We live in era, in which our day starts with putting off the alarm and ends after scrolling through a number of reels on Instagram that clearly shows human dependency on Technology for survival because of the excellent comfort it has offered.
Along with the progressive advancement in Technology, we also encounter different types of diseases, and the memories of the corona are still fresh in everyone’s mind. In the Layman language, a disease caused due to imbalanced lifestyles, like obesity, diabetes, high BP(Blood P) or hypertension, etc, is called lifestyle disease, and that has become a new normal nowadays.
“As per the report by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 116 million people in America suffer from hypertension or high BP; another research published by the American Medical Group Foundation says that 20% of Americans are not even aware that they have hypertension“
It is concerning data because if you do not know, you have some problems; how will you treat them? And that is when blood pressure smartwatches come into the picture to save millions of lives every day. I am not talking about regular smartwatches but smart watch with blood pressure and heart rate monitor.
Technology used to track Blood Pressure in Smartwatches
After reading this, you must have thought about how this smartwatch measures blood pressure and how accurately it gets measured. So, Let’s understand it!
The mechanism smartwatches use to measure blood pressure are;
- Electrocardiography (ECG)
- Photoplethysmography (PPG)
To understand it correctly, you need to have the knowledge of blood circulatory system and how the heart pumps blood. So in blood circulation, there is systolic and diastolic blood pressure. When the heart pumps oxygen-rich blood into the blood vessel, that is called systolic blood pressure, and when the heart relaxes, and pressure levels come into the blood vessel, that is called diastolic blood pressure.
The normal systolic and diastolic blood pressure should be 120:80mmHg. Systolic blood pressure is always higher than diastolic blood pressure. The blood pressure is measured in (mmHg) units.
Now the question is how it measures blood pressure, so the smartwatch sensors record the time pulse takes to travel from heart to wrist, The time pulse takes to travel from the heart to the wrist during the blood pump is called Pulse transit time (PTT) and with the help of this data, smartwatches show blood pressure readings.
Smartwatches with ECG mechanism use (PTT) for reading, like if your pulse transit time is fast it means you have a high BP, and if your pulse transit time is slow it means you have a low BP, while smartwatches with PPG mechanism use a light sensor to detect the volume of blood flow in arteries.
The sensor in the PPG mechanism detects blood volume fluctuation, which shows a change in the heart rate, resulting in high BP or low BP. There is no significant difference in both mechanisms.
Can a smartwatch measure accurate reading?
Now you have understood how smartwatches measure blood pressure, but again the question is “does a smartwatch measure blood pressure accurately” Hence, the answer is yes; you can rely on the readings of smartwatches with blood pressure and heart rate monitors because they are accurate but not very specific as digital instruments used by doctors to measure BP with tightened cuffs. if you wish you can check the apple smartwatches.
Conclusion
BP is not a very serious problem, but it will become serious if you ignore it constantly. And if you are someone suffering from high BP, smartwatches can help you to trace your BP on a daily basis which gives some kind of relaxation and makes you aware of your BP health, but it can’t replace a doctor; that is why routine check-ups with doctors are advisable and beneficial in long run.
