RFK Jr. wants a wearable on every American — that future’s not as healthy as he thinks

I still hear the same sentence repeated in my head.

“My vision is that every American wears what can be worn within four years.”

RFK JR. Our current secretary of the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services, in a hearing in congress at the end of June. He said that the wearable devices are the maha’s key – make America healthy again – agenda. Kennedy has placed wearable devices for Americans as a “control” or “assumption” of their health by monitoring how their lifestyle affects their standards. In the session, he also indicated that his friends threw a pound and “the diagnosis of diabetes” thanks to devices such as CGMS.

I am expert devices. I obviously do not hate these devices. My problem in seeing Kennedy “can be worn for every American” is that it gives credibility to the idea everyone It takes advantage of the technology that can be worn. It is not so simple.

I started wearing Vittef in 2014 for weight loss. In mysterious circumstances, I gained 40 lbs in six months. I started running. Follow a diet. Follow my steps in an obsession, and multiply 10,000 to 15,000 a day, rain or sunlight. I ate at least 800 calories while recording 15,000 steps per day – for me, about 7.5 miles of walking. The promise of all these data, and what Kennedy describes is that people will have practical data to improve their health. I had a lot of data. I could see things did not add. But how these products and their applications are designed, I didn’t know how to “control” my health. Instead, I continued Win weight.

I cried a lot during that time. Likewise, my mother, who took my sudden aversion to carbohydrates as a personal crime. (How do not eat Chapter? Chapter It is life !!) It does not matter that I improved in running or that I measured everything with a food scale. Every time I went to my doctors, I will show them their Fitbit data and beg to take seriously. My doctors did not know what to do with what was shown. I also didn’t know how to communicate what I was seeing effectively. Instead, suggest everything from “must become vegetarian” to “people with slow metabolism should try more difficult.” By 2016, she laid another 20 pounds, and after three years, she was diagnosed with multi -cysty ovarian syndrome – a hormonal condition that often caused weight gain and insulin resistance.

The wearable devices helped me realize that something had stopped, but it was a rugged journey in getting an answer. This was true in my comprehensive experience. Certainly, this technique helped improve Faces From my health. I am a more active person. I moved from the inability to run a tendency to a two -marathon race, a hand of 10,000, and several weeks. My sleep is more regular. I moved from being a night owl to an early opponent. I have seen the low -heart rate of about 75 beats per minute while sleeping to about 55 points per minute. My cholesterol is lower. I managed to weigh, but in general, I managed to maintain weight loss of 25 lbs out of 60 pounds that I gained from PCOS. I have put more muscles.

What I did not publicly share is that these improvements came at a very costly on my mental health.

I broke my first three years with wearable devices. Although my data tracked hard, I didn’t get much by results. There was also not a lot of guidance on how to apply my data learning in a healthy way. I ended up dismantling the experience of anything that hints to help me reach my goal. I ended up with turbulent eating habits. Food registration is also a prominent feature in these wearable applications, so I weighed and recorded everything I ate for years. If you are up to 15 calories on the budget, I will go for five minutes around the block to burn 50 calories and restore myself. I avoided social eruptions because when eating abroad, calorie records were not guaranteed to be accurate. If I do not make enough progress, I will punish myself by overcoming meals. According to my treatment, I began to show moderate marks on both nervous bone orthodontics and loss of appetite.

I also started developing anxiety about my running performance. If I don’t improve Vo2 Max or Mile Times, I have failed. It does not matter that I moved from running for 16 minutes to record the best 8 minutes, 45 seconds. What time I have, my numbers will decrease, and I will feel completely failing. When my father died, I was stuck in a funeral home in the Korean countryside, and wandered in circles so that I did not lose my plan. Ironically, in an attempt to satisfy my wearable vibrant, I ended up developing myself several times through exercise in the past decade.

I’m fine now, thanks to a lot of work in treatment and help my loved ones. But healing is not a kind of thing. Ninety -five percent of time, use wearable devices in a more reasonable way. I have the other five percent comfortable rest periods of time, whenever old habits raised their ugly head.

Mine is not a unique experience. Many studies and reports have found that wearable devices can increase healthy anxiety. Anecdotal, when a friend or acquaintances get a new wearing, usually get one of the two types of messages. The first is to recite their obsessive data and all the ways they monitor. The other is a wave of anxiety texts asking whether the low HRV, the heart rate, or some other scale is a sign that they will die. Most of these messages come from people who have a newly healthy intimidation, and I usually spend the next hour to teach them how to interpret their basic line data in less terms. Here lies rubbing. These devices have increased people in my life with a lot of information but not enough context. How can anyone “control his health” effectively if he is struggling to understand it?

There was never, and there will be no single solution to everyone. That’s why I am skeptical that Kennedy’s vision is possible. Doctors don’t always know how to explain the wearable data. Not only that, it will be a huge task to give every American that can be worn. There are dozens, if not hundreds of products on the market, and health needs for all are unique. Will the government support the cost? Where are health insurance companies, FSAS and HSA are suitable for this image? To date, all we have heard from Kennedy is that HHS plans to “launch one of the largest advertising campaigns in HHS history” to enhance the use that can be worn.

But even if Kennedy solves this logistical nightmare, I am facing a problem with the wearable devices as a necessary component on a healthy trip to anyone. Risk to create scenarios where insurance companies use wearable devices as a way to reduce or raise insurance premiums, similar to how some car insurance providers use some Telematics devices to monitor the driving of their customers in exchange for discounts. This looks good in theory, but it also opens the door to discrimination. Some, but not all, diseases can be treated or prevented by lifestyle changes.

Not everyone will test the dark side of this technique as I have. But I know that many have, and a lot of will. Some, like me, will eventually find a healthy balance. For others, the most healthy thing can do is Avoid Wearable devices.