The Huawei Watch 4 series supports a health function that is important for many diabetics

For years we’ve been writing about the one health feature that could make the world’s most popular watch even more popular. Apple has reportedly working on a way to add non-invasive blood sugar monitoring to the Apple Watch. Insulin-dependent diabetics should test their blood sugar levels before injecting themselves with insulin before each meal. The current process involves a painful and relatively expensive test (unless you have insurance) performed at least three times a day.

To test their blood sugar levels, diabetics use a small needle called a lancet to aspirate a drop of blood which is then placed on a disposable test strip; this strip is inserted into a device called a glucometer. After a few seconds of processing, the result appears on the screen and determines how much insulin will be injected by the diabetic. While there are other companies working on portable non-invasive blood sugar monitors, it seems everyone has been looking for one Apple to include such a feature in the Apple Watch.

In China, the Huawei Watch 4 gives high blood sugar alerts

The head of Huawei’s consumer division, Yu Chengdong (better known to readers as Richard Yu, his Americanized name) recently posted (via HuaweiCentral) on Chinese social media site Weibo with a tantalizing video highlighting some features of the Huawei Watch 4. The clip shows a woman adding sugar to her coffee, only to remove it when she receives a warning from her watch that she is in danger of hyperglycemia, which is high blood sugar.

Huawei says the watch doesn’t provide on-demand blood sugar readings as diabetics would like. Instead, the watch “goes through 10 health indicators in 60 seconds,” according to Yu. He adds that these indicators include “heart rate, pulse wave characteristics and more.” The feature was released after Huawei passed more than 100,000 hours of monitoring and testing more than 800,000 pieces of blood sugar data. The most important thing to note is that no additional hardware is required.

Richard Yu wrote on social media: “I am very happy to share with you one of our latest achievements in health. Since 2013, Huawei has continued to innovate and cooperate with authoritative medical institutions over the past decade, and has launched the new advancements in blood sugar health. Huawei watches will be the first to support research in the assessment of high blood sugar.”

The Huawei Watch 4 must be worn for seven days before the high blood sugar alerts appear

Huawei notes that the Huawei Watch 4 is not a medical device and the information derived from the device is for reference only. Those who want to use the feature on their watch must be over the age of 18 and enrolled in a blood sugar health screening program run by an outside medical institution. Type 1 diabetics, who have a pancreas that doesn’t produce insulin, shouldn’t use the technology either. Type 2 diabetics have a pancreas that produces less insulin over time and they are insulin resistant.

The Huawei Watch 4 and Watch 4 Pro will be released on May 30

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When a Huawei Watch 4 user has high blood sugar, as in the aforementioned video clip, the watch notes that there is a risk of hyperglycemia and states “excessive intake of high-sugar and high-fat diets can lead to increased risk of high blood sugar. ” The Huawei Watch 4 must be worn full-time for seven days before the hyperglycaemia alert starts working.

Huawei has already unveiled the Huawei Watch 4 for global markets and has not mentioned this feature, meaning it will be limited to models produced for the Chinese market for now. The watch has a 1.5-inch AMOLED display and runs on HarmonyOS 3.1. There is a 46mm model in Venus White (2,899 Yuan), Magic Moon Black (2,699 Yuan) and Saturn Brown (2,899 Yuan). The 48mm Pro variant is available in Jupiter Brown (3,399 Yuan), Martian Titanium (3,999 Yuan), and Blue Earth (3,699 Yuan).

The device has other health-related functions, including testing for blood oxygen measurements and electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis. The Huawei Watch 4 delivers up to 3 days of battery life (14 days in ultra-long battery life mode). Likewise, the Huawei Watch 4 Pro supports a battery life of 3 days (21 days in an ultra-long battery life). The timepiece is water resistant to 5ATM and will be released in China on May 30.