If it turns out to be effective, it\u2019ll be a breakthrough in more ways than one. And you may not even need to buy one of the latest watches to take advantage; Apple Watch\u2019s hypertension notification feature is available on all recent models running watchOS 26, reaching back to Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2.<\/p>\n
Apple says it developed this technology\u2014recently cleared by the FDA\u2014using data from a multitude of studies involving over 100,000 participants across ages, genders, body compositions, skin tones, and other variables.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this watch is doing is basically using that technology to try to figure out if the arteries are changing in a way that is indicative of hypertension,\u201d says Dr. Naidu.<\/p>\n
If the watch suspects hypertension\u2014a determination based on the previous 30 days worth of data\u2014a notification will appear, along with a prompt recommending you check your blood pressure manually with a third-party blood pressure cuff, logging two readings a day over a consecutive seven-day period. The accompanying iPhone app makes it easy to plug these numbers in and, once complete, export a PDF report that can be sent to your doctor.<\/p>\n
If that last part sounds like too big of an ask, don\u2019t fret. The initial notification on its own is reason enough to make an appointment with your doctor, says Dr. Naidu. \u201cTo be honest, if it triggers [the notification], I would just say you should go to your primary doctor,\u201d he says. “I would rather have a lot of people coming in to get checked out earlier in life.”<\/p>\n
Why one doctor we spoke with is calling this a \u2018game changer\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Typically, blood pressure is one of the things your doctor checks during your annual physical. So, you might be wondering, why do we need continuous monitoring for hypertension?<\/p>\n Well, depending on how far out you are from your next check-up, catching hypertension early\u2014as in today, versus six months from now\u2014can actually make a big difference.<\/p>\n “When I get that alert, we don’t actually know how high my blood pressure is,\u201d says Dr. Halasyamani. \u201cIs it just a little high, or is it really high? If I have a very elevated blood pressure, that can be quite dangerous and can actually lead to an adverse event in a very short order. If I have blood pressure that’s mildly elevated, the arc of that impact is longer. However, we know that the sooner we get people into treatment, the less likely they are to have negative consequences.”<\/p>\n Doctors call hypertension a \u201csilent killer,\u201d as it can develop with virtually no noticeable symptoms. \u201cIf you injure your leg, it hurts, and so then you go and get care. But you can have high blood pressure and feel kind of the same,\u201d Dr. Halasyamani says. \u201cAnd the toll it’s taking on your body can continue.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s also worth noting that in-office blood pressure tests aren\u2019t always a reliable measure of hypertension, particularly for people of the more anxious variety, who tend to produce false positives\u2014or false false positives. \u201cWe call it \u2018white coat hypertension,\u2019\u201d Dr. Naidu says, \u201cwhich is a sarcastic way of saying that they come into the office and as soon as you start checking it, they get nervous. And because they get nervous, their pressure goes up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor whatever reason we stress everybody out,\u201d Dr. Halasyamani says. \u201cSo most of the time people will say, \u2018Oh, well, my pressure’s high here, but it’s fine every other time. And I don’t really want to take any medicines, because I’m just stressed out when I come here.\u2019 And you know what? That might be true. But if you’re able to show me blood pressure readings that have been taken when you’re at home or doing the things you normally do, then that actually gives me a much better sense of what your blood pressure is and what we need to do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that information is incredibly useful,\u201d she says, \u201cand in many ways, really, a game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If it turns out to be effective, it\u2019ll be a breakthrough in more ways than one. And you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3160],"tags":[1662,1685,105,966,53,4714,16,15,4715,2488],"class_list":{"0":"post-432430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-apple","9":"tag-gadgets","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-heart-health","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-textbelowcentergridwidth","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-web","17":"tag-wellness"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115222539505894379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}