, options for personalized interventions are rapidly expanding to promote increased physical activity, says Dr. Ariati Aris, scientific affairs specialist at PhytoGaia. 

“Pedometers and other wearables, such as fitness bands and smartwatches that record activity metrics and physiological data, are among the platforms for physical activity connected health technology.”

Maja Orešnik, science and research director at PharmaLinea, agrees: “Technology enables consumers to have a better overview of their cardiovascular health status.”

Keeping the heart strongWearable tech allows consumers to constantly monitor their hearts’ performance.
Orešnik explains that, even a short time ago, only people with blood pressure issues were taking daily measurements of their heart’s performance at home. However, she notes that there are now a significant amount of wearable devices targeting a broader consumer demographic that can measure and track heart rate and give valuable insight into people’s cardiovascular capacities.

“Moreover, measurements of blood lipids values become more accessible, since they can be measured with POC devices or through the ‘test and send’ approach, where one mails their blood sample and receives their result online,” she adds.

Dr. Aris highlights that through extensive linkage with nutritional databases, these tools allow users to perform diet tracking, including caloric tracking.

“Currently, there are numerous various connected health tools that have been developed with the potential to reduce healthcare costs and improve the effectiveness and personalization of care at every stage of a patient’s journey, from early diagnosis to chronic disease management,” she notes.

“Due to concurrent advancements in sensor, mobile, wearable and computer technologies, as well as data analytics and machine learning algorithms, it is an ideal time for linked health technology to improve health outcomes.”

Not all good news
Some technology can promote sedentary or unhealthy lifestyles.However, both companies agree that there can be some drawbacks to constant technological intrusion into people’s daily lives.

“The possible disadvantage accessibility of technology brings is that the physician is cut out of the loop, and one is then left to their own interpretation of the results, not taking into account the overall state of health,” says Orešnik.

Additionally, Dr. Aris states that extensive use of some technology can promote a sedentary lifestyle.

“This has been linked to negative health outcomes such as contributing to cardiovascular disease and obesity,” she says. “Globally, there is a major public health problem with insufficient physical activity. Increased physical activity can prevent or delay the onset of cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases.’

However, Dr. Aris still believes in the ability of technology to prolong and even enhance lives, adding that some studies have shown that digital health technology can actually boost physical activity, at least in the short term.

“For example, a randomized, controlled trial – contrasting conventional cardiac rehabilitation with a smartphone application that offered daily text messages, multimedia education, relaxation audio and a light-to-moderate physical activity program – discovered that participants in the smartphone intervention group had significantly higher adherence and completion rates as well as significantly better six-minute walking test distances and depression scores.”

Dr. Aris concludes by stating that these types of cardiovascular-impacting technologies are often readily available and easy to use and include web-based programs, social media groups and smartphone applications.

By William Bradford Nichols