Latest news with #healthtracker
Fast Company
9 hours ago
- Health
- Fast Company
A heat wave is coming, but CDC's Heat and Health Tracker website says it's no longer being maintained
If you've spent any time reading the news, listening to the radio, or talking to just about anyone, you know that a big heat wave is expected to make its way across the United States. But you might not be able to expect much help from the federal government if you want to monitor heat-related risks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) appears to have stopped updating part of its Heat & Health Tracker. The top of the page reads, 'This website is no longer being maintained, and no new data will be added.' Fast Company has reached out to the CDC for comment and will update this post if we hear back. The Heat & Health Tracker allowed users to gather information about their county, such as daily heat-related illness rates. The map rated each area from 'little to none' to 'extreme' based on emergency department visits due to heat-related illness. The map currently only displays information up until May 21, 2025. Some functions are still working Despite the website's statement that no new data will appear, some of the Heat & Health Tracker's information is still up to date. The HeatRisk tool, which is sourced by the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was still showing updated data as of Friday. Notably, in May NOAA stopped tracking weather disasters brought on by climate change after decades of doing so. As of publication, visitors to the site can still plug in their zip code and see today's HeatRisk, air quality, and actions they can take to protect their health. It also shows the HeatRisk forecast for the next six days. The HeatRisk map, launched last year, does come with a disclaimer stating, 'HeatRisk is an experimental product and is not supported 24/7. Changes may occur without advance notice.' Under President Donald Trump's second administration, government resources and funding have disappeared left and right. On Tuesday, the Trevor Project received notice that the national suicide hotline must close its LGBTQ+ youth services by July 17. Since 2022, the nonprofit for LGBTQ+ suicide prevention group has worked with the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to support individuals who contact the 988 Lifeline.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Polar Takes On Whoop With Subscription-Free, Screen-Less Wearable
Polar wearable teaser Polar Polar makes watches and heart rate readers for people who consider exercise one of their primary hobbies, but it has a rather different kind of wearable on the way. On September 3 it will fully unveil a screen-less tracker made for 24/7 wear. And unlike the popular Whoop band series, it won't come with a mandatory subscription attached either. It will track your heart rate through the day, monitor stress and sleep. 'It's something you wear 24/7, it should always be by your side,' says Polar CEO Sander Werring. Polar is going against the grain here in two important respects here. It's a break from the company's recent consumer releases, which have focused on the exercise enthusiast end of the market. And it also rejects the current trend for pushing a paid subscription. Why? 'What we see happening is basically there's a certain level of smartwatch fatigue,' says Werring. 'Health and wellness features remain an important part of wearing sports wearables, and smartwatches, but we see this completely new market now appear, which is more pointed at screen-less devices, more 'off time,' especially for the younger generation.' Polar CEO Sander Werring. Polar Polar has not yet revealed this wearable's name, its price or its design — beyond the teaser image above – but Polar is much less of a stranger to this casual tracker space than you might guess. More than a decade ago, in 2014, Polar released the Loop, among the first step-counting wearable bands that could also link to a heart rate strap. And in 2024, Polar shipped the Polar 360, a screen-free tracker made to be sold into businesses to help their employees keep a better eye on their wellness — rather than being pitched to the general public. This upcoming wearable is effectively the public-facing follow-up to the Polar 360. Polar 360 Polar While to some these screen-free devices may seem like a return to the early, simpler days of fitness trackers, Werring says the public is a bit more savvy than the step-counting obsessives of the 2010s. 'It was the first opportunity for people to start to collect data on their daily habits. Then basically that evolved into the smartwatch era. I think nowadays, people are much more sophisticated in their thinking about health, wellness and data than we were in those days,' says Werring. Rather than steps, the aim is for a wearable that can monitor wellness without pelting the wearer with stats and alerts. 'We are so connected every day with all impulses and triggers and screens and devices that we really see this opportunity at the moment for creating a solid and distraction-free device,' he says. In practice this will boil down to all-day tracking of activity and heart rate, which will in turn be used to analyze the wearer's stress levels. And the stat gathering of course carries on into the night. 'Sleep is extremely important… Nightly recharge will tell you to what extent your mental stress levels have recovered, and to what extent you physically have recovered,' says Werring. However, this Polar band is deliberately limited. It won't have GPS, and beyond the usual hidden reset button, won't have any controls either. Any activity tracking will be done automatically. 'Heart rate is something that will blend in during the day, so you don't need to basically use the app or trigger the device if you would like to go for, let's say, activities that are sports and heart rate elevating. It will all be there.' Werring told me the tracker will use similar heart-rate-tracking tech to some of Polar's watches, which is good news. Polar watches generally offer solid HR tracking accuracy and reliability. Werring also suggests Polar will not lean too heavily on AI in the marketing of this new wearable, which has become a commonly pushed feature among health and fitness platforms. 'Any newspaper you open at the moment, it's about AI, right? I'm not trying to discredit that because, yes, it's amazing, and the opportunities are huge also for us, but it's not something we are going to use to somehow try to say that we are great because of that. No, that's not our objective,' says Herring. He says the aim is instead to 'democratize' this area of wearables, to 'make it low-barrier and accessible.' This suggests that while Polar hasn't announced the price for this upcoming tracker, it is unlikely to cost a fortune. The ongoing U.S. tariff situation doesn't help Polar to finalize its plans, though. 'The biggest problem, of course, is the uncertainty of this whole situation. So that's something companies around the world deal with. It has, let's say, an effect of increasing prices on all aspects,' Werring says, while reaffirming the company's plans to release the tracker in the U.S at the same time as other countries. 'Our objective is to make exactly the same timelines for the launch as we have everywhere,' says Werring. Polar's recent Grit X2 Pro's U.S. release was postponed earlier this month thanks to that same uncertainty. Polar will be back with more details on its screen-less tracker on September 3. And it could well appeal to those who like the concept of a low-upkeep lifestyle wearable without ongoing costs.
Gizmodo
11-06-2025
- Health
- Gizmodo
This Fitbit Charge 6 Matches Last Prime Day Price, Arrives Before Father's Day If You Order Now
Fitness is a pretty long and arduous affair, and requires a huge amount of commitment. Not only do you need to eat well, and ideally with a good mix of macronutrients, but you also need to actually exercise, and even sleep well. We're still working on that last one. One major thing that can really help is actually tracking your stats, and the best way to do that is with this Fitbit Charge 6, which is currently 25% off on Amazon. There are a lot of fitness trackers out there now, but Fitbit is one of the most reliable companies around on that front, and they have a great balance of value and features too. It's just a solid investment for your own health, and that's what this is all about. Well, that and having a little bit more accountability. See at Amazon This Fitbit Charge 6 Tracks It All The Fitbit Charge 6 has oh so many features, so let's go through them. As a fitness tracker, it can, of course, keep an eye on your heart rate as you'd expect. However, this can actually allow it to transmit your heart rate to compatible devices, like an elliptical trainer or treadmill at a gym. This means you don't have to keep tracking your wrist to make sure you're working as hard as you want to. That's not all it tracks though. It's also capable of keeping an eye on your stress levels, which may or may not make you more stressed, but will hopefully help you try to relax at the very least. It can also track your sleep schedule, and not only rate you and offer ways to improve, but also has a 'Smart Wake' alarm, which can do a great job of waking you up more naturally during your sleep cycle. You can also actively track where you're running and even help guide yourself through new routes. That's because the Fitbit Charge 6 can link to Google Maps to not only let you see where you've run on a map, but even give instructions, just in case you're running somewhere you're not familiar with. It even pairs with Google Wallet, which means you can use to to pay for things, just in case you realize you've forgotten your drink, but you're already halfway through your run and you're nowhere near home. That's an awful lot of work from one device, especially one that's down to $120 right now on Amazon. See at Amazon
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Major study identifies common sleep habit that's linked to an early death
If your afternoon naps often last for more than half an hour you could be on your way to an early grave, new research has suggested. A study, by experts from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, also found that napping between midday and early afternoon is linked to dying early. This contradicts advice from the NHS and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. that recommends napping after midday and before mid-afternoon. Napping for durations that wildly vary from day to faced also entails greater health risks. The researchers, who studied almost 90,000 people, found that these alarming associations remained even after accounting for factors like age, sex, body weight, smoking, alcohol use and length of sleep. While experts aren't entirely sure why these three napping habits are linked to early death, there are some potential explanations. It could be that either be longer or irregular naps are a sign of underlying health issues, or this sleeping pattern may disrupt the body's natural rhythms. Other research has found that poor sleep patterns can be a sign of other health issues such as depression, diabetes and heart disease. The new study tracked the health of 86,000 adults with an average age of 63 over the course of 11 years. For one week during the study, they were asked to wear a health tracker device to monitor their sleep. Within the 11 year follow-up period, 5,189 people, six percent of the group, died. While results showed that those with specific napping behaviours were more likely to die, the study cannot prove cause and effect, the scientists cautioned. Previous studies have raised the alarm over the dangers of napping. Earlier this year, a study found that long daytime naps can increase the risk of a stroke by nearly a quarter. Studies suggest that around one in five people in the UK regularly have naps, although the habit is most common in people who sleep for five hours a night or less. A healthy adult is recommended by the NHS to get around seven to nine hours sleep, but age, health, and personal circumstances affect how much you need.
