Smart watch to monitor heart

A safety feature of an apple watch is if you fall and do not move for 1 minute, it will notify your contacts of a possible emergency.

Yes, and I compared my ECG from the watch to the one in my cardiologist's office and they were remarkably close.

I'm on my 3rd Apple Watch.(I bought the first model and updated twice.) I really love it for a variety of reasons. It was because of the watch I found I had Proximal Supra Ventricular Tachicartia (PSVT). It started happening during training runs (I use to run marathons). The watch showed my heart beat would suddenly jump to 160 - 170 bps in the middle of a run. My cartiologist had me wear a 14-day heart monitor to confirm. I would think your doctor would have you wear a monitor to find out when the Afib occurs and what might be triggers. Knowing the triggers (e.g., coffee or other stimulates, exercise, medications, emotional stress) could help reduce episodes.

Hello @ronbyrd! Curious as to what your treatment is for your PSVT, and if you know why this started...especially since you a marathon runner. I too was diagnosed with this in January, but also had pacemaker implanted in February after bradycardia/full heart block. Former marathon runner myself, and noticed same thing on my runs. Hope you are feeling better!

Currently I have no treatment. I tried Calcium & Beta blocker med's but stopped because of fatigue side effect. Then got evaluated for having an ablation and decided against it. I never had symptoms, so only knew from the Apple Watch and EKG. Also, the PSVT episodes essentially only happen when I run and stops when I break into a walk. (has happened, but rarely, during other exercises, like walking). I've run a 5K and 10K since diagnosed with no ill-effects. Cardiologist said PSVT is "rarely" fatal and let him know if I start having symptoms. As part of determining what I had, they ran a stress test, echogram and other tests which showed my heart is structurally sound. So only known heart issue is the PSVT.
As to why it started, no, I don't know. I had been running for about 10 years that included about 6 or 7 marathons. I noticed the tachycardia during a training ran half-way through a 3 month training program in prep for another marathon....and made an appointment with my doctor. Although the cardiologist didn't say I couldn't run ("rarely fatal"), I decided to stop as am afraid it could get worst. So now I do a lot of walking, which I enjoy.

Thanks for the additional information @ronbyrd. My symptoms were very similar...happened about 15 minutes into my run, and if I started walking, it would stop. (Strange for a 11 time marathon runner in excellent shape and 53 female). I too had angiogram, cardiac MRI and petscan, and all structurally was very sound. My main concern now is that for some reason, I went into complete heart block about 2 weeks after my angiogram. EP doctor thought I had lyme disease, but test came back negative, so pacemaker was put in. Wondering if anyone has experienced something similar?

Ceepster, its rewarding to connect with someone who has a similar experience even if we both remain in the dark as to why! A detail I wasn't clear on in my previous posts is that, just as you experienced, the PSVT would typically happen about 15 minutes into my run and it would stop when I broke into a walk. However, two months ago I did a moderate-paced 5K with no episodes until the last minute where my Apple watch showed a jump to 140 bpm after being steady around 105 up til then. The 140 lasted for about a minute and stopped with I crossed the finish line, That's the only race I've done in 2.5 years. As background, I ran my first marathon at age 68 and, if I may boost, qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon 2.5 years later, a real thrill. In total, over the last decade I've run about 16 races of which 6-7 were marathons.
Question: What do you mean by "complete heart block"?

I totally agree ronbyrd, you are the first to connect with similar symptoms! Congrats on the Boston Marathon qualifying time...that's AWESOME! 🙂 By complete heart block, I mean a third-degree heart block...it is when electrical signals do not travel between the upper Atrial and lower Ventricle chambers of the heart. My cardiologist sent me to straight to the ER from his office visit...on Valentines Day, no less. While I awaited the lyme disease results over the long holiday weekend, my heart rate dipped to low of 27 in ICU. And they could not get it higher than 38. When I had the pacemaker installed, I felt immediate relief. First 3 months, I have had a lot of transition, but now running 3-4 miles a day, 5 times a week, and no PSVTs.

Ceepster: Congrads on successfully getting back into running after what must of been a most scary time dealing with the heart block. I'm still debating with myself as to getting back into running or not. The biggest reason not to is I'm concerned running might cause my PSVT to get worst. The cardiologist left me with saying running might or might not cause deterioration, he can't predict. Oh well. I'll post if I do and have any heart-related events worth noting.

@nene22 I've been using the Apple watch for a while, and it's been useful in step-counting and setting daily movement goals as I've been trying to walk more lately. I'm honestly still getting a grip on it + using it more consistently but it's cool to hear about how receptive it's been for others.

You'll need an iPhone (5s or newer) to pair with the Apple watch during your setup process. Here some more info: https://www.lifewire.com/can-you-use-apple-watch-with-ipad-1994095