An Australian student had encouraged Apple Watch owners to enable heart rate notification after it was seen to detect symptoms of a thyroid issue months before diagnosis.
The heart rate notifications offered by the Apple Watch have assisted several people to detect serious issues with their hearts. It has prompted them to seek further medical assistance.
In a recent TikTok post, it was shown that the Apple Watch can detect minor changes in the early stages which can end up in a diagnosis months after.
The post was uploaded on February 2 by Lauren, who encouraged her viewers to enable notifications for detecting low and high heart rates, arrhythmia and also for testing cardio fitness levels.
In the video, spotted by The Independent, the Sydney-based student admitted that she should’ve enabled the features earlier than she did, as it had medical consequences.
Lauren Explains How The Apple Watch’s Notifications Alerted Her Of Her Condition
Lauren explained that she was diagnosed with a thyroid condition and admitted that “I would have realized something was going on if my Apple alerted me of changes.”
“Instead of me waiting for the symptoms to get really bad, I could have gone to the doctor back in October, when there was this dramatic drop in a matter of days,” Lauren adds, alongside a screenshot of a graph from the Health app. “It dramatically dropped, which means my cardiovascular system wasn’t working as well as it once was.”
The drop also correlated with other symptoms, including fatigue, sensitivity to heat, gaining weight, dry skin, and increased irritability. In December, she was diagnosed with thyroid hemiagenesis, and is undergoing treatment.
Lauren admits the Apple Watch wasn’t an item she considered as being a provider of health and medical advice normally, but it was still useful. “Don’t get me wrong, your Apple Watch is definitely not something you should follow as medical advice, but it can come in handy, I guess, as a tool to prompt you to go get things investigated further.”