Health check

Our first and most important teachers in life are our parents. We learn different things from them, which I call the 3 'Ps' — philosophies, principles, priorities. Our outlook towards life is shaped by our philosophies and beliefs, our principles help us walk the chosen path in tandem with our philosophies, while our priorities fill up all the remaining nitty-gritty of life and keep us on track. But we learn most from our parents' experiences; nuggets of wisdom collected from their youthful tales of laughter, or the pride that we feel as we bask in their past-lived success, or the self-effacement we deduce from their defeats. For me, the most important lessons that I learnt from mine were lessons on what not to do. Almost 15 years of handling their health (or rather ill-health) issues, I learnt the most valuable (albeit cliched) lesson of life — 'health is wealth'. A decade before Covid-19 incited a mass awakening of health consciousness, I had already pledged my allegiance to good health. The untimely loss of my father to Diabetes, an illness you think can be controlled, was the most shocking event of my life. Years later with accessible health technology advancing by leaps and bounds, it's not surprising that I'm one of its early adopters.

Diseases can be hereditary; so, when you have Diabetes and Hypertension (thanks mom!) running in the family, and are yourself diagnosed with the now common hormonal disorder of PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) post-30, with a bout of pre-vaccine Covid-19 leaving behind debilitating symptoms of long Covid — that resolution of staying healthy taken years ago becomes all the more real. So, keeping with my 'all things startup' attitude i.e., try most things developed by Indian startups, I recently turned into a cyborg using Ultrahuman's continuous glucose monitor (CGM), which tracked my glucose spikes, crashes, and periods of stability. The slick sensor pierces the skin and takes about 2 hours to sync with your body's system before sending out actionable data to the mobile app. This concept is not new; HealthifyMe and sugar.fit have similar but medically-monitored offerings in the market. Inspired by American-made Oura and Whoop rings, Ultrahuman is also pestering its sensor users to buy its latest tungsten carbide smart ring that when worn on the finger would give seamless information about our sleep and stress cycles.

It's safe to say that the era of wearable technology is upon us. Performance monitoring devices for athletes and sportspersons are commonly used while biosensors that collect data on movement, body temperature, heart and breathing rates are easily available for the common user. After the Fitbits and smartwatches, and various devices to monitor everything from SPO2 to heart rate, it was only a matter of time before wearable tech became a bit more invasive. The question that was astutely raised in a recent news article was how much of this is actually medically helpful and how much is simply fashionable.

In the US, the wearables industry has upped from 9 per cent to 33 per cent in 4 years, as per reports. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) India, the Indian wearables market clocked a growth of 20.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2022 with over 13.9 million shipments. While watches and earwear rule the wearables segment, health and fitness trackers are also receiving aggressive marketing push from brands. Samsung's Galaxy Watch4 claims to measure obstructive sleep apnea while Xplore Lifestyle is set to launch CardiacSense, a "medical grade watch" to track the heart.

Well, my personal diagnosis is that health and fitness wearables can't beat going to a doctor or medical professional — that's certain. But with the growing trend of the DIY (do-it-yourself) attitude, much of the popularity of wearable tech is due to its easy-to-use appeal. The current generation is also obsessive about data. For instance, I loved knowing that eating a mango made my glucose spike outside acceptable levels and then caused a glucose crash within 30 minutes. Today, we want to know more about the inner workings of our body, we want transparent, easy to digest information, and we just can't have enough of it.

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views expressed are personal