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Blog Archive
November 24th - December 29th, 2005
BlogBanquet
A new website,
BlogBanquet, with the
slogan "A feast of bloggy deliciousness," acts as portal to my new blogs.
They are:
The Breathalyzer
Blog
Pedometers
Health
Thermometers
BPM
(blood pressure monitors)
The Heart
Rate Monitor Blog
Body Fat
Monitors
Massage Chairs
(and Cushions)
Please check them out.
December 29th, 2005
Breathalyzer
Boom in Australia
Aussies are
stocking up on
breathalyzers, according to a report in Melbourne’s Herald Sun
newspaper. Yet at the same time the local Choice magazine has warned
that personal breathalyzers are a waste of money.
According
to the newspaper:
Retailers have
reported record sales of personal breathalysers in the past two months as
the police blitz on yuletide drink-drivers moves into top gear.
Breathalysers are the
top-selling accessory at Autobarn, with almost 7,000 Sober Checks sold this
year. Store product manager Peter Cheney said demand had been highest in the
past month….Mr Cheney said parents often bought the devices for children.
An article
based on the
Choice magazine report says:
Drinkers who use
personal breathalysers to test if they are over the limit are wasting their
money on useless gadgets, new research has found. The study, in which males
and females of varying age and weights tested six personal breathalysers,
found many were inaccurate - in most cases recording over-cautious results.
…Choice said it would
not recommend buying any of the six models tested. "While they won't have
you thinking you can drive when you can't, you might just as well stick to
one drink as pay for a device that doesn't discriminate any better than
that," [Choice spokeswoman Lisa] Tait said. "There might be more
accurate personal breathalysers out there, but finding one you can trust
could be pretty hit and miss."
December 13th,
2005
A Good Little
Motivator – Tanita Ironman InnerScan Body Composition Monitor
 At
the xtri.com triathlon site, Mark Steckel reviews the
Tanita Ironman InnerScan
body composition monitor.
His
conclusions:
I loved
the ability of this scale to measure body fat. And I'm not too concerned if
it's 100% accurate or not, because I'm just interested in trends. Off-season
versus racing form, that kind of thing. For me, the scale could become a
good little motivator that helped keep me from getting too far 'off-season'
over the holidays. But that's also my one concern about a monitor like this.
I'd hate to see someone with an eating disorder use it as a tool which only
weakened their self image. The monitor comes with information about what
healthy body fat levels are for men and women and I hope that would serve to
educate everyone that certain levels of fat in the body are necessary for
good health.
…Overall, this is a great scale that fills a void in the home market. And
when one considers that prices range from US$99.99 to $129.99, they are very
reasonably priced compared to their non-body fat monitoring cousins.
December 9th,
2005
Blood Pressure
and Cholesterol Monitor
Lifestream
Technologies, a
leading supplier of cholesterol monitors, is to market a novel
“three-In-one” blood pressure monitor, measuring blood pressure, cholesterol
and HDL, all in less than three minutes. It will be manufactured by Korean
company GenExel-Sein, which is launching its own blood pressure/glucose
monitor.
In a statement,
Lifestream CEO Christopher Maus noted that “between 5 to 7 million blood
pressure monitors are sold each year in the US, or 14 million worldwide.”
"The health conscious
consumer, who uses or will use a blood pressure monitor, now has a real
clear choice," continued Maus. "This dual-use device supplies more
meaningful information about a consumer's cardiac health. The combined unit
is also more cost effective and will play an essential role for individuals
who are managing both blood pressure and cholesterol. There is an estimated
73% overlap of individuals with elevated blood pressure and high
cholesterol. About 20 million people are on both blood pressure and
cholesterol lowering medications."
December 3rd,
2005
"Tragedy
Waiting to Happen"
Canadian
police and the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) organization are
expressing concern about
$6 pocket breathalyzers.
"Using the
pocket breathalyzer is like playing Russian-roulette with your life and the
lives of other motorists," said MADD Canada's Chief Executive Officer Andrew
Murie. "These personal breathalyzers can be inaccurate in their readings
and, therefore, are not at all a reliable read of a person's intoxication
level. More importantly, they encourage the risky behaviour of drinking up
to a certain limit. This product is a tragedy waiting to happen. It's
dangerous."
Peel Insp.
Steve Dolan, head of the force's traffic unit, also ripped into the devices
and the people who use them. "These drivers are not in tune with the concept
of zero tolerance that our officers promote and enforce when it comes to
drinking and driving," he said. "This device may give people a false sense
of security."
December 1st,
2005
The
Home Blood Pressure Monitor –
How to Get It Right
It never
hurts to be reminded how to ensure the accuracy of home blood pressure
monitor readings. The Syracuse
Post-Standard gives the following pointers:
Take measurements at
or near the same time each day, to give the best comparison.
Don't eat, smoke,
exercise or ingest caffeine for at least 30 minutes before taking a reading.
Instead, rest for at least 15 minutes and empty your bladder at least five
minutes before the measurement.
Sit in a quiet place
with your back supported and feet on the floor.
Use your left arm
unless a mastectomy, stroke or other condition has impaired circulation in
that arm. Position the monitor roughly one inch above the elbow, and wrap it
snugly around your bare upper arm, leaving enough room to slide one finger
underneath. Place your measuring arm palm-up on a table at a 120-degree
angle so that the cuff is at the same level as your heart. If your arm
circumference is greater than 13 inches, purchase a large cuff to ensure an
accurate reading.
Remain still and
quiet throughout the entire reading.
Wait five to 10
minutes between measurements to allow your blood vessels to return to their
normal state. Be sure the cuff is completely deflated before repeating a
measurement.
November 30th,
2005
“A Little
Breath Test She Wasn’t Expecting”
Cheap
micro-breathalyzers aren’t especially accurate, and are
not
recommended for drivers who
have
been drinking and want to check if they’ve gone over the legal limit.
 But
a story in North-West Indiana’s
The Times newspaper suggests the devices do serve a purpose:
Brad Campbell
suspected his young stepdaughter was drinking alcohol whenever she and her
friends went out at night, but she strongly denied it.
Until one Friday night.
Campbell, an
electronics importer and exporter, decided to have his stepdaughter try a
new product he'd received from China -- a $10 Micro-Breathalyzer.
"She took a little breath test she wasn't expecting and the device lit up
like a Christmas tree," Campbell said.
The girl was held accountable for her actions and the drinking problem went
away, Campbell said.
Now Brad
Campbell is selling the devices to parents concerned that their children are
drinking. He has sold 1,800 units in three months, with proceeds going to
alcohol-related charities.
November 29th,
2005
Cell Phone
Breathalyzers
 The
Orange County Weekly’s Trendzilla column features a snide but fun
commentary on new South Korean cell phones that incorporate breathalyzers.
All this
useless beauty: coming soon to a store near you. In Korea, just before
just-in-time-for-the-holidays, a company called LG releases three new cell
phones, the SD-410, the KP-4100 and the LP-4100—each with a breathalyzer, so
Koreans can breathe into it at 3 a.m. to ascertain whether to booty-call
their exes or drive home.
The question is, why do they need a telephone to tell them how lit they are,
when their wives would do the job cheap—with a frying pan? On the head.
Also, why do you need a breathalyzer on your cell phone? The last one’s
easy: because they say you do.
November 26th,
2005
Omron
Healthcare’s Aggressive Expansion Plans
Omron
Healthcare’s CEO provides some
interesting details
(pdf file) of the company’s plans for future expansion.
The key
paragraph:
Recent years have
seen the field of preventive medicine grow in importance. Preventive
medicine requires daily attention to one’s state of health, and it is
increasingly recognized that bio-information obtained, for instance, by
blood pressure measurements taken at home can be useful even in diagnoses
performed at medical institutions. For this reason, we are focusing
attention on product development that links home health checks to medical
institutions. We have already begun sales (in January 2005) of a portable
electrocardiograph that can display electrocardiogram waveforms, information
useful at medical institutions. We have also commenced sales (in April 2005)
of Medinote, a blood pressure monitor and manager designed under guidelines
for self-monitoring of blood pressure at home prepared by the Japanese
Society of Hypertension. We intend to propel growth upward by aggressively
introducing this new category of products.
November 24th, 2005
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