

What ‘Game of Thrones’ Does to Your Heart Rate - beekay
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/08/13/what-game-of-thrones-does-to-your-heart-rate/

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brandonb
Hey HN! I'm not the OP, but I am the burrito-eating, Game of Thrones watching
researcher mentioned in the article.

This story focuses on a fun application of the Apple Watch's heart rate
sensor, but there's a lot we can learn about the human body through this type
of data.

For example, on the super burrito causing my heart rate to spike to 123bpm,
there's very sparse medical literature on what this means. First off, what
type of foods cause heart rate spikes? Does it relate to macronutrients
(carbohydrates, protein, fats)? Ion balance (e.g., sodium, potassium, calcium,
and their effects on the cardiac action potential)? Something else? Is this
behavior universal across people? Are there clusters of people, e.g., do
people with prediabetes respond to a different set of foods? Most importantly,
what does this mean for health? Am I more likely to get diabetes? To have a
heart attack? To die?

And that's not even mentioning more acute conditions like cardiac arrhythmias:

    
    
      http://qz.com/472522/how-the-apple-watch-may-have-saved-this-mans-life/
    

We've seen the same thing--a person who discovered they have atrial flutter
through their Android watch.

Finally, if you have an Apple Watch and want to play around with this data, we
just started a public beta of Cardiogram on the App Store:

    
    
      http://cardiogr.am
    

If anybody has questions about Apple Watch + healthcare, or anything else,
happy to chat on this thread.

~~~
collias
Do you do any accounting or normalizing for clearly erroneous heart rate
readings from the watch?

Just anecdotally, the heart rate monitor seems to be wildly inaccurate at
times. Over the course of a workout at the gym, my heart rate jumped to 170bpm
while benching (probably close to correct), and dropped to 45bpm while
deadlifting (definitely incorrect). My resting heart rate is ~55bpm.

After a few days of seeing my heart rate have a delta of ~100bpm in the matter
of seconds, I've given up on the heart rate monitor being good for much.

Maybe I'm an outlier and it's accurate for other people, but for me, it was
very disappointing.

~~~
rrss1122
You can try getting a tighter fit and see if that helps.

I've noticed with any consumer heart rate monitor, if the fit is not tight and
the monitor moves even a little bit, the heart rate the monitor reports will
be off. I'm assuming the same will apply to the Apple watch.

~~~
brandonb
That's good advice. When I had a Moto 360, I also sometimes did the opposite:
loosen the strap one notch, and slide it up my arm slightly till it was taught
again. Your forearm is a slightly easier place to measure pulse than on a bony
wrist.

~~~
collias
Interesting thought. I'm going to try to place it further up my arm and see if
it helps.

Thanks!

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mightybyte
Oh man, I wish I had this heart rate data for when I was watching Homeland
S03E12 for the first time. I distinctly remember that episode being an
emotional roller coaster unlike pretty much anything else I've watched. I know
my heart rate was really high at some point. I wouldn't be surprised if it was
up in the 140-150 range. That show has an incredible ability build crazy
amounts of tension. S01E11 was also off the charts.

~~~
brandonb
If you happen to have an Apple Watch, give Cardiogram a whirl on the next
episode: cardiogr.am. We'd love your feedback!

------
bsaul
Just realized this trend of examining people watching TV (then creating blogs
and articles about it) is the ultimate point of the narcissistic tendency of
our society (right next to the selfie). Now, the show isn't the show itself,
but our reaction to it. I've got an idea, why don't you monitor my heart rate
while i'm reading this article about monitoring people's heart rate ? Then you
could post something about it.

I feel like everything we do is now a desperate attempt at gaining people's
attention, from behind our computer (i'm thinking especially about videos of
people screaming while viewing an episode of GOT). Maybe that's because the
"real life" occasions of binding with others are fading one after another.
Makes me wonder if having no workplace for your employees is such a good idea
after all.

Also makes me wonder how long it will take until the next generation will
simply unplug.

~~~
brandonb
Did you read the rest of the article? There's a larger purpose here.

~~~
bsaul
Indeed, i didn't read it. The title made me think of that trend. Thought it
was another "watch my heart beat while i'm doing x" kind of article. Although
to be fair, that's the largest part of the article, and that's the part that's
put forward in the title. I suppose that's because they thought that's the
part that would interest people the most.

