![]() ![]() Is there such a thing as too much information? But the tracking boom also raises questions about privacy, accuracy and the mental health effects of constant monitoring. These days, taking care of our bodies means monitoring them, a shift that some experts say empowers people to make healthier choices and reduces the country’s health care costs. Meanwhile, fitness-tracking technology in general is predicted to be worth $5.4 billion USD globally by 2019. A 2012 Pew Research Center survey found that 19 percent of cellphone owners had installed an app to manage their health. You can download everything from mood trackers to sex logs to virtual toothbrushing coaches. To track everyday health concerns, we can look past Fitbit, Jawbone and even the Apple Watch to a new generation of tools: the Zeo headband (which measures sleep), the HapiFork (which monitors how fast you eat), Ear-O-Smart earrings (which count calories burned) and, in Japan, the Intelligent Toilet, which analyzes urine and sends the results directly to your doctor. We now have access to Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure monitors, pacemakers that feed real-time information to cardiologists and smart neuro-stimulators that can be implanted into the brains of epileptics - all devices referred to as internet-connected personal medical devices, or iPMDs. What David did as part of a research project is becoming a way of life for a lot of us. This got old in about a week - by the end of a year, it was deplorable.” Now an assistant professor of biology at Duke University, David says the exercise turned him off health tracking for good. If I had dessert, I’d have to open the app again. “I estimate that self-tracking took about an hour every day,” he says. For over a year, he measured and recorded his diet, heart rate, blood pressure, weight, bowel movements and mood using a customized digital app. In 2009, MIT graduate student Lawrence David began a project on the human body that required him to track all areas of his health. ![]()
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