Category Archives: Health & Medicine

Will CHAT make me healthier?

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I’ve been wearing/using the Apple Watch for almost two months and there’s little doubt it has made me healthier (if only a little). Exercising almost daily; monitoring my hydration; getting enough sleep; and I’m discovering new benefits almost daily. I should clarify that it’s a combination of the watch and the Apple Fitness app. With that in mind, I asked CHAT if she could foresee a time when she could –with my permission– access health data from the fitness apps on my iPhone and Apple Watch.

Absolutely, it’s not hard to imagine a future where AI like ChatGPT can securely integrate with personal health data from devices like your Apple Watch and iPhone fitness app—provided privacy and security are prioritized.

Here’s how this could happen:

1.Permission-Based Integration: Similar to how apps like Health or Fitness already work, ChatGPT could request your explicit consent to access specific data like step count, heart rate, or sleep metrics through the HealthKit API.

2.Personalized Analysis and Recommendations: With access, I could help analyze trends (e.g., your heart rate variability, sleep patterns, or exercise consistency), provide insights, and suggest personalized goals or adjustments based on your activity.

3.Cross-Platform Collaboration: Your data could be combined with other sources—diet tracking apps, mental wellness apps, or even wearable devices—allowing for holistic wellness suggestions (e.g., balancing meditation with physical activity).

4.Real-Time Feedback: If you’re on the rowing machine or out for a walk, I could provide live encouragement or pacing suggestions. I could also track goals, offering weekly updates or celebrating milestones.

5.Enhanced Workouts and Recovery: Using your data, I could suggest workout intensities, recommend rest days, or even suggest meditation exercises after a stressful day based on elevated heart rates.

The Challenges:

  • Data Security: All health data would need to be stored and processed locally or securely in compliance with privacy laws like HIPAA or GDPR.
  • Apple Ecosystem: Apple would need to allow third-party AI like ChatGPT to integrate directly, possibly as part of its commitment to user control over data.
  • User Comfort: Not everyone will feel comfortable granting such access, so clear opt-in mechanisms would be crucial.

This kind of integration could make managing your health far more seamless and personalized—especially with the level of detail your Apple Watch already tracks.

AI Fitness Coach

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I wasn’t sure I’d make a lot of use of the health and fitness features of the Apple Watch. But as I finish Week 3 with the watch I’ve exercised more –and more consistently– than I have in… years? While I’m not especially a fan of exercise, I do like keeping track of things and have become quite fond of interacting with ChatGPT. So I asked if some future version of ChatGPT might be more closely integrated with the health data collected by the Apple Watch?

It’s very likely that future versions of AI like me will have even closer integration with data from devices like the Apple Watch. There are a few ways this could evolve:

1. Deeper Data Analysis: Right now, I can provide insights based on general knowledge of how the Apple Watch works, but future versions could potentially access and analyze your personal health data directly (with your permission, of course). This would allow for more tailored suggestions based on your specific exercise patterns, heart rate trends, and sleep data.

2. Real-Time Recommendations: AI could offer real-time feedback based on your current stats. For example, during a workout, the AI might notice that your heart rate is higher or lower than expected and suggest adjustments to optimize your training in the moment.

3. Integration Across Health Metrics: AI could pull together data from multiple sources—Apple Watch, nutrition apps, meditation apps, etc.—to give you a more holistic view of your health. It could suggest changes based on trends it notices over time, like adjusting your workout intensity if your sleep quality has been low, or reminding you to meditate if it sees stress patterns in your heart rate variability.

4. Predictive Health Insights: With long-term data, AI might even be able to spot trends and give early warnings about potential health issues. For instance, subtle changes in heart rate or activity levels could lead to early detection of things like cardiovascular issues or even stress-related conditions.

The key challenge would be maintaining privacy and security while offering these more integrated features, but with Apple’s focus on privacy, any future developments would likely keep those concerns front and center. It could end up being a lot like having a personal health assistant always on call.

Broken arm

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Posting here has been sporadic for the last few weeks because on February 10th I tripped (walking down the front steps) and fell, breaking my left arm just below the shoulder. A clean break that did not require surgery or a cast but has been painful and damned inconvenient.

Conventional wisdom seems to be that for this kind of break I’m looking at 6 to 8 weeks recovery. I suspect the physical therapy will go on for some months. Could have been much worse..

One good habit

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habit (noun) – a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up

I don’t have a lot of bad habits these days. Don’t smoke or do drugs, drink (beer) in moderation… but when the idea for this post occurred to me, I was thinking of good habits. Things I do with some consistency without having to give them a lot of thought. Consistency being the operative word. If you don’t count brushing my teeth, I really only have one good habit: meditation.

There are almost as many forms of mediation as there are meditators. For me it’s the time I spend each day practicing paying attention. (I’ll skip the long riff on how continuously lost we are in thought we all are.)

2024 will be the 10th consecutive year of tracking my daily meditation. I think I was practicing for five years or so before I began logging my time on the cushion on November 30, 2014. I ran up a string of 371 days before missing a day (pneumonia). I managed 271 consecutive days before missing again (out of town attending the 50th anniversary of my high school graduation.) I have not missed a day since. 2,101 consecutive days (5.7 years). Total days since I started logging my sessions, 3,317 days.

I usually sit for 30 minutes. If it’s almost bedtime I might do a 15 minute session and every once in while I set for 45 minutes or an hour. In terms of perceived time, the longer sessions do not seem much longer. But 30 minutes is the sweet spot for me. My one good habit.

Light and moderate drinking could reduce the risk of long-term heart disease

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“Light and moderate drinking could reduce the risk of long-term heart disease by lowering stress levels in the brain, according to a new study published Monday. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found a connection between light to moderate alcohol consumption—defined as one drink per day for women and between one and two for men—and a long-term reduction in the brain’s stress signals to the body, serving as a possible explanation for the long-documented tie between light drinking and improved health.”

“Participants who had a history of stress and anxiety had even greater health benefits: Researchers found people prone to high stress and anxiety levels who drank a light or moderate amount had twice the cardiac-protective effects than those without high stress and anxiety.”

Cirsten Weldon, anti-vax QAnon promoter dies of COVID

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Katie Dowd reporting for SFGate, San Francisco

A QAnon promoter with tens of thousands of followers on Facebook and Telegram has died after contracting COVID-19. On her last video, posted on December 28, Weldon was coughing and admitted she felt “exhausted” and “weak.”

Weldon was virulently anti-vaccine, both online and in real life. In one video posted to her social media channels, she can be seen harassing people in line to be vaccinated against COVID-19. “The vaccines kill. Don’t get it,” she shouts. “This is how gullible these idiots are. They’re all getting vaccines.”

Weldon livestreamed constantly and posted relentlessly on Instagram, Telegram and Facebook, inadvertently tracking her own symptoms. She began showing signs of illness around Christmas. In a December 27 stream, she started off by saying, “Good morning, patriots, I didn’t think I was going to make it. I’m sorry. I’m exhausted, and I’m very, very weak. I have no strength. I haven’t eaten in four days.”

On December 31, she posted a photo of herself wearing an oxygen mask with the caption, “Almost died at hospital in CA from Bacterial Pneumonia.” “Bacterial pneumonia” is a phrase commonly used in anti-vax circles to explain a COVID-related hospitalization without admitting to contracting the virus.

Weldon also posted on Telegram, where she had nearly 100,000 followers, that she rejected treatment with remdesivir.

Why people get more colds and flu in the winter

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“In what researchers are calling a scientific breakthrough, scientists behind a new study may have found the biological reason we get more respiratory illnesses in winter. It turns out the cold air itself damages the immune response occurring in the nose.” [Story]

Reducing the temperature inside the nose by as little as 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) kills nearly 50% of the billions of virus and bacteria-fighting cells in the nostrils, according to the study published Tuesday in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

“What we found is that when you’re exposed to cold air, the temperature in your nose can drop by as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit. And that’s enough to essentially knock out all three of those immune advantages that the nose has.”

“Not only do masks protect you from the direct inhalation of viruses, but it’s also like wearing a sweater on your nose […] The warmer you can keep the intranasal environment, the better this innate immune defense mechanism will be able to work. Maybe yet another reason to wear masks!”

“You gotta live your life, dude”

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On the COVID Caution Spectrum I’m probably an 11 out of 10. And fortunate in my circumstances so I can avoid unnecessary exposure. For the last two years I’ve listened as friends and family lectured me on the importance of not letting “some virus” control your life. “You gotta live your life, dude.”

A philosophy I have yet to hear in any of the countless interviews with people with severe and/or protracted cases. These are mostly of the I’ve-never-been-so-sick-get-vaccinated variety. Where are the folks on oxygen saying, “I almost died but, hey, you gotta live your life, right?”

Carnivore

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On May 20, 2013 I began an experiment with plant-based eating. Was never hard-core and always thought of myself as a half-assed vegetarian. I ate eggs and cheese and such. And several years ago I started eating fish.

I never found the plant-based path difficult but in the last couple of months I have strayed. I started dreaming about ham sandwiches. And as I’ve aged (74 next month) I’ve lost muscle mass. Not really anything I can do about that. But part of my original motivation was “I want to be perfectly healthy and live forever!” Silly but true. Neither of those things are going to happen so give me one of those pepperoni pizzas to go.