New wearable that tracks blood flow to the brain

[godlovesatrier]

My armband arrived. Visible has some serious issues. Reminders don't seem to work on my phone and the armband itself cannot be connected.

I've done diagnostics and I can't actually see any issue at all with the armband. So the app would appear to be bad. I'll try to reinstall it soon.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Right I did a bit of digging, but didn't find much. I got an email from support tho, the app never asked me to setup permissions or notification permissions, so nothing worked. I setup the location permission (which happens to be bluetooth on my phone - not obvious!) and it works now

So it auto sets your exertion zones, tracks your HR and after 30 days even does a pdf report so you can see how you did. Seems pretty good, hr accurate was vastly improved from my £20 chinese fitbit thing. So quite happy now!

 

[godlovesatrier]

Yikes. My heart rate at rest is 80 since my little crash :/ I really wish I had my good week for comparison 😭 and while showering it goes up to 105.

Anyone else get these kinds of heart rates? My heart rate was 55 to 60 while asleep and 75 at rest so it's gone up a wee bit.

 

[wabi-sabi]

Anyone else get these kinds of heart rates?

Ooh, yes. My resting heartrate is in the 50s and it increases with exertion or a crash. This is one of the most interesting things for me to note. It lets me see the PEM so much better and understand it a little. At the end of each day visible gives an average heartrate for the day. Noticing how long it takes to return to baseline gives me a good guide to how long a crash is lasting or when I am safe to do an activity (like shower) again.

It would be interesting if someone could collate this data. I wonder if visible is doing that? For example, my highest daily average heartrate is 71 and I am really sick when that happens. Mine has never made it up to 80!

 

[godlovesatrier]

Hmm. My heart rate at the moment correlates with what long covid patients are saying on Reddit.

That like a month or two after having COVID was when there worst long covid symptoms kicked in. Sudden bouts of flu like illness for example. That's sort of where I am at eight weeks. I'm getting exhaustion and weakness without pushing or doing anything majorly extra. Scary to think it could get a lot worse tho.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Is anyone else using visible? @Jyoti ?

Does anyone else find that there stability scores of 4 or 5 correlated with waking up feeling good? It's calculated on the last 90 days of data but today was the first day it was accurate for me. I got a 4 and woke up without PEM or fatigue feeling ready to get on with the day. I also hoovered last night and changed my sheets feeling pretty grim on amisilpride and fully expecting a crash but it didn't happen.

 

[Jyoti]

Does anyone else find that there stability scores of 4 or 5

A 5 ???? I wish.

I only have the free app, but I do find it to be generally accurate. Not every day. But in terms of trends. I had a bad autumn and a good beginning of the year and both of those are pretty clearly reflected in the stability scores/trendlines. Some days I get a HRV that is 'higher than your normal range' and it is one point above, or a heart rate one or two points above or below and that knocks the score down yet I feel ok.

I find it really helpful overall. You have the arm band, right @godlovesatrier ?

 

[godlovesatrier]

Haha. Well I've not had a 5 yet 😂 I've had 2 3 and 4.

Ok interesting. Pollen is killing me worse this last than last year due to COVID. Today was prob the third or fourth day with low pollen. But now I have coat hanger pain instead.

I've got the armband but it's been missing data chunks (I've been told to factory reset it) and it won't do the morning check-in. But I need to try the latter again tomorrow.

Pretty good app but aggressive pacing is still definitely the way to go 😁

 

[Husband of]

Anyone got the stat thing? Or know if any reports from users in other forums?

 

[Jyoti]

Or know if any reports from users in other forums?

I'm very curious too and glad you asked. But I think...they have not shipped yet? I got an email the other day that seemed to indicate they were doing (ear) fittings in Boston and looking forward to shipping out their devices soon.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Been using visible for awhile now. Basically long story short crashing for me seems to be due to adrenaline and viral load and maybe inflammatory load as well. That is if my heart rate is high it's bad, but if my heart rate is average at rest 80 bpm - I can still crash from adrenaline and neuro stimulus. But I seem to tolerate short bursts of high hart rate better.

I think if I ever find an antiviral that works for covid, or one becomes available, then I think it will be super interesting to compare the before and after and see how I look.

 

[kushami]

Anyone got the stat thing? Or know if any reports from users in other forums?

In the March newsletter there are graphs showing it in use by someone with POTS:
https://mailchi.mp/stat-health.com/march-newsletter-2024

The newsletter gives estimated shipping times for June till the end of the year for those who previously committed to purchasing it (various options),

Haven’t seen anyone with CFS mention having one yet.

 

[kushami]

I wonder whether you can wear the Stat ear thingie overnight. I toss and turn a lot, and lie with my arm under my head sometimes, so I’d probably have to take it out.

P.S. I live in Australia so I won’t be getting one for a long time. Just idle speculation as I was lying awake!

 

[kushami]

The company has announced a financial assistance program:
https://www.stat-health.com/financial-assistance

(Reminder that the device is US-only for now.)

 

[kushami]

Answering my own question: You can wear it while sleeping, according to the company.

I suspect I would find it uncomfortable, because I tend to sleep with my arm under my head (bad habit). But I am sure it would be fine for other people. And I think it’s optional anyway.