This Is What Heartbreak Physically Looks Like

Break ups can be physically excruciating. This Fitbit proves it.

This Is What Heartbreak Physically Looks Like

by Alya Mooro |
Published on

If you've had your heartbroken, you'll know: it hurts like a fucking bitch.

While logic and GCSE biology may tell you it's not actually breaking, it sure as hell does feel like it, and it turns out that actually, a whole bunch of phsyical symptoms do occur when you have a broken heart.

Now, a Fitbit has managed to chart a man's heartbreak on the day he was dumped. Usually worn to track your steps, heartrate and calories, Israeli born Koby Soto found that his Fitbit was also able to chart his stress and anguish on the day his boyfriend broke up with him; average resting heart rate increasing from its usual 72 beats per minute to 88bpm while taking the break-up phone call.

The Fitbit also showed that his heartrate stayed up for the rest of the day, and even reached 118bpm.

fitbit2

'I feel like it's nice to have a log of your confirmation of what you felt,' Koby told Buzzfeed. 'You can tell people you have heartbreak and you feel bad, [but] people become less cynical once you show them the numbers or once you show the data or graphs.'

With around 11 million Fitbits sold in 2014 alone, and an estimated 17,000 wellbeing apps that can be used to measure pretty much anything and everything you can think of, from periods to diabetes, moods and even how much sex you're having (and how good - or not - it is), people are taking their health and bodily functions back into their own hands, especially as gadgets like Fitbit ultimately track every single thing that happens to you while you're wearing it, not just the things you ask it to.

Ida Tin, co-founder of period tracking app Clue, tells us that the sheer amount of data people will be collecting can only be the beginning of a good thing – 'once we are able to track our health in an accurate and unbiased way, patterns can emerge that will lend our local GP true insight into what may well be going on underneath: an insight you’re unlikely to get from a rushed 10-minute appointment alone,' she said. Apps could then, arguably, become the starting point for a future of far more accurate medical histories, for all of us.

Or at the very least evidence that your heartbreak *is *fucking painful, okay?!

Like this? You may be interested in:

Older Women Share Their Advice On How To Deal With Heartbreak In Your 20s

Why We Need To Get Better Breaking Up Rituals

Ask An Adult: What Physically Happens When You Have A Broken Heart?

Follow Alya on Twitter @moorizZLA

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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