If you have AFIB, consider the following

[charltonjohn50]

I have been a fitbit user for over 2 years . I am a very active 66 year old man who goes to the gym everyday . Before I had a fitbit I would check on my health through a BP monitor and at the gym on top of any tests done by my GP or health advisor. I always had a low resting heart rate between 45 and 50 and good BP 125 over 70. Once I had my fitbit I thought I could rely on it and lost count of the people I have recommended it to. About 3 months ago I started to feel more tired working out but as I do a lot of long haul travel I would check my HR on fit bit and put it down to jet lag etc . Even when the equipment at the gym was telling me my HR was 160 as my fitbit HR was showing 120 I preferred to believe it. To cut a long story short I was admitted to hospital because my heart rate was 150 and was diagnosed as having AFIB. At the time the hospital were panicking that someone had a resting heart rate of 150 my good old fit bit was telling me 65 ....a little bit high for me but ok. I got a friend to wear my fit bit to check it was not faulty and it had the same reading as their own fitbit they were wearing. The consultant said that fitbit and other devices cannot pick up the variations when the heart is jumping around in AFIB so having read so many conflicting reports on this it is very scary because I can prove it is useless. Last week I purchased a chest monitor which almost mirrored the readings of the gym equipment and to my phone but the readings on the fitbit are always totally different. over a 4 day comparison resting the fitbit is reading between 15 to 20 beats lower than the chest monitor and when exercising reading 40-50 beats lower!!

For this reason I certainly now know it cannot be used if a person has AFIB and think that Fitbit need to come up with something better and some words of warning too. AFIB is a very annoying condition to arrive on someone who is a dedicated gym goer and mine has not been resolved as yet . After one cardioversion I am still on meds which themselves affect how good exercise makes you feel. My concern is that my problem could have been detected maybe 3 or 6 months ago before it got too bad and therefore noticeable. I believed unwisely the fitbit data was correct which continued showing how healthy my heart was even when I was in re suss at the hospital

Moderator edit: format/subject clarity

[rkowalik]

---

@WavyDaveywrote:

---

@bbarrerawrote:

@rkowalik medical grade EKG and afib (FDA approved) is already available on Apple Watch. Its from a third party:

https://store.alivecor.com/products/kardiaband

---

Am I mis-reading that? $200 PLUS $99 annually?   Ouch.

---

If you have a better/cheaper idea, I'd love to hear it.

[WavyDavey]

---

@rkowalikwrote:

---

@WavyDaveywrote:

---

@bbarrerawrote:

@rkowalik medical grade EKG and afib (FDA approved) is already available on Apple Watch. Its from a third party:

https://store.alivecor.com/products/kardiaband

---

Am I mis-reading that? $200 PLUS $99 annually?   Ouch.

---

If you have a better/cheaper idea, I'd love to hear it.

---

Not one that is FDA-approved. I really didn't know anything like that was already available, so kudos to @bbarrera on the find.

[rkowalik]

Admittedly it's pricey, but there's the remote possibility that BCBS could cut me a discount or help out on the cost. Worst that can happen is I ask and they say "No!"

[russsss]

Don't need to warn people ???  Are you serious ???  Is the problem here that in your zeal to "protect fitbit" real people are acceptable collateral damage ???  Yes the fitbit products are a good motivator for fitness and weight loss, the data is useful in tracking progress over time but not always accurate in the short run.  

Remember fitbit is a company, it is NOT a person, it is motivated by profit and so it may operate in a way that is not in your best interest or mine .  Ignoring limitations, quality issues or product defects will come to no good end in the long run for everyone including the fitbit company and shareholders . 

As to pulse rate accuracy ... everyone is aware (I would hope) that you can take your own pulse using 2 fingers and a watch that counts seconds ... it's totally free and really pretty accurate .  

[bbarrera]

If I had afib, an FDA approved $200 medical grade device for home monitoring with a $99/year subscription seems cheap. Right now its for Apple Watch, if they offered the same band for Ionic and Versa would you still object? Seriously? 

Until a better deal for consumers comes along, that seems like a small price to pay for piece of mind with real-time monitoring and notifications to check EKG, monthly reports to my doctor, etc.

[WavyDavey]

Way to take a complement, BB!

[rkowalik]

---

@bbarrerawrote:

If I had afib, an FDA approved $200 medical grade device for home monitoring with a $99/year subscription seems cheap. Right now its for Apple Watch, if they offered the same band for Ionic and Versa would you still object? Seriously? 

Until a better deal for consumers comes along, that seems like a small price to pay for piece of mind with real-time monitoring and notifications to check EKG, monthly reports to my doctor, etc.

---

I think you meant "peace of mind."

Or maybe you didn't!

[bbarrera]

---

@WavyDaveywrote:

Way to take a complement, BB!

---

@WavyDavey I wrote that during Monday meeting at work, before seeing your kudos message! There must have been 5 or 6 replies before I hit Post button. Thats what happens when my attention is split. It would be great to see KardiaBand for Fitbit.

@rkowalik piece of mind - LOL!

[rkowalik]

---

@bbarrerawrote:

---

@WavyDaveywrote:

Way to take a complement, BB!

---

@WavyDavey I wrote that during Monday meeting at work, before seeing your kudos message! There must have been 5 or 6 replies before I hit Post button. Thats what happens when my attention is split. It would be great to see KardiaBand for Fitbit.

---

Well, they don't... but on the other hand, they have this for $99. The reviews seem very positive.

KardiaMobile — $ 99

FDA-cleared, clinical grade mobile EKG monitor: Kardia captures a medical-grade EKG in 30 seconds anywhere, anytime.

[Scot_1066]

Diagnosed with AFIB in September 2017.  Purchased Charge2 Fitbit.  I too was happy with seeing heart rates well below 150 BPM in moderate to heavy exercise.  Purchased a blood pressure monitor and noticed it was reading 40 to 50 BPM higher than the Fitbit in heavy exercise.  What caused me to check the Fitbit was what seemed to me to be a high reading from an exercise bike at a hotel.  You grab the silver handles and get a heart rate which was much higher than my Fitbit.  Apparently, the exercise bike HR was much closer to the blood pressure monitor and the truth.

Thanks for your post!

[Mike9903]

I know they may not be very accurate for reading a pulse but I was diagnosed with Afib in Oct 2017 not knowing that I had anything wrong.  Then in December I got a Fitbit and it never showed any of the sleep information like my wife's Fitbit.  Since then I have been shocked 6 times in the last 3 months to try and get my heart back into sinus rhythm, with no success in keeping it in sinus rhythm and then 2 1/2 weeks ago I had a cardio-ablation done and that got me back in rhythm.  I went in for an EKG two weeks later and it showed that I was still in sinus rhythm.  I then noticed that since the ablation was done my sleep app has shown everything every night.  It seems to me that as long as I am in sinus rhythm my Fitbit can read my pulse to show my sleep pattern but when I am in Afib it doesn't show anything.  It seems to me that it knows more then I know when it comes to me being in rhythm. 🙂

Thanks Fitbit.  

[Healthymum]

Just want to chime in that you should check out Kardia Mobile's Alivecor.  It is a mobile EKG for a-fib patients which is FAR approved.  You can use it with Apple Watch or as a separate device.  It has a built in alogarythm to tell you if your heart is in a-fib, and you can pay to send the readings to a cardiologist for interpretation.  If your cardiologist is on the network, you can share your readings with them. 

[Healthymum]

Sorry, that should say FDA approved.

[Feanor]

I just wanted to thank the OP for posting this - I've just been diagnosed with afib at 34 and just stumbled across this thread from google. My dad's just given me his Fitbit to help me keep an eye on my afib so at least now I know it's not going to help with that.

I was aware of the disclaimers but thought they were just backside covering - it didn't occur to me that the device simply would just read a normal-ish pulse when I'm in afib. I find that pretty poor - I don't need any accuracy, I just need the device to detect that something's not right and warn me. That can't be hard especially when the Fitbit knows when I'm at rest. I agree too that a more specific disclaimer is needed on the adverts, rather than the usual hidden away backside protector.

Hopefully I can get an ablation soon but until then I'll have to rely on the pocket ECG that my doctors lent me.

[Feanor]

For those also suffering from afib, my wife just found this app - a much cheaper alternative to the various hardware options: https://www.preventicus.com/en/

It uses your phone camera and flash and is marketed to specifically recognise afib but it's very slow - takes a full five minutes to get a reading. But perhaps a good stopgap until the updates for Fitbit and iWatch come out (as I think I saw mentioned above, Apple and Fitbit have apparently run some studies to test their afib algorithms and apparently are now trying to get the requisite regulatory approvals.

[JoeDavis]

The fitbit is measuring blood flow through wrist. Other devices are measuring the electrical activity of the heart. With AFIB you are getting a very high rate of electrical signaling but the blood flow is not that high because blood is pooling in the atrium. That is why AFIB is so dangerous

[brlewis]

---

@russsss wrote:

As to pulse rate accuracy ... everyone is aware (I would hope) that you can take your own pulse using 2 fingers and a watch that counts seconds ... it's totally free and really pretty accurate .  

---

For the same reasons @JoeDavis cited, the wrist pulse will be less accurate the worse the afib is.

[Colinm39]

@HealthymumI purchased the Kardia device after a cardiologist on our talk back radio made reference to it..  Using it on my Android.

Just another tool for me to support my GP/cardiologists findings.. No issues for me.. But another backstop.

I have also added Sp02 and HRV devices because of Fitbit's delay...with their health offerings..

---

@Healthymum wrote:

Just want to chime in that you should check out Kardia Mobile's Alivecor.  It is a mobile EKG for a-fib patients which is FAR approved.  You can use it with Apple Watch or as a separate device.  It has a built in alogarythm to tell you if your heart is in a-fib, and you can pay to send the readings to a cardiologist for interpretation.  If your cardiologist is on the network, you can share your readings with them. 

---

[JoeDavis]

I own a Kardia device , bought on the advice of my cardiologist.

Thank you, it works well

[RAR2020]

To say a disclaimer is a reason not to be disappointed when it can't do something intuitively simple, is someone who doesn't understand what disclaimers are for. They are for legal protection. Ever taken an herb for your eyes or blood pressure or energy? The disclaimer says the herb is not to be used for this reason, but everyone knows that is why you are taking it. And that is really why they are selling it. You'd think a device around your wrist giving you your heartbeat rate, would tell you if something irregular was going on with that rate. But hey, it is not to be used for a medical device. Somehow I don't think something saying to me that my heart rate is not regular and I should seek medical attention is a medical device. But the disclaimer says it, so they are safe from me being impressed with it.