When you’ve been told that you need to wear a cardiac monitor by the doctor or you’re curious about what your heart is doing, there are a lot of details held within the small device. While every device is a little different, there are many things that it can tell you and your doctor. It’s important to know just how much information is being recorded or transmitted because it can assist with diagnostics for the doctor to help determine if there are any health problems that you need to be aware of.

There are 7 things that a cardiac monitor can tell you, depending upon the make and model of the device you buy.

Pulse. It’s important to know what your pulse is throughout your daily activities. If the pulse gets too low or too high, it can signify a problem that a doctor needs to know about. The pulse can also help you to know if you have reached the right cardio level when you are exercising.

Resting heartbeat. A resting heartbeat can be just as important as the pulse. This is the heartbeat that you have when you are doing nothing. When you are sleeping in the middle of the night, the monitor will still be recording and can tell the doctor if your heart is beating faster than it should be, which can be a sign of something wrong.

Blood pressure. A cardiac monitor has the potential to record your blood pressure. When this is recorded, it allows the doctor to see when the pressure increases or decreases throughout the day when you are performing certain activities, eating specific foods or reaching high levels of stress. This may help the doctor to prescribe certain medications to you or assign you a special diet.

Temperature. The body temperature is becoming more important when a doctor is making a diagnosis. Recent studies have shown that the temperature in relation to the pulse can signal different changes within the body before they actually happen. As a result, a cardiac monitor will often record the temperature at the same time as the pulse.

Arrhythmia. One of the main reasons a doctor will assign the use of a cardiac monitor for 24 hours or longer is to see if there is any kind of arrhythmia. This is designed to record the ups and downs of the heartbeat and see if there is any kind of irregularities.

Strain on heart. There may be some sort of strain on the heart, in which case the cardiac monitor will be able to see this going on. Whether it’s going on when there is a strenuous activity going on or with a resting heartbeat, the monitor will record the strain to help a doctor make the proper diagnosis.

Calories burned. Many people are interested in using the cardiac monitor for more than just health reasons. As a result, many monitors can also tell the amount of calories that are being burned based upon weight and the heart rate.