Empirical Health

I miss Cardiogram. Empirical is ok, but lacks the feature of having a family share option. With Cardiogram, my wife was able to check on my heart rate from her phone to see if I was in Afib. We really wish Empirical had that option. Please consider adding it! Thank you so much!

As someone in his 40 with heart disease that runs in the family, I use this app to keep myself in check. Great Apple Watch companion. I love tracking my workouts, nutrition, sleep, and blood pressure all in one app. I especially love tracking the nutrition by simply taking a photo and quick text. One addition I’d love to see to make all of this easier with the fewest amount of taps possible is better shortcuts app capabilities. Like a tap shortcut to log food or a workout. Otherwise, I will continue to use this app a my main source of truth for my heart health when consulting with my doctor. Update: so I still use the app to track my food and nutrition which is really simple to do, but I just realized that it does not sync with Apple health. I’m not sure why that is one area that does not sync.

It’s great that POTS is getting more awareness. However, POTS is more than an effect of long-Covid. It’s been glamorized since Covid because of the uptick in patients who present with it. Apps like these tend to offer “quick diagnoses and fixes” but in reality, if you do suspect you have POTS, it is better to go to an actual doctor (preferably cardiologist or neurologist) who specializes in autonomic testing. There are several other types of dysautonomia that have similar symptoms and these conditions are managed differently. These are physical tests, you can’t self-diagnose. It’s not a diagnosis you particularly want, either, if that’s not actually the condition you have. POTS patients are continuously gaslit and we have a systemic problem with getting doctors to believe our symptoms. Without the autonomic testing to back up your diagnosis, it will be much, much harder to find the right treatment that works best for you. There are also different subcategories of POTS. Some have low blood pressure, some have high. If you recommend “increase salt” to those with high blood pressure, it’s not safe without regular check-ins with your doctor to monitor your overall health in conjunction with any treatments you’re doing at home. Stay safe 👌🏻