Australian nursing student Lauren Rebecca’s Apple Watch alerted her to potentially dangerous health symptoms months before she received an official medical diagnosis, according to an article originally published in the New Zealand Herald.
Rebecca initially began experiencing tiredness and fatigue in October 2021, which she attributed to long hours working in the health care field during a pandemic.
But those symptoms progressed, and soon the nursing student was experiencing an irregular heartbeat, dry skin, temperature sensitivities and weight gain that she couldn’t explain. It wasn’t until an ultrasound in December that Rebecca was diagnosed with a rare thyroid defect known as thyroid hemiagenesis, a condition that also causes thyroiditis.
On a whim in early February — a few months after her diagnosis — Rebecca decided to look through her Apple Watch’s app notification history.
“I genuinely just went on it to see if everything was turned on,” she told the New Zealand Herald. “I saw that there were alerts at the top of the app that had never come through as notifications because I didn’t have notifications turned on … I looked through it and that’s when I could see the trend that my Vo2 max had dropped, literally in a matter of days (back in October).”
Vo2 max is a measure of how well the body absorbs oxygen during activity. A noticeable dip as recorded by the Apple Watch could have alerted Rebecca to her health issues months earlier, leading to an earlier diagnosis and earlier treatment.
Apple Watch’s health features also include an electrocardiogram built into the heart rate monitor and a blood oxygen sensor. The device can also store allergy information and information on chronic health conditions, which could be beneficial to clinicians and first responders during medical emergencies.
This isn’t the first time an Apple Watch has been shown to be helpful in diagnosing potentially dangerous health conditions.
A 2017 study found that wearable tech, including Apple’s smartwatch, is able to accurately diagnose common health issues. They include hypertension and sleep apnea.
Since her diagnosis, Rebecca has taken to social media to encourage other Apple Watch wearers to make sure they’re getting health notifications, ones that could alert them to potentially serious medical conditions.
“We have so much technology available and a lot of the time it’s more of a burden than something positive,” Rebecca said.
When it comes to health, however, an Apple notification might just save a life.
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