alt Hacker NewsExcept those two don't really matter when predicting heart attack or stroke risk. HRV results, EKG results, labile hypertension; these are the indicators of whether or not you're at a risk for a heart attack or stroke. Getting a regular stress test is more important than blindly throwing anti-hypertensives at someone who may not need them in the first place.
My smart ring detects if there are potential arrhythmia, same with the Apple Watch. Wearables are far more effective at determining heart attack risk than measuring blood pressure which fluctuates in correspondence with your circadian rhythm.
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> Except those two don't really matter when predicting heart attack or stroke risk.
Some cursory googling leads to recent research showing that they do: "According to new research, both high systolic and high diastolic blood pressure can lead to heart attack and stroke." [1]
> HRV results
I feel there is hype over HRV. Mainly a new thing that watches and other monitors can measure, and the number is being hyped. That put aside, the sources I've listened to have concluded that HRV is not really that valuable. Do you know of research showing otherwise? (grant it, some research is good here, for most things medecine and science there needs to be a lot of research. My impression there is a lot of research around blood pressure, thus I am not digging out more sources to show the counter-point).
High blood pressure is independently predictive of heart disease and stroke. We see this over and over again in prospective cohort and RCT data the same way we know that your favorite metrics also predict heart disease.
The problem with your wearables example is the same problem you have with angiograms and CAC scans: by the time you're seeing results, it's probably too late.
Even if the Apple Watch could tell you 7 days before you're going to have a heart attack, it's the result of decades of cumulative exposures to factors including hypertension that have lead to the plaque, stenosis, ventricle hypertrophy, and fibrosis that underly your heart attack.