
Extreme heat endangers older adults: What to know and do

Want to cool down? 14 ideas to try

What is a PSA test and how is it used?

Blood sugar–friendly fruits if you have diabetes

Gratitude enhances health, brings happiness — and may even lengthen lives

Respiratory health harms often follow flooding: Taking these steps can help

Could tea tree oil help treat acne or athlete’s foot?

Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c): What to know if you have diabetes or prediabetes or are at risk for these conditions

Understanding hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms

What could be causing your blurry vision?
Medical Devices & Technology Archive
Articles
Smarter, safer workouts with a wearable fitness tracker
Wearable fitness trackers like smart watches offer measurable and motivating data for exercise routines and safety, especially for people with heart conditions. Features include movement reminders, step counts (a daily total of 4,000 to 7,000 steps is considered beneficial), heart rate zones for exercise intensity, and measurements of heart rate recovery and variability to assess overall heart health. These tools can help optimize workouts and reveal potential issues.
Smart watch alerts about heart health
Smart watches can monitor different parameters simply by measuring a person's pulse and body movements. Potentially helpful features include those to detect very low or high heart rates, irregular heart rhythms, and breathing disruptions during sleep.
Harvard Health Ad Watch: How direct-to-consumer ads hook us
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug ads promoting treatments for arthritis, cancer, heartburn, psoriasis, flagging memory, and more are all everywhere you look. All too often, the information shared is incomplete, biased, or confusing––here's what to watch out for and how to get the whole story when considering treatment options.
Is it time for a CPAP checkup?
Use of a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) system to treat sleep apnea must be monitored regularly by a doctor. This might require numerous doctor visits initially, and then annual visits afterward to make sure the therapy is still working effectively. The clinician needs to review data collected by the machine, gather information from the patient, and determine if new health conditions, including weight gain or other sleep issues, require adjustments to the CPAP machine settings.
What's the best self-fitting strategy for over-the-counter hearing aids?
A small randomized trial in 2024 found that both self-adjustment and in-situ audiometry were effective strategies to match self-fitting hearing aids to personal hearing needs. However, self-adjustment devices had the best satisfaction rates and consistent use.
What you should know about recalls of cardiac devices
Implanted heart devices include pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), which monitor and correct abnormal heart rhythms. While very reliable, they are not perfect, and recalls of these devices affect thousands of people each year, according to a 2024 study. Testing the effectiveness and safety of cardiac devices is far more complicated than testing drugs. But efforts are under way to improve postmarket tracking of device complications by using electronic health records, Medicare databases, and registries developed in partnership with device manufacturers.
Device of the month: Smart ring
Smart rings can do many of the same things a smart watch can, including heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen level measurement, and activity and sleep tracking.
Tracking your afib with a smart watch? Avoid this pitfall
People with atrial fibrillation (afib) who own a smart watch capable of detecting the heart rhythm disorder may use it to track the frequency and duration of their bouts of afib. The information might help inform their physician's advice. However, afib notifications may cause people to become anxious and preoccupied with tracking their condition. For them, disabling the notifications may be a good idea.
Fixing a leaky tricuspid valve
In 2024, the FDA approved two catheter-based devices for treating a leaky tricuspid valve. Both relieve symptoms and improve quality of life for people with moderate to severe tricuspid regurgitation, which affects about 4% of people ages 75 and older. One device is a modification of a system to treat mitral valve regurgitation that works by bringing the valve leaflets together at the areas of most severe leakage. The other device delivers a new valve made of cow heart tissue, which is commonly used in surgical valve replacements.

Extreme heat endangers older adults: What to know and do

Want to cool down? 14 ideas to try

What is a PSA test and how is it used?

Blood sugar–friendly fruits if you have diabetes

Gratitude enhances health, brings happiness — and may even lengthen lives

Respiratory health harms often follow flooding: Taking these steps can help

Could tea tree oil help treat acne or athlete’s foot?

Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c): What to know if you have diabetes or prediabetes or are at risk for these conditions

Understanding hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms

What could be causing your blurry vision?
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