Apple Watches and Fitbits are being used to monitor wearers' hearts during drug binges

[midian182]

WTF?! Wearables such as the Apple Watch and Fitbit’s activity trackers are great for monitoring users’ heartbeats, letting them tailor their exercises to create efficient routines. But, like so many devices, people are finding alternative uses, one of which is keeping track of heart rates during cocaine binges.

Speaking to CNBC, tech worker Owen (not his real name) talked about a time two years ago when his Fitbit showed a heart rate of 150 bpm even though he’d been sitting down for hours. The reason? He’d been snorting lines of cocaine at a bachelor party.

"My heart rate only gets to 150 if I'm running, like really intense physical activity," he said. "If I'm in a really stressful work meeting, I might get close to 100 or 120."

To make sure the elevated heart rate was caused by the drug, Owen handed his Fitbit to a new arrival at the party. 20 minutes after his friend had done a line, their heartbeat also jumped from 80 to 150.

The dopamine and adrenaline hit cocaine provides is what causes people’s heart rate to spike so rapidly. Many of the 5000+ deaths it causes each year are due to heart attacks, strokes, and angina. And while users like Owen believe wearing a Fitbit will keep them safe while binging, medical experts say they don’t help and can give people a false sense of security.

"If someone says, 'Let's do a line,' I'll look at my watch," Owen said. "If I see I'm at 150 or 160, I'll say, 'I'm good.' That's totally fine. Nobody gives you a hard time."

Many users on Reddit and various social media sites are lauding their Fitbits and Apple Watches as essential tools when taking drugs. "Drugs are basically the only reason I wear a Fitbit," said one Redditor. "I want an early warning system for when my heart's going to explode."

DrugsLab, a YouTube channel with half a million subscribers, shows the effects drugs have on heart rates and body temperatures. The hosts take substances while their body stats appear on a board behind them. They say the channel helps educate millennials about drugs.

Unsurprisingly, those in the medical profession don’t recommend relying on Fitbits and Apple Watches to keep you safe while snorting down mountains of coke. Not only can these devices be inaccurate, but cocaine can also affect heart rhythm and blood pressure—two things most trackers don’t monitor.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/75428-apple-watches-fitbits-used-monitor-wearers-heart-rates.html

 

[Kibaruk]

This is an odd news indeed...

Note taken though :wink: /s

 

[p51d007]

Wanna have some fun with the druggies on Reddit?
Ask them if their watch is connected to a phone, or worse, has a sim card connected to LTE.
Tell them the government can look at the heart rate patterns and if it sees someone is not
exercising, and their heart rate is in the 120+ range, but they aren't moving, they'll know you
are using drugs and start investigating LOL. As paranoid as illegal drug users are, should set
them spinning pretty good

 

[GregonMaui]

And Fitbit announces its new watch...the HighBit in psychedelic colors.

 

[Godel]

Wanna have some fun with the druggies on Reddit?
Ask them if their watch is connected to a phone, or worse, has a sim card connected to LTE.
Tell them the government can look at the heart rate patterns and if it sees someone is not
exercising, and their heart rate is in the 120+ range, but they aren't moving, they'll know you
are using drugs and start investigating LOL. As paranoid as illegal drug users are, should set
them spinning pretty good

You may be joking now, but give it a few years.

 

[p51d007]

You may be joking now, but give it a few years.

Shoot, the minute a TOS came along with a PC, or you booted up your first smartphone, privacy went out the window

 

[Adi6293]

God I love cokaine.......

 

[captaincranky]

Couldn't we just develop a dopamine, adrenalin, and Cialis snortable powder, and "eliminate the middleman", so to speak?

 

[Reehahs]

This is just delaying the inevitable path to Darwinism.

 

[captaincranky]

This is just delaying the inevitable path to Darwinism.

In reality, the road to man's ruin is already laid out in front of us.

Man is the most efficient predator to ever inhabit the earth. Compounding that, man is the first, "triple threat predator" to ever arise. We not only pillage and destroy all of the other life forms on the planet, but we are predators on the planet itself.

When a life form rises to the "apex predator state", it multiplies. Which is fine, as long as the "game" is plentiful. However, when said game is plentiful, both the size of the predators increases, along with its numbers. We're starting to enter that point in "evolution". Each generation since the beginning of the industrial age has gotten larger and stronger. But any ecosystem is like a rubber band, in that you can only stretch it so far, before it breaks.
\
We're entering that "breaking stage". You can tell how badly we've screwed things up with our progress, when restaurants are beginning to do away with plastic straws, because of the amount pollution those tiny items have injected into to our world.

This is a mandrill, a species of the baboon family, (and yes, it's a primate):

That's the male, and it only takes on the most garish facial coloration, when it's the alpha male of its family.

Obviously humans don't have the genetics to make such a display, (which is largely fueled by the baboon's elevated testosterone levels), but we make up for it with mechanical contrivances to establish ourselves as alphas. (Subwoofers and the like).

Moving on to the female of our species, the age of onset of menses has constantly decreased since the onset of the industrial age as well. More abundant food allows faster growth to sexual maturity. Which means simply, we can breed successfully sooner than ever in the past.

I have my own pet theory about the declining age of puberty, and it has to do with much higher levels of sexually charged materials, such as advertising, being available to ever younger members of our species, aiding to foster sexual maturity. Which I've sort of extrapolated from the baboons sexual and gladiatorial exploits producing testosterone, which then produce the dramatic facial changes. Granted, our species isn't as naturally flamboyant, but we do have the entire fashion and cosmetic industries to make up for it.

Taking a lesson from nature, would benefit our species greatly. This little lesson comes from the great white north, and it involves a simple cat and a rabbit as an illustration to nature forcing responsible reproduction. The Canada lynx' primary prey, is the snowshoe hare. When these rabbits abound,the cats are plentiful as well. But when the hares dwindle in number, so follows the lynx population.

Man is arrogant enough to think he can overcome nature's screwups with medicine, but in reality, he's only assisting in carrying an ever more defective gene pool forward.

Don;'t say that can't happen. Have you ever heard of "hemophilia".Monarchs of the past believed they could retain power through producing heirs through inbreeding, and look where that got them.

Now what were we talking about?

Oh right, grinding up and snorting your Apple watch or Fitbit, when you run out of coke.

 

[Reehahs]

In reality, the road to man's ruin is already laid out in front of us.

Man is the most efficient predator to ever inhabit the earth. Compounding that, man is the first, "triple threat predator" to ever arise. We not only pillage and destroy all of the other life forms on the planet, but we are predators on the planet itself.

When a life form rises to the "apex predator state", it multiplies. Which is fine, as long as the "game" is plentiful. However, when said game is plentiful, both the size of the predators increases, along with its numbers. We're starting to enter that point in "evolution". Each generation since the beginning of the industrial age has gotten larger and stronger. But any ecosystem is like a rubber band, in that you can only stretch it so far, before it breaks.
\
We're entering that "breaking stage". You can tell how badly we've screwed things up with our progress, when restaurants are beginning to do away with plastic straws, because of the amount pollution those tiny items have injected into to our world.

This is a mandrill, a species of the baboon family, (and yes, it's a primate):

That's the male, and it only takes on the most garish facial coloration, when it's the alpha male of its family.

Obviously humans don't have the genetics to make such a display, (which is largely fueled by the baboon's elevated testosterone levels), but we make up for it with mechanical contrivances to establish ourselves as alphas. (Subwoofers and the like).

Moving on to the female of our species, the age of onset of menses has constantly decreased since the onset of the industrial age as well. More abundant food allows faster growth to sexual maturity. Which means simply, we can breed successfully sooner than ever in the past.

I have my own pet theory about the declining age of puberty, and it has to do with much higher levels of sexually charged materials, such as advertising, being available to ever younger members of our species, aiding to foster sexual maturity. Which I've sort of extrapolated from the baboons sexual and gladiatorial exploits producing testosterone, which then produce the dramatic facial changes. Granted, our species isn't as naturally flamboyant, but we do have the entire fashion and cosmetic industries to make up for it.

Taking a lesson from nature, would benefit our species greatly. This little lesson comes from the great white north, and it involves a simple cat and a rabbit as an illustration to nature forcing responsible reproduction. The Canada lynx' primary prey, is the snowshoe hare. When these rabbits abound,the cats are plentiful as well. But when the hares dwindle in number, so follows the lynx population.

Man is arrogant enough to think he can overcome nature's screwups with medicine, but in reality, he's only assisting in carrying an ever more defective gene pool forward.

Don;'t say that can't happen. Have you ever heard of "hemophilia".Monarchs of the past believed they could retain power through producing heirs through inbreeding, and look where that got them.

Now what were we talking about?

Oh right, grinding up and snorting your Apple watch or Fitbit, when you run out of coke.

That is a beautiful response.