Gizmodo: heart

12 Minutes of iPod Lovin' a Day Will Keep Your Heart Healthy

Rosa Golijan — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:00:00 EDT

I've got a playlist that never fails to make my heart go boom-baboom-baboom just a bit faster. According to a study from the University of Belgrade, 12 minutes of that playlist a day might actually leave me healthier and happier.

Over the course of a seven year study, Dr Predrag Mitrovic of the University of Belgrade looked at the effects of music therapy on the heart. Turns out that happy, joyful music (what qualifies for that is a matter of opinion) might have health benefits due to "decreasing sympathetic nervous activity."

Basically a cheery song or two a day might not keep the doctor away, but it's got some pleasant effects:

Patients who listened to music had less anxiety, although the score did not reach statistical significance, and statistically significant reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressures and heart rate. Patients who listened to music also had significantly less angina, less heart failure, and lower rates of reinfarction, sudden death, and revascularization.

In plain words? Your "happy songs" will leave you calmer and less stressed. Not novel, but it's nice to have some science backing it. So rock, rock your little hearts out and spread the health by sharing your happy playlists. [theheart.org via CNET]

Photo by Adriano Agulló

Japanese Find Out How to Make Heart-Shaped Watermelons

Jason Chen — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:40:00 EDT

Having mastered the art of making square watermelons and even pyramid watermelons, Japanese farmers turned to making heart-shaped watermelons.

These 15,750 yen ($160) watermelons were grown by a couple and took three years to perfect down to the point where they were good enough to convince people to pay $160 for them. There's only 20 melons in this batch, but we're sure Mr. and Mrs. Hiroichi Kimura will grow more next season. [Asahi via Japan Probe via Inventor Spot via Boing Boing]

Sony Has a Heart After All

John Mahoney — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:00:00 EDT

Even if it's this creepy, pulsating rig assembled from gutted Bravias, Walkmen and VAIO for a British football commercial. But where is all the blood?

[via Electric Pig]

LIFEPAK 15 Defibrillator: So Cool, You'll Forget You're Having a Heart Attack

Sean Fallon — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:20:00 EDT

When all that bacon and candy finally catches up to you, you will definitely want your paramedic shocking you back to life with the LIFEPAK 15 defibrillator. I mean, just look at it.

And yes, it does have some great high-tech features:

•Noninvasive and continuous detection of carbon monoxide (SpCO), oxygen saturation (SpO2), and methemoglobin (SpMET) through integrated Masimo Rainbow technology.
•The CPR Metronome with audible prompts has been proven to aid users in performing compressions and ventilations within the recommended range of AHA Guidelines.
•Energy dosing to 360J for difficult-to-defibrillate patients.
•Easy to acquire pre-medication 12-lead ECG and reliable, continuous monitoring of all 12 leads in the background to alert you to changes via our ST Trending feature.
•Large, high quality dual-mode color LCD screen with one touch switching to high-contrast SunVue™ mode for use in bright sunlight
•Advanced Lithium-ion battery technology to give you up to six hours of operating time-enough juice to run a shift
•A platform with a new state-of-the-art processor and more memory so the 15 can grow and adapt as your needs change

The Medtronic LIFEPAK 15 has just been given the go-ahead by the FDA—so treat yourself to another donut. Your gonna be just fine fatty. [Checkoutthefuture via Medgadget]

Universal ECG is World's Smallest, Sedates Your Curiosity Anywhere

Haroon Malik — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:31:00 EDT

DRE, the Louisville medical tech company, has just unleashed the world's smallest ECG system. The compact device consists of the obligatory 12 leads and a small attachment that carries the necessary software for ECG interpretation. The Universal ECG hooks directly up to desktop PCs, laptops or Pocket PCs running Windows XP or 2000.

Unlike old school devices that use a clunky great machine, the Universal ECG can save electrocardiogram data directly to the physician's computer for analysis and sharing, which should save cash on printing out millions of the readouts each day. Though the device probably won't be as accurate as said clunky machine, its portability will surely make it a must for all those hypercondriacs among us. Feeling a little coronary ischemia coming on? (House rules.) [Medgadget]

Heart-Shaped Phone-Game Console Concept is for Da Kids

AddyDugdale — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:46:04 EDT

Designed by Sung-Kyu Nam, the Okids phone can shape-shift from a cell to a heart-shaped game console at a flick of the wrist. It's aimed at five- to six-year-olds, and the heart and pill shapes represent the love you have for ~~Mario and Pac Man~~ children, apparently. The Okids phone-console thingy is a concept and, let's hope it stays that way. [Shiny Shiny]

Monitor Heart Safety By Turning Your Cellphone Into an ECG

Jason Chen — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:08:34 EST

Most of us would never need an electrocardiogram embedded into our cellphones to monitor our hearts, but most of us aren't recovering from a heart attack. For those people that are, this Swedish invention that turns any old cellphone into a monitor that can automatically call a doctor or the hospital if your heart explodes is something they'd pay loads and loads of Swedish kronas for. Or meatballs. We think they're pretty much interchangeable. [The Inquirer]

Heart MP3 Players Lock Together With a Kiss, Lock Us Over Sickbag

Kit Eaton — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 07:22:45 EST

These MP3 players grab on to every single lovey-dovey Valentine's cliché: a separable pair of players for you and your other half, that look like kissing lovers when they're stuck together in a cutesy heart shape. We don't know where you can buy them, but we do know they've got touch controls, have 1GB memory each, cost the equivalent of $55 in China and are absolutely sick-makingly hideous. [Zol, New Launches]

iPods Won't Funk Pacemakers, Says FDA Report

Kit Eaton — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:59:27 EST

The electromagnetic fields from iPods won't interfere with cardiac pacemakers, says an FDA research team, contrary to last year's rumors. After a whole bunch of experiments using saline-filled bags and sensitive coil detectors to simulate the effect of a variety iPods on the body, the researchers concluded "that no interference effects can occur in pacemakers exposed to the iPods we tested." [Reuters]

Japanese Heart-Shaped Pocket Hand Warmer

Jason Chen — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:40:08 EST

These Hokkairos have been very popular in Japan and all over the world (Lam even had one when he was five—his parents made him sleep on a stainless steel bed), acting as a self-contained hand warmer you stick into your pocket in the winter. As you can see in the ~~cool~~ warm video above, you just need to break the coin-shaped container to cause a chemical reaction. It's "semi-permanent," so you can heat up the thing once it's cooled off (probably not in a microwave) for use again. It's only $4 each, which is definitely a price not too much to pay to keep our fingers intact when high-fiving Eskimos. [Strapya]

Bluetooth Heart Monitor Texts Your Hospital Before You Die

kthompson — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:47:26 EDT

Designed to help previous heart attack victims regain confident mobility, this unnamed prototype heart monitor takes frequent electrocardiogram readings and uploads them to a customized cellphone via Bluetooth. The phone is equipped with an ECG analyzer that watches for signs of impending heart failure. If your ticker stops ticking, your ECG is sent in an SMS text to your local hospital along with a cry for help. But can the paramedics find you in time?

Right now, the answer is probably no. The next step in the evolution of this device is to integrate GPS tracking into the SMS message so that medical personnel can be at your location as soon as possible. If it pans out, expect to see ads for this kind of thing during daytime reruns of The Price Is Right. [Bluetooth Health Monitor via New Launches]

CardioSen'C: Portable ECG Transmits Data to Doctors Via Cellphones

www.gizmodo.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:58:01 EDT

Attending hospital for an ECG reading could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to the CardioSen'C, a portable device that can check for arrhythmia, ischemia, or myocardial infarction. SHL, the Israeli company behind the device, reckons it could help in the fight against cardiac disease—in this country alone 1.5 million people suffer heart attacks each year, a third of which are fatal.

The CardioSen'C uses more electrodes than normal ECGs to measure heart activity. Patients strap the 12 electrodes to their chest and upper body and the battery unit, attached to their chest, gives an instant reading. The results can then be relayed instantly to the patient's cardiologist by cellphone for instant diagnosis.

The device is so small it can be carried anywhere and is expected to cost several hundred dollars when it is eventually marketed here. If you're a nervous traveler with a heart complaint then this could be the gadget for you, but don't expect it to help if you bump into Mola Ram in the Nantucket Mini-Mart.

You can see a pic of the CardioSens'C after the jump.

– Ad Dugdale

Israeli firm's device can transmit heart data directly to doctors [SF Gate]

Portable, Waterproof Electrocardiograph

johnb — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 15:49:53 EST

Ever wanted to take a bath while wearing your electrocardiograph? Or did you ever just want to see how your body reacts to taking the plunge into a tub of cold pudding? Or do you really not care and are reading this instead of doing end-of-year reports? Well, you're in luck! Fukuda Denshi Co. in Japan has started selling a portable, waterproof electrocardiograph that can be worn while the user takes a bath and records your physical condition on the fly. Of course, it can be also used outside the bath, but that's no fun.

Product Page [Fukuda]

Numetrex Heart Monitoring Sports Bra

Travis Hudson — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 13:11:56 EST

The gateway to a woman's heart is through her bra, correct? Yes, very correct, and now we have proof. Introducing Numetrex's high-tech sports bra. Rather than having some ugly, gaudy heart sensor attached to your body somewhere, this one features an integrated sensor right in the bra fabric. The information picked up by the bra is then relayed to a watch so you can keep track of what exactly is going on underneath those lovely lady lumps. All together, bra, transmitter and watch will run you ladies (or well-endowed men) $155.

Numetrex Heart Sensing Sports Bra [Ubergizmo]