Fitbit?

Posted , 10 users are following.

With my last 'attack', I was told by a doc in the ER that I should get a fitbit or something similar, that monitors my heart rate continuously. What would be more helpful is finding something  that can take an ecg wave, but I'm finding that to be nearly impossible in just a fitness style watch (and even then, how accurate would that even be). 

So my question, does anyone use a fitbit or similar to monitor their heart rate? I have a Samsung phone, with the Health app, so I'm thinking of getting Samsung's fitbit style watch. I guess I'm worried about the accuracy. What are you thoughts? Any suggestions, anyone have experience with these watches for heart rate monitoring?

0 likes, 18 replies

18 Replies

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  • Posted

    Hi

    I have a Kardia mobile ECG device, it’s small and can fit on to your mobile phone. It’s made by Alivecor. I wouldn’t be without it now. My cardiologist says it gives as good if not better readings  than you would get in hospital, although it does not give a constant reading. Hope that helps, good Luck 

    • Posted

      I was really interested in that one, but I think it's pretty awful that the company doesn't tell you there's a fee to use it. If I'm spending $100+ on the device, I should at least be able to store the readings somehow, without having to pay a monthly subscription. I know it's only like $10/month, but the fact that they don't tell you this upfront is kinda messed up. That's just my opinion, and I may still get one, but it just rubs me the wrong way lol.

    • Posted

      I've read a ton of reviews that say they had to pay a subscription in order for them to store the readings. I'll have to look into it more I guess!

    • Posted

      This is one of the MANY reviews I've read [color=#111111]"If you want to save any EKG's you MUST pay $10 per month.. after 30 days your device gets crippled and you can only view the last EKG provided you didn't close it.. you can NOT save ANY history to your own device.. you must pay $10 per month for that...[/color][color=#111111]"[/color]

    • Posted

      This is an old post but I wanted to comment for future google searchers like me!

      I have a Kardia and while it's true that you do need to pay a monthly fee to save them to the cloud, you can email them to yourself immediately after recording a trace and save them that way. I do this with my SVT episodes and just keep the pdfs of them on my computer to print out and take to the doctor. At my last visit my EP was very impressed with the quality of the recordings and asked to keep my printouts to add to my chart. For $99 it's an impressive device.

  • Posted

    Hi JenniLynn,

    Before my ablation last year I bought myself a Fitbit HR watch for that very reason. Unfortunately it was hopeless - when my heart rate suddenly soared from the normal 62 to over 200 bpm the Fitbit couldn't cope at all, it just showed a flat line!  If you want to measure your footsteps and keep fit they are great but useless for SVT attacks.

    From Amazon I bought myself a heart rate monitor which clips onto your finger, like the ones used in hospitals.  It's very accurate but doesn't actually record anything.  I believe there is a gadget you can buy which clips onto a smart phone and can record SVT attacks and send them to your doctor.  I never actually used one and can't remember what it is called though.  I wish you the best of luck and really recommend an ablation.

    Mary

  • Posted

    Hi Jenni

    I use my samsung health app and wear a fitbit too. It's made me more conscious of what my heart rate is but it's helped me recognise when it's high to rest up and allow the rate to come down. I think they are fairly accurate but others might disagree.

  • Posted

    I started using Fitbit a few months ago to try and catch mine. Unfortunately my episodes are too short to catch with this. I believe the fitbit continuously monitors, however, on the app it gives you an average over 5 minutes, I've read that if you have it in excercise mode it will record second to second, but I've found you can only set this up for a certain number of minutes, not an all day thing, but even during excercise mode I have found the recording on the app averaging over 5 minutes. For example I can be working out, look at my watch which says 150 bpm, but when I look at the app on my phone it gives the average during that 5 minutes where my pulse went up as 130. I do not recommend it to catch your SVT unless they last more than 5 minutes, and at that point you should be able to use a hand help ekg. Good luck.

    • Posted

      Mine are never less than 15 mins! I'll look into the handheld ones. Thank you smile

  • Posted

    Mary90, you may be talking about the 'alivecore' heart monitor thing?

    I actually only went to the ER this last time bc I checked my heart rate on my Samsung Health app and it said 249 and went up and down between that and 220s for over 30 mins. It wasn't really abnormal, that's how they usually are (although this one was a little longer, way longer as it was still 227 when I got to the hospital, so over 40 mins long), I've just never seen the numbers before, so I was shocked that it was getting that high. When I got to the hospital the Health app was only off by 2bpm, which really impressed me.

    My attacks always last well over 5 mins! They average about 15-20, but sometimes more.

    • Posted

      Yes it was the alivecore - I thought it sounded useful because I could never catch my attacks on any monitor given to me by the hospital as they were completely random - sometimes twice in the same week and then not again for a couple of months!

       My attacks went on for hours at over 200 bpm and left me feeling completely drained for days afterwards.  I couldn't find the trigger and never managed to convert them by any method - bearing down, coughing, icy water etc..  Finally I did manage to catch an attack and record it, it was diagnosed as SVT and I had an ablation.  The first one didn't work because they couldn't induce an attack during the procedure but the second one was successful and I've never looked back.

  • Posted

    I have an Apple Watch. I use it all the time to monitor my heart rate. Also when I have an SVT attack it works out really well because I’m able to get a reading of my heart rate where the paramedics can’t because my heart is pumping to quickly. I read recently that Apple is working to develop an EKG monitor for the Apple Watch in the near future. Hope this helps.
    • Posted

      Yea, I've seen Apple is doing some great stuff with heart health type things... I wish some of that would come over to Android bc I don't own one single Apple product lol.

  • Posted

    As bicycler in my younger days, I had chest strap that put the heart rate on my handlebar display and found they have new chest strap that transmits to your phone. This chest strap is made by Polar and app is free on Android and other phones. Great display and shows my random SVT very well. Very stable app and I have even ran it for 8 hours all night! Lots of SVT! Check out Polar Industries apps.

    I even use it on my walks as GPS shows route and exact mileage.

    • Posted

      I was thinking of looking into a chest strap, I hear they're a lot more accurate. I wasn't sure if that was something I could wear 24/7 like the watches. I just don't know enough about them. I guess I should do more digging on that!

      Thanks!

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