Tech Wrangler: The health gadgets you need to have after a heart attack

Tech Wrangler is a monthly column where Forbes Vetted contributors and staff explore the best values ​​in consumer technology. These aren’t necessarily the cheapest products in their class, but they represent the intersection of price and performance – in other words, money well spent.

As a technology journalist, I have access to testing the best technologies from the largest companies in the world, but until a few years ago I didn’t consider how technology could keep me alive. Everything changed after he had a heart attack at the age of 33 in 2020.

The morning after Thanksgiving, I woke up with my heart racing in my chest. During my ER visit, I discovered that 99% of the time I had a blockage in my main artery, which is the end point for most people experiencing this particular heart attack. I was lucky: I survived and began the long road to rebuilding my health after 30 years of neglect.

Diagnoses of heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes made me fearful for my future. While I followed my doctor’s orders and relied on monthly checkups, I also turned to technology to provide me with much-needed daily insights. Throughout my journey, I discovered some essential tools that I continue to use to stay healthy and alive. Here are the products I use daily or weekly to take care of my health, why I use them, and how they can save your life.

A few months before my heart attack, I abandoned smartwatches in favor of analog watches. After some thought, I realized that if I had been wearing my Apple Watch at the time, I could have caught the heart attack before it happened.

After my heart attack, I use an Apple Watch Ultra 2 to make sure I always have one on my wrist, even when the other one is charging. It has a ton of health tech features: it can perform ECG, monitor blood oxygen levels, and thanks to the upcoming Watch OS 11 update announced at Apple’s WWDC, it will soon offer proper sleep tracking. But this excellent heart rate monitoring helped me understand my heart rate patterns. It also warned me many times about irregular heart rate and atrial fibrillation.

I speak with Dr. Johanna Contreras, MD, cardiologist at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital, it was clear that the Apple Watch’s heart rate features were ideal for understanding the normal functioning of the human heart. “For normal people who don’t have heart disease, it’s good because it helps them monitor their heart rate. When it comes to exercise, they know how it increases their heart rate, and they know the value of the exercise they do during that time.

On the other hand, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 can be useful for monitoring your heart rate, but not in the way you might think. After all, for people with heart disease like me, it can be a good way to keep your heart rate steady. “Some medications block or reduce (the patient’s) heart rate and we want to keep it that way. This may not be useful when exercising, but it can be useful to know that your heart rate is staying at the level you want it to be at,” adds Contreras.

Beyond the technical features, the real magic of the Apple Watch is Apple Health, especially the ability to sync all of your medical records using your Medical ID. I visited the emergency room many times, calling an ambulance in the following months as my body adjusted to the stent in my heart. Each time, paramedics were able to quickly gain access to my medical ID and check what diseases I suffered from, the latest test results and the medications I was taking. More than once, this meant changing my treatment plan: without this information, I would have been prescribed medications that could probably have stopped my heart completely. Contreras notes that “when a patient presents to the ER or other emergency situation with an abnormal EKG or heart rate, prior EKG readings and prior pulse readings can help us understand whether this is abnormal for that patient or consistent with prior readings . – she said.

I also really appreciate the fall detection feature and the ability to notify emergency contacts when the watch detects a medical issue. Since my entire family lives abroad, this is an easy way to keep them informed and quickly share contact information with paramedics and hospitals. And since an exercise plan is an essential part of maintaining heart health, activity rings also provide a daily visual reminder that motivates me to exercise, especially since I can compete with friends who keep me on track to achieve my goals.

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During my recovery and cardiac rehabilitation, my attention focused on diabetes. For several months, it felt like the death knell – me I couldn’t reduce my glucose levels. I needed help understanding my body and health. I discovered the Dexcom G7 continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and it completely changed my life.

Dexcom G7 CGM offers high and low alerts up to 20 minutes before your glucose level drops, as well as trend data without the need to touch your fingers. Dexcom also recently launched Direct-to-Watch, which allows you to view glucose readings and complication trending data directly on the home screen of your Apple Watch. When I’m driving long distances, this is the perfect way for me to safely and quickly find out whether I need to stop to eat or if I can continue driving.

Diabetes is a complex disease; I have to be very careful not to get my glucose levels too high or too low, and the latter has been a particular problem for me overnight. If it gets too low overnight it could be life-threatening, but luckily the Dexcom G7 warns me. CGM also provides valuable information about the effects of different foods on blood sugar levels. As a result, I successfully lowered my average sugar levels to non-diabetic levels in just six months. Every diabetic needs a CGM because it provides lifesaving information and interventions, and the Dexcom G7 CGM is worth every penny.

Contreras added that diabetes is a disease that requires constant monitoring, and this is where smart health monitoring can make it easier to manage your health. “Nobody wants to stub their fingers three or four times a day. But with glucose monitors that can be implanted in the arm, they can actually keep an eye on their phone,” he says. Monitoring devices like a CGM, or in this case my Dexcom G7 CGM, allow patients to check their sugar levels right from their phone and more closely monitor their diabetes, and in particular the trend of average sugar levels over a given period.

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If you have ever had a cardiac event, you know how frustrating it is to try to treat these conditions outside of a medical setting. In a hospital, they can quickly and precisely perform a 12-lead EKG, but these devices are not portable and cost thousands of dollars – if they can be purchased at all.

The solution I use is the Kardia Mobile 6-Lead Personal ECG. It’s sleek, slim, small and extremely portable. This reduction in size doesn’t come at the expense of its capabilities: it can perform a 6-lead ECG and detect atrial fibrillation, bradycardia, and tachycardia, which provides a solid basis of information for doctors who can evaluate me. For context, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and other wearables only record single-lead ECGs, i.e., they check electrical signals with only one point of contact, so while they can provide some insight, they’re not as reliable.

Kardia Mobile also allows you to automatically send results to your doctor in PDF format or to certified cardiologists for remote evaluation. I take it with me on every trip because it is the easiest and fastest way to perform an ECG test on the go.

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The newest addition to my health arsenal, the Withings Body Scan Smart Scale allows me to check my weight, body composition and BMI. It then takes this data to the next level by also allowing me to check my heart by performing a 6-lead EKG, checking my nerves (a key test for diabetics), and understanding deeper indicators such as blood oxygen and circulation.

I’ve only been using the Withings Body Scan scale for a few weeks, but the ability to take all of these measurements first thing in the morning is unrivaled. Given that my heart attack – and many other adverse cardiac events – occurred overnight, taking a daily EKG reading along with body composition data allows me to build a detailed profile of my health over time. When I see the cardiologist, I can share this data with him so he can quickly check the daily logs to look for specific adverse events that may have been highlighted by various medical tests. This quickly became my favorite new health tool. There is no better scale on the market, especially if you suffer from serious medical conditions.

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The last item in my first aid kit is the Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon. I have been using this smart ring since I started cardiac rehab. Although I switched to the Whoop Wrist Band for a while, I eventually went back to the Oura Ring. I missed the detailed sleep information and 24/7 heart rate tracking it provides. But it goes beyond sleep, also providing valuable data on your resting heart rate at night, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, and skin temperature – all of which are vital signs I need to monitor due to my various medical conditions.

Oura Ring works with both iOS and Android, so I can pair it with my iPhone 15 Pro Max or my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, depending on what else I’m testing. This is a fantastic ring that was recommended to me by my cardiologist and I have been incredibly pleased with his observations over the last three years.

Another great feature? Its battery life. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 can last up to two days before I have to place it on the iPhone charging station. Oura Ring Gen3, on the other hand, lasts up to a week on a single charge, so it’s easy to put it on your finger and not worry about finding the charger.

Sleep is a key component of heart disease management, and Contreras’ project shed more light on the importance of sleep monitoring in the clinical setting. Ultimately, being able to understand how someone sleeps allows a doctor to take appropriate steps to correct the condition before it leads to a worsening condition.