RFK Jr. needs a wearable on each American — that future’s not as wholesome as he thinks

[ad_1] I hold listening to the identical sentence repeating in my head.

“My imaginative and prescient is that each American is sporting a wearable inside 4 years.”

RFK Jr., our present secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Companies, mentioned this at a congressional listening to on the finish of June. Wearables, he mentioned, are key to the MAHA — Make America Wholesome Once more — agenda. Kennedy positioned wearables for Individuals as a way of “taking management” or “taking duty” over their well being by monitoring how their way of life impacts their metrics. Within the listening to, he additionally cited that his pals had shed kilos and “misplaced their diabetes analysis” due to gadgets like steady glucose screens (CGMs).

I’m a wearables skilled. I clearly don’t hate these gadgets. My drawback with Kennedy’s “wearable for each American” imaginative and prescient is that it lends credence to the concept everybody advantages from wearable know-how. It’s not that easy.

I began sporting a Fitbit in 2014 to drop some weight. I’d mysteriously gained 40 kilos in six months. I began working. Weight-reduction plan. Obsessively monitoring my steps, hitting 10,000 to fifteen,000 a day, rain or shine. I ate as few as 800 energy whereas logging 15,000 steps day by day — for me, roughly 7.5 miles of strolling. The promise of all this knowledge, and what Kennedy is touting, is that individuals could have actionable knowledge to enhance their well being. I had a ton of knowledge. I might see issues weren’t including up. However the best way these merchandise and their apps are designed, I didn’t know easy methods to “take management” of my well being. As a substitute, I continued to achieve weight.

I cried loads throughout that point. So did my mother, who took my sudden aversion to carbohydrates as a private offense. (How will you not eat bap? Bap is life!!) It didn’t matter that I improved at working or that I measured every part with a meals scale. Every time I went to my medical doctors, I’d present them my Fitbit knowledge and beg to be taken critically. My medical doctors didn’t know what to do with what they had been being proven. I additionally didn’t know easy methods to talk what I used to be seeing successfully. As a substitute, they advised every part from “it's essential to turn out to be a vegan” to “folks with sluggish metabolisms simply must attempt more durable.” By 2016, I’d placed on one other 20 kilos and, after three years, was recognized with polycystic ovary syndrome — a hormonal situation that usually causes weight achieve and insulin resistance.

Wearables helped me understand one thing was off, nevertheless it was a bumpy journey attending to a solution. That’s been true of my total expertise. Positive, this tech helped enhance points of my well being. I’m a way more energetic individual. I went from being unable to run a mile to racing two half-marathons, a handful of 10Ks, and several other 5Ks. My sleep is extra common. I went from being an evening owl to an early riser. I’ve watched my resting coronary heart fee lower from round 75 beats per minute whereas sleeping to round 55 bpm. My ldl cholesterol is decrease. My weight has yo-yoed, however total, I’ve been in a position to keep a 25-pound weight reduction from the 60 kilos I gained from PCOS. And, I’ve placed on extra muscle.

What I haven’t shared fairly as publicly is that these enhancements got here at a heavy value to my psychological well being.

My first three years with wearables wrecked my relationship with meals. Regardless of diligently monitoring my knowledge, I didn’t get a lot by the use of outcomes. There additionally wasn’t a ton of steerage on easy methods to apply my knowledge learnings in a wholesome manner. I ended up hyperfixating on making an attempt something that hinted at serving to me attain my aim. I ended up with disordered consuming habits. Meals logging can be a outstanding function in these wearable apps, so I meticulously weighed and logged every part I ate for years. If I had been even 15 energy over price range, I’d go for a five-minute run across the block to burn 50 energy and get myself again underneath. I prevented social outings as a result of, when consuming out, my calorie logs weren’t assured to be correct. If I weren’t making sufficient progress, I’d punish myself by skipping meals. In line with my therapist, I had begun displaying gentle indicators of each orthorexia nervosa and anorexia.

<img alt="Person scanning a matcha latte and apple pastry in the Oura Ring app" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="x271pn0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="(max-width: 639px) 100vw, (max-width: 1023px) 50vw, 700px" srcset="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/257819_Oura_Dexcom_glucose_CGMs_AKrales_0021.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Meals logging is usually a outstanding function in wearable apps, like with the Oura Ring. It may be useful, however there was a time the place I’d by no means permit myself to get pleasure from the sort of meal. Picture by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

I additionally began growing anxiousness about my working efficiency. If I wasn’t enhancing my VO2 Max or mile instances, I used to be failing. It didn’t matter that I’d gone from working 16-minute miles to recording a private better of 8 minutes, 45 seconds. Any time I turned injured, my numbers would go down, and I’d really feel like a whole failure. When my father died, I used to be caught in a funeral dwelling within the Korean countryside, pacing round in circles in order that I wouldn’t lose my step streak. Paradoxically, in a bid to please my wearable overlords, I’ve ended up injuring myself a number of instances by overexercise within the final decade.

I’m okay now, due to numerous work in remedy and the assistance of my family members. However therapeutic isn’t a one-and-done type of factor. Ninety-five p.c of the time, I exploit wearables in a way more affordable manner. I take intentional breaks the opposite 5 p.c of the time, each time outdated habits rear their ugly head.

Mine isn’t a singular expertise. A number of research and reviews have discovered that wearables can enhance well being anxiousness. Anecdotally, when a good friend or acquaintance will get a brand new wearable, I often get certainly one of two kinds of messages. The primary is an obsessive recounting of their knowledge and all of the methods they monitor meals consumption. The opposite is a flurry of frightened texts asking if their low HRV, coronary heart fee, or another metric is an indication that they’re going to die. Most of those messages come from individuals who have had a current well being scare, and I often spend the following hour instructing them easy methods to interpret their baseline knowledge in much less absolute phrases. And therein lies the rub. These gadgets overloaded the folks in my life with an excessive amount of data however not sufficient context. How can anybody successfully “take management of their well being” in the event that they’re struggling to grasp it?

There’s by no means been, nor will there ever be, a one-size-fits-all resolution.

There’s by no means been, nor will there ever be, a one-size-fits-all resolution. That’s why I’m skeptical that Kennedy’s imaginative and prescient is even possible. Docs don’t at all times know easy methods to interpret wearable knowledge. Not solely that, it’d be a large endeavor to provide each American a wearable. There are dozens, if not a whole bunch, of merchandise available on the market, and everybody’s well being wants are distinctive. Would the federal government subsidize the price? The place do medical insurance corporations, FSAs, and HSAs match into this image? Thus far, all we’ve heard from Kennedy is that the HHS plans to “launch one of many largest promoting campaigns in HHS historical past” to advertise wearable use.

However even when Kennedy had been to unravel this logistical nightmare, I take problem with framing wearables as a essential element in anybody’s well being journey. You threat creating situations the place insurance coverage corporations use wearables as a way of reducing or elevating premiums, much like how sure automotive insurance coverage suppliers use telematics gadgets to observe their prospects’ driving in change for reductions. It sounds good in principle, nevertheless it additionally opens the door to discrimination. Some, however not all, diseases may be handled or prevented by way of life modifications.

Not everybody will expertise the darker aspect of this tech like I've. However I do know that many have, and plenty of extra will. Some, like me, will ultimately discover a wholesome stability. For others, the healthiest factor they might do is to keep away from wearables.

Observe matters and authors from this story to see extra like this in your personalised homepage feed and to obtain electronic mail updates. Victoria Music Shut <img alt="Victoria Song" data-chromatic="ignore" loading="lazy" decoding="async" data-nimg="fill" class="_1bw37385 x271pn0" style="position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;background-size:cover;background-position:50% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat;background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' %3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'/%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'/%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'/%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'/%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mN8+R8AAtcB6oaHtZcAAAAASUVORK5CYII='/%3E%3C/svg%3E")" sizes="125px" srcset="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=16 16w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=32 32w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=48 48w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=64 64w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=96 96w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=128 128w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=256 256w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=376 376w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=384 384w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=415 415w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=480 480w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=540 540w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=640 640w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=750 750w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=828 828w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1080 1080w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1200 1200w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1440 1440w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=1920 1920w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2048 2048w, https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400 2400w" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/author_profile_images/195849/VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400"/> Victoria Music Senior Reviewer, Wearable Tech

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