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Optical Heart Rate Forerunner 255 about Health

Lewis
over 1 year ago

Hello, since the last firmware 19.18 im noticing some sort of feelings of small pain in the arm where i wear the forerunner 255, i suspected that it can be the OHR, and yes, if i disable it on the watch after a few minutes the pain gone, there is evidence about this type of sensors about how it affects health?

Anyone has felt something similar? i wear the watch in a comfortable way, not tight.

Thanks in advance

Best

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    The optical heart rate sensor is nothing more than a green led shining dim light on your skin. I'm not a health expert, but it's difficult to imagine it having any health effects, because just being outside will result in at least 10-100 times more light on the skin.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    It is probably the same as people who get sick from electromagnetic radiation. It is caused by the nocebo effect. It will not happen in a double blind test, but as long as you think it can harm you, you will feel pain.

  • +1 over 1 year ago in reply to ovekvam

    hello, i dont think it can harm, but after a few days feeling a rare pain in the arm while wearing the watch, i readed that some of the light the sensor emits goes to the blood, so , i dont know if its tested scientifically enough to know the true about it,

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Lewis

    Light does not "go" into the blood, and as I said light outside is anyway much brighter than the sensor led, and your skin is exposed to it all the time, so you would be in real trouble if that somehow happened. Also, you wrote "if i disable it on the watch after a few minutes the pain gone". That would simply not happen if there was any physiological reaction on the skin. Skin doesn't respond in minutes to irritation etc. And remember that there are millions of smart watch users out there and the technology has been used in hospitals for decades.

    However, since this is an end-user forum, I don't think there's anything we other end-users can do to convince you that optical heart rate technology is safe, if you choose to believe otherwise.

    But my suggestion would be to make sure that you clean the watch every day (wipe it with moist towel) and maybe switch to the other wrist for the night. Because skin irritation caused by sweat and dirt under the watch does happen (I first had it when I had just bought the watch and didn't think of cleaning it).

    www8.garmin.com/.../GUID-F2E7E0A9-FB44-4297-BF4D-D0C31C400C45.html

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Bitti

    hello, i clean the watch almost everyday, i dont think its something about the strap, i readed some people having some symptons with smartwatches because of the microwaves they emit, dizziness and nausea, some people have this type of sensibility, i am just curious that i have the watch since november 2023 and never experienced this before.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Lewis

    In Russia, in such cases, they wear foil caps with the running bear emblem - protection 100%

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin-nn
    Garmin-nn said:
    In Russia, in such cases, they wear foil caps with the running

    Are you from Russia yourself, or do you just consider yourself very witty?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 4684381

    I offered the person a solution to the problem

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin-nn

    And what does it consist of, mockery?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 4684381

    You try it and make sure it works!