Category: Health

In part 1 we looked at a low cost blood pressure (hypertension) monitor from Emporia, typical of its class and built around commodity components. As such, it represents a revolution in home health care, enabling anyone of relatively modest means easily to keep an eye on this important health parameter. How important? The World Health Organisation estimates that worldwide about 1.28 billion adults between the ages of 30 and 79 have hypertension. And nearly half… Now read on…

If you take any notice of these things (or even if you don’t) May is International Blood Pressure Month. It’s here to remind us of a key factor in our health. Tested Technology has written up TENS machines and breathalysers as well as hearing aids and smart watches. But this is one important class of medical equipment we haven’t yet discussed. Blood pressure monitors that can be had for just a few tens of pounds… Now read on…

The “interesting times” we’re hoping shortly to emerge from have given us cause to think earnestly about our life-styles. Devices to help us live cleaner, healthier lives are currently enjoying particularly—well—healthy sales. The pandemic has given us cause to question everything: about how we interact socially, how we travel, how we prepare our food. It has even cast doubt on the quality of water we drink. Do you drink your water straight from the tap?… Now read on…

In the mid 1970s, Japan—or more specifically, the Japanese watch company Seiko—tore the mechanical wristwatch industry apart. Switzerland was in turmoil. Equipped with the new battery-driven quartz technology, watches far more accurate than the most carefully designed and manufactured mechanical chronographs known to watchmaking were being churned out by the millions and sold for relative peanuts. Quartz Roolz. And for a while, it did. But Switzerland rallied, steering the market steeply upwards, emphasising craftsmanship and… Now read on…

Driving while drunk has been a serious public issue ever since 1967 when the Road Safety Act made it an offence to be in charge of a vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration of over 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. Up until then, drunk-driving was typically seen as a joke. Five years earlier, the Road Traffic Act of  1962 had created the offence of driving, attempting to drive or being in charge of… Now read on…

Shutting the bathroom door last week I managed, stupidly, to slam it against my big toe. There was pain and there was blood. And words were spoken. Tested Technology doesn’t usually over-share like this but the incident is germane to this review. When Omron offered to send us their wonderfully Victorian-sounding “HeatTens Pain Reliever” I’d already had previous experience of TENS technology when I tore my rotator cuff early last year. I’d also taken to… Now read on…