11.6% of US population diabetic
11.6% of Americans are diabetic, and 20% of those don't know it, while 38% are prediabetic with 80% unaware of their condition.
Snapshot · TED Talks Daily
Why I’m obsessed with health wearables (and you should be too) | Michael Snyder | Your Body on Tech
Explore episode
Jun 25, 2026
Where this was said
Michael Snyder's TED Talk: The Case for Wearable Health Monitoring
At 10:51 · chapter starts 5:39
Michael Snyder opens with a stark diagnosis: the healthcare system practices 'sick care,' not healthcare — visiting a physician's office, drawing blood, and treating patients based on population averages rather than individual biology. His lab's answer is remote health monitoring through wearables. [1] — Michael Snyder "Medicine today waits until you're sick, then treats you based on population averages rather than your individual biology. Snyder's lab has …" 05:43 He explains how smartwatches detect viral infections presymptomatically by tracking resting heart rate jumps, recounting his own Lyme disease diagnosis via a pulse oximeter before symptoms appeared. His COVID detection system catches the virus 80% of the time with a 3-day median lead, and the number one alert trigger turns out to be workplace stress. [2] — Michael Snyder "A jump in resting heart rate is often the first sign of a viral infection — days before symptoms appear. Snyder's team built a real-time al…" 08:10 Snyder then turns to the diabetes crisis: 11.6% of Americans are diabetic, 38% are prediabetic, and most don't know it. Continuous glucose monitors reveal that individuals spike to wildly different foods — for most people, rice is worse than ice cream — and that type 2 diabetes has multiple subtypes determinable from a $50 glucose curve test. [3] — Michael Snyder "In a study of 55 people eating 7 carbohydrates in identical amounts, white rice caused worse blood sugar spikes than ice cream for most par…" 12:20 He closes with a preview of microsampling technology that can measure 7,000 molecules from a single drop of blood, and a vision of alpha-synuclein monitoring as a potential tool for delaying Parkinson's and dementia.
Why Our Healthcare System Is Actually a Sick-Care System
Medicine today waits until you're sick, then treats you based on population averages rather than your individual biology. Snyder's lab has spent 17 years trying to flip that script with continuous, personalized monitoring.
8 wearables worn daily
Michael Snyder wears 8 devices simultaneously — 4 smartwatches, 2 rings, and hearing aids — to continuously monitor his own physiology.
Smartwatches Can Detect Illness Days Before You Feel Sick
A jump in resting heart rate is often the first sign of a viral infection — days before symptoms appear. Snyder's team built a real-time alert system around this signal that catches COVID-19 80% of the time with a 3-day median lead.
COVID detected 80% of the time
Snyder's real-time detection system using resting heart rate alerts catches COVID-19 infections 80% of the time, with a median lead of 3 days before symptoms appear.
Wearables detect COVID 3 days early (median)
The Stanford wearable alert system detects COVID-19 with a median lead time of 3 days before symptoms appear, using resting heart rate baseline deviations.
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