The Apple Watch caught my high blood pressure — but this blood pressure wearable device caught it right away

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When I was a kid, I was pretty sure my death would be the result of nuclear war, the Bermuda Triangle (after all, it was only about 4,000 miles away), quicksand — or, if I was really unlucky, some strange and unfortunate combination of the three.

Now, while none of this has dawned on me yet (fingers crossed, the day is young), it turns out that the real silent killer lurking in the shadows was… high blood pressure. Ah, the joys of growing old. Nearly half of adults in the US suffer from high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, and it is a contributing factor to more than 1,000 deaths every day.

Last year, Apple introduced a new health feature for Apple Watch users in the form of hypertension notifications. It added features like AFib (atrial fibrillation) detection and low and high heart rate notifications. Apple Watch Series 9 or later And apple watch ultra 2 Or later use the data collected by the optical heart sensor to scan for patterns that may indicate high blood pressure over a 30-day period. If such patterns are identified, it sends a notification suggesting the user get a blood pressure cuff to measure and track blood pressure for seven days.

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I wear my Apple Watch daily and have never received any such notification. I’ve always hated cuff-style blood pressure monitors, so it wasn’t something I kept an eye on much. Then, a while ago, I was talking to a friend, and he mentioned that he purchased a wearable device that supposedly measures blood pressure for his father. However, he refused to wear it, and wondered if I wanted to try it.

It told me almost immediately that I had high blood pressure. Great.

a legitimate piece of equipment

Well, before I go any further, I need to clarify that Apple makes it clear that the high blood pressure notification feature is “not intended to aid in the diagnosis, treatment, or management of high blood pressure,” and that “not everyone with high blood pressure will receive a notification.”

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The wearable in question is called Hilo, and it’s another device competing for space on our bodies. It fits on the wrist and looks like a Fitbit without the display. It is a Class IIa medical device that has undergone the required testing to be approved by the FDA, and is also ISO 81060-2 certified, a standard that covers the accuracy of sphygmomanometers (blood pressure monitors).

So, this is definitely a legitimate tool and not snake oil. It takes blood pressure readings throughout the day and charts them on a graph in an app.

It is made using tough polycarbonate with stainless steel fittings and attaches to the wrist using a hypoallergenic silicone band. It is IP68 rated, so it is 100% dustproof and has no issues handling shower, bath and swimming. Manufacturer Akita also claims that the battery lasts for 15 days on a single charge.

And all this without the cuffs squeezing your arm like a hungry boa constrictor and without that air pump racket, both of which can trigger an alarm response in some people and raise their blood pressure (a phenomenon known as white coat hypertension).

I hate cuffs (and proprietary cables)

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the first thing I had to do was take a standard blood pressure reading using the included cuff.

Yes, the Hilo Band comes with a Bluetooth cuff which is used to calibrate the readings. And you’ll need to use this cuff at least monthly to make sure your data is accurate. As someone who hates those cuffs, I had to get used to it.

The next thing I noticed, which I’m sure caused my blood pressure to rise, was learning how to charge in smaller portions. The band has a cable with a proprietary two-pin connector, while the cuff charges using micro USB.

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Both of these charging cables need to be plugged into a USB-A socket. USB-A and Micro USB are now quite outdated, mostly replaced by USB-C, and I view anything that requires a proprietary charging cable as accursed because I know it’s only a matter of time before I lose the cable (and I’ve had no success finding any third-party offerings).

Even a subscription?!

The next thing that undoubtedly raised my blood pressure even more was finding out that after a year, I would have to pay a subscription to get full access to the app at a cost of about $80. Without it, I’d lose features like access to a detailed timeline of my readings, my time in target range (indicating how much time I spend in the ideal range), and – and this really made my blood boil – I’d only have access to seven days of data, and sync with the Apple Health app would go from daily to monthly.

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I get the corporate thinking. Why sell a piece of hardware one time when you can sell the hardware and then artificially tie it to a subscription? But this level of artificially limiting access to my own data doesn’t sit well with me. The doubts come in when I don’t feel like the app is as good as the free apps that companies like Withings and Hume are shipping with their fitness and medical hardware. And yes, while these companies offer subscription plans that give you in-depth information about your data and things like exercise plans and health tips, they don’t hide your actual data behind paywalls, and they don’t try to keep your data in their apps.

It monitors blood pressure well

But, all that said, once calibration is done, the Hilo Band works very well when it comes to blood pressure monitoring. It feels very accurate and matches the supplied cuff and other third-party cuffs I’ve tried (yes, I’m slowly getting used to the cuffs). It’s also good as a step tracker and only measures a few steps off my Apple Watch.

One place where it falls badly is sleep tracking. I sleep about 6 to 7 hours a day, but the band believes I get by on less. Every morning when I sync my data, the app asks me if the times I went to sleep and woke up were correct, and every day it gets it wrong (I’ve stopped bothering to get it right). My Apple Watch is much more accurate than the Hilo when it comes to sleep tracking.

I’m not a doctor (and I don’t come across this on TV or the Internet), so I decided to take a look and ask when these cuffless continuous-monitoring blood pressure devices are useful. The general consensus seems to be that those white coats are useful for people with high blood pressure and for people who feel dizzy at random points during the day.

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Apart from this, the matter of continuous monitoring is also not clear. Yes, it collects a lot of data, but whether this data is useful or not is not known yet. When I mentioned this to my health care professional, he didn’t see any benefit in doing a lot of the studies.

ZDNET’s shopping advice

For me, paying $240 for a monitor that requires me to pay $80 per year pushes this device into the realm of too much money for an adequate return. Yes, it cured my high blood pressure (which is now under control), but it will $36 iHealth Cuff (It has Bluetooth and an app that’s free, and has very high customer ratings), or $68 Velvu Cuffagain with a free app, or $130 Withings BPM ConnectWhich has an excellent app.

Or go old school and pick one up Aneroid Sphygmomanometer for only $15.

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Yes, they all use cuffs, so if you hate cuffs, I sympathize. This is useless. But white coat is one of the recommended solutions for high blood pressure Taking readings at home using your own equipment so you become desensitized to it. Again, this is a discussion for you to have with your health care professional, as there may be other options, and white coat hypertension may also occur. something may happen that requires treatment.

Thanks to weight loss, better eating, and the miracles of modern medicine, I have reduced heart disease somewhat, giving the atom bomb, the Bermuda Triangle, or that quicksand more time to blow me out.