The Day My Oura Ring Saved My Life

There are moments in life that quietly rewire you.

Not because you planned them. Not because you “manifested” them.
But because something small, almost ordinary, shows you just how fragile and how precious the body’s systems really are.

For me, that moment came on a Sunday afternoon.
I felt… off.

Not “I’m getting the flu” off. Not “I’m tired and need a nap” off. Something subtler. A strange, sudden lightheadedness, like my body was trying to tell me something but didn’t have the words. The kind of feeling that makes you pause and listen a little harder.

I did what many of us do when something feels wrong but not dramatic: I tried to reset.

I put myself to bed early. Very early. About 6pm.

And I slept.

Deep sleep. The kind that usually fixes everything.

But the next morning I woke up and still felt unusually off. Not terrible, but definitely not right. I shuffled into my usual morning routine and sat in my chair with a double shot coffee in hand. Like always, I opened my Oura app to check my sleep metrics and recovery readings.

Then I saw it.

34 BPM as my lowest heart rate overnight.

My first thought was: That can’t be right.

I’ve been wearing an Oura ring for years and have always found its trends remarkably accurate, but 34 BPM? That’s elite endurance athlete territory. I’m a biohacker and I work hard on my health, but I’m not exactly out here training for the Tour de France.

So I checked my “now” heart rate.

38 BPM.

Still. Not moving.

That’s when my internal alarm went off.

I grabbed a second device, a finger pulse oximeter with a BPM reader, and clipped it on.

38 BPM again.

Now it wasn’t an Oura glitch. It wasn’t a data error.
It was real.

My wife walked into the room right as I was looking at the numbers. I turned to her and said, calmly but with absolute certainty:

“Something’s up, honey.”

I gave her the quick rundown. Low heart rate. Lightheaded. Two devices confirming it.

She didn’t hesitate. Within minutes she had the car started and was bundling me into it. Off we went to A&E.

I’m grateful for many things in life, but I’m especially grateful for a wife who understands the difference between “wait and see” and “this is not normal.”

At the hospital, things moved quickly.

The diagnosis was clear:

Total Heart Block.

In plain English, my heart’s electrical system had stopped communicating properly. The signal from the upper chambers of my heart wasn’t getting through to the lower chambers. The heart was essentially doing its best to keep me alive on a backup rhythm… but it was dangerously slow and unstable.

Less than 48 hours later, I had a pacemaker fitted.

Let that sink in.

One weekend I felt “a little off.”
Two days later I had a device implanted in my chest to keep my heart beating correctly.

And here’s the twist that still amazes me:
there was nothing structurally wrong with my cardiovascular system.

No clogged arteries. No heart attack. No warning signs I’d noticed.
Just an “electrical issue.”

It’s a reminder that the heart isn’t just a muscle. It’s an electrical organ. And when the electricity is compromised, everything changes fast.

Imagine If I Hadn’t Checked

I’ve replayed the alternative timeline in my head more times than I can count.

Imagine if I hadn’t checked my data that morning.

Imagine if I had assumed it was just fatigue, stress, dehydration, or a virus.

Imagine if I had pushed through the day, or worse, shrugged and gone back to bed that night.

The truth is uncomfortable:

I might not have made it through.

And that’s why I’m writing this.

Because what happened to me isn’t just a personal story. It’s a glimpse into where health is going.

My Thanks Go Out to Oura

I never thought I’d write a sentence like that, but here we are.

I’m a big believer in personal responsibility, functional health, and proactive monitoring. I’ve worn wearables for years. I track sleep, HRV, recovery, readiness, stress, training load… all the things that help you build a map of your biology.

But this was different.

This wasn’t performance.
This wasn’t optimisation.

This was a wearable helping detect an acute, life-threatening event before it turned catastrophic.

And I can’t ignore what that means.

Why This Matters to Me as the Founder of Life X DNA®

I’m the Founder and CEO of Life X DNA®, and I’ve spent years building a company around one central belief:

The future of healthcare is proactive, personalised, and preventative.

Not reactive. Not “wait until it breaks and then repair it.”
Not “take this generalised advice and hope it applies to you.”

At Life X DNA®, our mission is to help people understand their biology at the deepest level: their genetics, their methylation pathways, their nutrient cofactor needs, their detoxification capacity, their neurotransmitter balance, and more. We are obsessed with bringing real science, real clarity, and real action steps into the hands of everyday people.

Because when you understand your blueprint, you can make smarter decisions before symptoms become disease.

But genetics isn’t the whole story.

Genetics sets the stage.
Your lifestyle, environment, stress, sleep, and inputs write the script.

Which is exactly why wearables and DNA belong together.

DNA tells you what you’re predisposed to.
Wearables tell you what’s happening right now.

One is your instruction manual.
The other is your live dashboard.

Together, they move us toward something powerful:

the ability to catch problems early, personalise interventions, and keep people out of hospital beds.

In my case, it may have literally kept me alive long enough to get into the right hospital bed.

Biohacking Is Not About Perfection

I’ve been in the biohacking space for a long time. I’ve studied genetics, mitochondria, inflammation, methylation, hormone pathways, and longevity. I’m also an Ikigai practitioner, and I believe deeply in purpose-led living and doing work that matters.

But here’s what this experience reinforced:

Biohacking isn’t about being invincible.

It’s about awareness.
It’s about feedback.
It’s about learning your signals early.

And perhaps most importantly:

It’s about humility.

You can do everything “right” and still have something go wrong.
That doesn’t mean you failed. It means you’re human.

The win is not pretending you’re immune to biology.

The win is seeing it, responding to it, and adapting.

The Wearable Future Is Already Here

Wearables are often marketed as fitness gadgets. Step counters. Sleep scores. Recovery rings.

But the truth is, they’re becoming something far more important:

early warning systems for your physiology.

We are entering a world where real-time biometrics will routinely detect things like:

• irregular heart rhythms
• sleep apnoea risk patterns
• early infection signatures (temperature and HRV shifts)
• stress overload
• blood glucose dysregulation
• respiratory rate changes
• long-term cardiovascular strain

And that will continue to expand as sensors improve, algorithms get smarter, and integration with clinical systems becomes more seamless.

But there’s a key point we must get right:

data isn’t the goal.

Understanding is the goal.
Action is the goal.
Prevention is the goal.

The future isn’t “more graphs.” It’s better decisions.

A Personal Shift

The irony is, I was already a big fan of wearables.

Now?

Now I’m a believer in them in a completely different way.

Because I’ve experienced firsthand that this isn’t just lifestyle tech.
It’s potentially lifesaving technology.

I’m recovering well. I’m grateful for modern medicine, skilled clinicians, and the engineering behind pacemakers. I’m grateful for my wife’s instincts and urgency.

And I’m grateful that my ring quietly did what it was designed to do: monitor, detect, and alert.

The Bigger Lesson

If you take one thing from this story, let it be this:

Pay attention to your signals.

If you feel “off,” don’t rationalise it away.
If your data changes dramatically, don’t dismiss it.
If something feels wrong, trust that feeling and act quickly.

Your body is always speaking.

The question is whether we’re listening.

And as technology continues to evolve, we’re being given more and more tools to listen with clarity.

In the future, I believe we’ll look back at today’s healthcare and wonder why we waited so long to monitor the most important system we have: ourselves.

Because the best emergency is the one that never happens.

And the best healthcare is the kind that prevents the crisis before it becomes irreversible.

That’s what we’re building at Life X DNA®.
That’s what wearables are moving us toward.
And after this experience, it’s more personal than ever.

I’m a big fan of wearables. Especially now.

Stay healthy, stay informed

Robert Van der Moigg
Founder – Life X DNA®