DANVILLE, Pa. — A healthy adult heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute. Typically, a lower number means you are in better physical shape because your heart does not have to work as hard to pump blood.
Fitness trackers and smartwatches are an easy way to keep track of your heart rate.
"These things monitor heart rhythm. They can also measure general heart rate, and some even measure how much oxygenation you're getting, all in real-time," said Dr. Faiz Subzposh, a cardiologist at Geisinger.
Dr. Subzposh says it's important for patients to monitor their heart rates at home, especially as certain people are at a higher risk for heart problems that can lead to stroke.
"If they're wearing a watch, the watch can sometimes alert them that, 'Hey, your heartbeat is irregular.' And they can get seen by a medical professional sooner rather than later and get protected from a stroke by getting put on blood thinners."
This is something Dr. Subzposh has seen many times in recent years. Patients will come to see him after their smartwatch alerts them to an irregular heartbeat. In some cases, they are then diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.
"The older patients, the patients with heart disease like high blood pressure and coronary artery disease, are the ones who would really benefit from wearing a watch like this for routing monitoring."
Dr. Subzposh provided an example of a heart tracing from a patient's smartwatch. The patient sent him this data through Geisinger's patient portal.
"I can see that this patient's heart rhythm is irregular and going a little faster than normal, and while she's at home, I can tell her your heart is out of rhythm, and you need to come to the hospital to have that addressed."
Dr. Subzposh believes smartwatches are more than 80 percent accurate in diagnosing heart arrhythmias.
More information on heart health is available from Geisinger.