“It begins seven years ago, when my doctor asks me whether I want to lose my foot. I say to him: No, I do not want to lose my foot. ‘Good,’ he says back: Monitor your blood sugar, keep it down, and we can manage this disease. Then nobody has to lose a foot,” Dan Hon writes for M.I.T. technology Review. “It turns out I have type 2 diabetes… it’s the foot that does it for me. That’s when I start collecting health data.”
“Gathering this new information requires a patchwork of services, so I approach it like an engineer. I track steps using wearable devices from Fitbit and Nike, and apps like Moves. I watch for high blood pressure with a Withings smart monitor. The data is stored alongside my weight, body fat percentage, and body mass index, all measured with a smart scale. And all the time there’s my blood glucose, measured six times a day, before and after each meal,” Hon writes. “I export the data as CSVs and view it in hand-crafted graphs and dashboards. My ad hoc monitoring system makes me an early adopter, a bona fide member of the quantified-self movement.”
“Seven years later, though, my fringe obsession has become mainstream. My cobbled-together system has been replaced by Apple’s shiny Health app, and I get prompted to exercise by a wearable that is more powerful than my first laptop. And my watch can even monitor my heart,” Hon writes. “Seven years ago I started tracking my blood sugar because I didn’t want to lose a foot. Now, after a month of using the Series 4 Apple Watch, I’m reminded what data can mean for my heart and, by extension, my mind.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Watch is a lifesaver, plain and simple.
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