{"id":145638,"date":"2026-02-06T03:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T03:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/145638\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T03:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T03:57:08","slug":"smartwatch-health-alerts-tampa-cardiologist-shares-when-to-see-a-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/145638\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartwatch Health Alerts: Tampa cardiologist shares when to see a doctor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TAMPA, Fla. – Many people wear smartwatches or use some type of wearable device that tells you about your health<\/a> and your heart, but a Tampa cardiologist said it\u2019s important to know what you\u2019re looking at and when it\u2019s time to see a doctor.<\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

Aaron Shaffer pays more attention to his heart rate these days, but he didn\u2019t start off that way.<\/p>\n

“I was a little more tired than my peers, but I never really thought anything of it,” said Shaffer.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Then a couple of years ago, he got an Apple Watch as a Christmas gift and discovered something was happening while he slept.<\/p>\n

“I started looking at my health data a little bit more, and I noticed that my heart rates were getting down into the low 40s,” said Shaffer.<\/p>\n

READ: VA using virtual reality headsets to treat Veterans with chronic pain<\/a><\/p>\n

Shaffer will attend medical school in Florida in August, so he said he knew what to look for with his heart rate.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

As an active 23-year-old, that wasn\u2019t normal for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, Shaffer brought it up to Dr. Jesal Popat, an interventional cardiologist with Orlando Health in Tampa. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Popat said he gets a lot of questions about smartwatch data.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“So, the context really matters. It depends on how you\u2019re feeling at the time,” said Dr. Popat. “For example, if you\u2019re just watching TV and you\u2019re getting a high heart rate alert, that may be more concerning than if you were taking a walk or if you were at a theme park riding a rollercoaster.”<\/p>\n

In Shaffer\u2019s case, the context led to a sleep apnea diagnosis.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019d have no idea because no one is watching you sleep,” said Shaffer. “It\u2019s the smartwatch that caught that initially, and then it required further testing, which is why I saw the pulmonologist and that\u2019s how I got diagnosed.”<\/p>\n

Big picture view:<\/p>\n

Whether you use an Apple Watch, Garmin, Oura ring or something else, your smart wearable device can help you know when something\u2019s wrong, especially with your heart.<\/p>\n

“If you are checking your pulse, and you notice that it\u2019s irregular, and you\u2019re getting an alert on your device that\u2019s saying you\u2019re having an irregular heart rate or if you do a little EKG and some of the Apple watches do, and it\u2019s telling you that you have an arrhythmia, this is a time when you would want to see your doctor,” said Dr. Popat.<\/p>\n

You can even help you try to get ahead of sickness.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“If you\u2019re noticing that your heart rate variability is very low, your respiration rate is higher, or that your heart rate is higher, that could be indicative of an infection, that you might be ill, coming down with an upper respiratory infection or a cold,” said Popat.<\/p>\n

The next time you get an alert, pay attention to what it tells you.<\/p>\n

READ: Clearwater woman battles extraordinarily rare ovarian cancer linked to brain tumor tissue<\/a><\/p>\n

“Be aware. Do your own research but don\u2019t be your own doctor,” said Shaffer.<\/p>\n

February is American Heart Month, and heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. Dr. Popat said sleep plays a big part in heart health and having a smartwatch or ring that monitors your sleep is a good investment. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Source: The information in this story came from interviews gathered by FOX13\u2019s Briona Arradondo.<\/p>\n

Health<\/a>Tampa<\/a>Technology<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – Many people wear smartwatches or use some type of wearable device that tells you about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,571,629,115,135,137,136,1576,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-145638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-fl","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-hillsborough","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-tampa","13":"tag-tampa-headlines","14":"tag-tampa-news","15":"tag-technology","16":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}