Should I use a smart device to monitor my body?

A patient asked me this question recently, and I had to think about that. I don’t use one personally. Maybe I put too much stock into worries about how large corporations use data directly from us to better sell to us. I don’t mind that they use information to improve their products and the delivery of services, of course. It’s just that if they monitor my heartrate while tracking what I’m scrolling through on my phone or computer or the programs I’m streaming on my tv, then they can know how to manipulate my feelings and how to get me to buy (or buy into) something.

But I digress.

The Positives of Using a Health Monitoring Smart Device

1. Track how much restful, restorative sleep you’re getting: A smart device monitor may also track how many hours of REM or deep sleep you’re getting. It might help explain why you’re still tired even after getting what you thought was a full night of sleep. It won’t tell you why your sleep results show up as they do, but if you make changes in before-bedtime habits, you can monitor if those tweaks are helping.
2. Decide how much fitness activity you can/should do: I have one patient who decides how much of a workout he could/should (or shouldn’t) do based on information he collects via his smart ring. It tracks his heart rate variability (HRV), which gives him an idea about his stress levels and how well he can expect to recover. Since he tends to overtrain, this helps to remind him to go easy on days that his ring tracks higher levels of stress.
3. Get a better idea about how changes affect your body: You could track your biometrics to see the impact of changes in dietary choices, exercise routines, lifestyle habits, treatments, and more.
4. Keep a record: You can keep a record over time of how your body is doing based on measurements of certain biometrics. You can even share this information with your healthcare providers.
5. Stay motivated: Seeing your progress and getting reminders to move more, allot more time for restorative sleep, and keep on track with your health goals may be the best reason to get one of these devices.

So, should you get a smart watch or ring? Sounds like a resounding yes!

But hang on a minute, what are the potential negatives?

The Negatives of Using a Health Monitoring Smart Device

1. Effects can be delayed: Unfortunately, biology doesn’t always work in such a way that making a change causes an immediate effect. The effects can be delayed. For example, I notice that if I have a poor night of sleep, I’m okay the next day. For me, it’s often two days later that I notice the tiredness, even if the second night I get a decent sleep. The same two days later effect happens a lot for DOMS—delayed (thus the name “delayed”) onset muscle soreness—after exercise. So, that makes it a bit tricky when you are trying to figure out if that “thing” you did, consumed, or experienced affected that night’s sleep, your stress levels, or other biometric marker.
2. It might make you feel anxious or worried: If you are the type of person who tends to overthink things, you might want to be mindful about how much you use or check your device. Sometime our bodies have unexplained “blips.” Maybe nothing was different that day, but for some reason, your deep sleep shows as part that night. That might be no problem for your body, but if that would worry you, then the added stress isn’t worth having that biometric information.
3. It won’t answer the why and it is not a diagnostic tool: If you’re hoping to get answers to the whats and whys, you may be disappointed. These smart devices deliver biometric information, but not diagnoses or causes.
4. You might become reliant: I said one reason at the start about why I don’t (currently—that may change, never say “never”) use a biometric smart device, but the main reason is that I like monitoring how I’m doing by how I’m feeling. I think it’s important to pay attention to the internal cues the body gives, and not become reliant on external information. It’s like how I do acupuncture. Experience has given me the ability to actually feel the right point. This is a skill I didn’t have when I first started practicing. I feel we all have some ability to do the same with our own bodies, but we too often ignore (or amplify) what we feel, rather than hear the signals correctly. Just like many of us no longer remember phone numbers because they are stored in our phones or how to get somewhere without GPS, we can forget how to listen to our own body cues.
5. It won’t make lifestyle choice changes for you: In other words, if having the smart device information actually help you make positive changes, then data is just numbers and charts without value.

Having said all that, there are ways around most of these negatives.

So, What’s the Answer?

As long as you recognize that:

• while these devices are improving, they are not perfect
• you should still listen to your body’s cues and not just rely on your device’s info
• you won’t get diagnostic or causal information from these devices
• you are best to avoid getting obsessive about the information you get from these devices

and

• that blips of information that don’t fit a pattern or make sense are okay

and if you feel that having this information will help motivate you to keep learning and doing healthy things, then yes, give it a go. We can use technology to benefit our lives.

What do you feel about these smart watches and rings?