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Joan Fair originally bought a Garmin runner watch because she wanted to get back in shape after contracting COVID-19. During one sleepless night, the 75-year-old’s watch kept beeping and sending her alerts that her pulse was racing.

Before that, I had no indication of a heartbeat problem, Fair said Yahoo Canada.

After a bit of research, she ended up investing in an Apple Watch that helped her keep a closer eye on her heart health. One night, Fair woke up with a heart rate of 220, alarmingly high compared to a normal heart rate that usually ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. Fair said she would have died if she hadn’t been able to see the heartbeat and call 911.

“No question. It saved my life,” said Fair, who lives in Hamilton, Ont.

In Fair’s opinion, the heart rate tracking feature is “110 percent reliable and useful.” After the night she called 911, she started compulsively checking her watch. She would move or lie down, noting all the irregularities, which was not uncommon back then.

She said she has also become more proactive about her health and seeking medical attention. Fair would go to the ER when things didn’t seem right and ended up having successful heart surgery in late 2023. And while she now describes her heart as “steady as a rock,” that doesn’t stop her from still wearing a watch just in case .

“What’s interesting is that I don’t use this [watch] for exercise or… any of the other 2,000 reasons people use the Apple Watch. I only use it for one thing. I stopped all emails, phone calls and everything that came in. It’s just my heart — it’s the only thing I care about.”

Fair is one of many Canadians who have turned to technology to better understand and monitor their health. Earlier this month, a 44-year-old Nova Scotia firefighter said his Apple Watch alerted him to an irregular heartbeat, which turned out to be a heart attack. For both him and Fair, the ability to recognize this irregularity was paramount to their survival.

But are there any limits to this technology? Could it provide a false sense of security? Yahoo Canada spoke with a cardiologist about heart rate monitoring technology, such as the Apple Watch, and other ways one might identify red flags in one’s heart health.

Can wearables affect heart health?

As a cardiac electrophysiologist, Dr. Jason Adrade focuses on heart rhythm disorders and cares for patients with abnormal heartbeats. In an interview with Yahoo CanadaAndrade said there are some cases where technology can play a beneficial role in heart health, and he’s seen patients come in for notifications from their devices.

“Wearables have the advantage of looking at what happens to human heart rhythms over long time frames,” said Andrade, who works at Vancouver General Hospital. He added that it can sometimes be difficult to catch symptoms like palpitations or abnormal heartbeats through typical tests because the test can only look at a limited time frame, such as 24 hours. “For something that happens occasionally or rarely, [devices] give you a chance to diagnose something you can’t find with conventional testing.”

Andrade said the most common arrhythmia these heart rate monitors can detect is atrial fibrillation (AFib), a type of irregular heart rhythm where the upper chambers of the heart beat out of sync with the lower chambers. Because someone with AFib may not experience any symptoms, the first sign could be something serious, like a stroke.

“Having monitors that can see atrial fibrillation before it becomes a stroke means we’re alerted to it and have the ability to give treatments that prevent devastating complications,” Andrade said. “It can reveal things that are unattainable, and some of the things that are unattainable can be very significant.”

Still, Andrade adds that people should be aware of the technical limitations of heart rate monitors. For example, a notification or warning about an irregular heartbeat may not necessarily indicate the reason why it is happening. Andrade said some of the warnings could be benign or require further testing.

“You have to wear the device for it to work,” he said, adding that if someone doesn’t wear the watch while sleeping, they may not benefit from the tracking.

According to Andrade, some watches have the ability to record the heart rhythm like an EKG (electrocardiogram). He added that these devices can be much more useful because people experiencing symptoms can record a 10-second EKG that the watch can interpret, or you can take it to a doctor for interpretation.

How do heart rate monitors work?

Smart watches and fitness bands generally measure heart rate by scanning the blood flow near your wrist by illuminating it with LEDs. Some devices, like the Apple Watch, use green LED lights because blood absorbs green light. “When your heart is beating, blood flow to your wrist—and absorption of green light—is greater,” Apple’s website says.

You usually don’t need to wear the watch for a continuous period of time for it to know if you have an irregular heart rhythm.

Andrade said the people who typically wear heart rate watches are mostly the younger population because they can double as fitness trackers. “In principle, there may be a slight mismatch between those who might benefit most from these devices and those who actually wear them,” he said.

Heart health: symptoms, warnings to pay attention to

Andrade said the irregularity occurs when you have an extra heartbeat from the top or bottom of the heart. “It can be a benign thing, everyone has it to some degree,” he added. In other cases, the heart’s electricity may slow down, meaning it may not conduct every heartbeat from the upper or lower chambers. “There are circumstances where it’s benign … and other times when it’s significant and we would have to intervene.”

Andrade recommends paying attention to how your heart rate “feels.” For example, if you feel your heart is racing or racing, have shortness of breath, chest discomfort, lightheadedness, or fainting, these are all heart health signals and signs that you should seek professional medical attention.

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