“My piece on Apple’s glucose monitoring project spawned a number of interesting discussions, and that’s led me to think there’s another chapter in this story to discuss,” Chuq Von Rospach blogs. “That’s the downsides of our move into constant biometric monitoring, whether it’s the Apple Watch pulse monitor or the ability for someone to do 24×7 monitoring of our blood glucose.”
“These things are boons for people that need access to this info, but they can become crutches and, beyond that, create problems for people who get too involved with the data,” Von Rospach writes. “I’ve had a chance to talk about this with various medical people over the last few months. As I’ve mentioned previously, last fall we tried a change in my medications that I had a bad reaction to and ended up in the emergency room… Since a rapid pulse was a primary symptom of this gremlin, I found myself getting in the habit of tracking, and starting to obsess, about my pulse numbers. And that led to me (a) having to not check my pulse unless I felt there was a problem to break that habit, and (b) having conversations with various doctors about this.”
“They all noted that they’re starting to see this dark side of this ‘always monitoring’ capability we’re starting to build into our lives,” Von Rospach writes. “It’s easy to get too tied to the numbers, to start obsessing about them, stressing out around them. Finding problems in them that otherwise you wouldn’t notice, or cause you to turn a minor thing into a major worry.”
“I see the same kind of challenge with the upcoming glucose product, if and when it happens. I was honestly a little disturbed when Tim Cook said he’d been checking his continuously, because while he was obviously acting as a testing subject, I don’t think he’s someone who ought to be doing that. I think some advanced or elite athletes might benefit from it as well, but most of us who struggle to fill the rings every day wouldn’t,” Von Rospach writes. “Most people don’t need 24×7 glucose monitoring and it would become easy for some who try it to find reasons to freak out or stress about it.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How many people do you know already who are obsessed about their step count or their Activity rings?
We know quite a few (besides ourselves). We can certainly see Von Rospach’s point, especially when the data over which people are obsessing are tracking more important matters than step count.
SEE ALSO:
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been test-driving a device that tracks his blood sugar, connected to his Apple Watch – May 18, 2017
Apple reportedly working on incorporating blood glucose sensor into Apple Watch – May 15, 2017
Apple secret team reportedly working holy grail for treating diabetes; initially envisioned by Steve Jobs – April 12, 2017
Apple patent details Apple Watch smart bands – January 24, 2017
Emails between Apple and FDA hint at future plans – December 1, 2016
Analyst: Apple smartbands are a part of the Apple Watch’s future – April 8, 2016
Apple patent application hints at Apple Watch ‘Smartbands’ utilizing hidden 6-pin data connector – February 20, 2016