A teenage girl in South Korea accidently swallowed her Misfit Shine activity tracker, but doctors were able to remove it from her stomach. 
 
 A 13-year-old girl swallowed her Misfit Shine activity tracker while swimming, but the gadget still worked after doctors retrieved it from her stomach, according to a new report of the case. 
 
 The girl said she took the disc-shaped tracker out of its band, and placed it in her mouth while she was swimming, but accidently swallowed it. (It is not clear why the girl put the device in her mouth. The Misfit Shine is waterproof and can be worn while swimming to track laps.) 
 
 At the hospital, an X-ray showed the device was in her stomach. 
 
 Doctors waited 30 hours to see if the device would pass through the rest of the girl's digestive system, but the tracker didn't budge. The physicians became concerned the device might come apart, exposing the internal lithium battery, which could damage the girl's stomach or intestines. 
 
 An X-ray showing the Misfit Shine in the girl's stomach. Credit: Copyright © 2016 Jason S. Radowsky et al., "A Timely Intervention: Endoscopic Retrieval of a Swallowed Magnetized Activity Watch," Case Reports in Gastrointestinal Medicine 
 
 As a result, the doctors decided to try to remove the tracker using a procedure called an endoscopy, which involves using a flexible tube with a camera to see inside the stomach. The doctors were able to use a snare-like medical tool to lasso the tracker and remove it through the girl's esophagus. [7 Weird Things People Have Swallowed] 
 
 "The watch retained normal function despite the low pH [or, acidity] of the stomach and manipulation upon retrieval," the doctors, from the Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital in Yongsan, South Korea (a U.S. military hospital), wrote in the Jan. 19 issue of the journal Case Reports in Gastrointestinal Medicine. 
 
 "When synchronized to her mobile device, the [Misfit Shine] watch accurately recorded all advertised data points, to include steps taken, calories burned [and] sleep cycles, and [it] maintained accurate time," the doctors said. 
 
 The girl recovered well, and went home the next day. 
 
 Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| A 10-year-old Houston girl had a brush with death after swallowing a piece of the latest must-have toy — a fidget spinner. 
 
 Britton Joniec underwent emergency surgery on Monday, according to her mom, who described the terrifying ordeal involving the propeller-shaped contraption. 
 
 “On the way home from a fun swim meet, I heard Britton make an odd retching noise in the back seat as I was driving,” Kelly Rose Joniec wrote on Facebook. 
 
 “Looking back in the mirror, I saw her face turning red and drool pouring from her mouth — she could utter noises but looked panicked so I immediately pulled over,” she continued. “She pointed to her throat saying she’d swallowed something, so I attempted Heimlich but there was no resistance.” 
 
 The girl had put one of three bushings from the spinner in her mouth to clean it — but somehow swallowed the metal piece. 
 
 Her mom drove to an urgent care center, where medical workers were unable to determine whether it was lodged in her airway or her esophagus. 
 
 The girl was then rushed to Texas Children’s Hospital in The Woodlands, just north of Houston, where X-rays showed the nickel-size bushing was stuck in her esophagus. 
 
 “The GI doctor was fascinated… he’d only just learned of fidget spinners that morning when he was at the mall with his son, so it was a surprise to be faced with one in a case a few hours later,” Joniec wrote. 
 
 Finally, the doctor used an endoscope to remove the object. 
 
 “Fortunately, we had a positive outcome, but it was pretty scary there for a while,” the mom said. 
 
 Joniec had a word of caution for parents about the toy, which originally was designed as a therapeutic tool for kids with ADHD and autism. 
 
 “Fidget spinners are the current craze so they are widely distributed. Kids of all ages may be getting them, but not all spinners come with age-appropriate warnings,” she said. 
 
 She pointed out that the bushings pop out easily and can pose a potential choking hazard for young children. 
 
 The twirling toys have become so popular lately that they’ve been banned in some schools. ||||| Photo 
 
 Wired Well Personal technology for health and fitness. 
 
 Every January for the past decade, Jessica Irish of Saline, Mich., has made the same New Year’s Resolution: to “cut out late night snacking and lose 30 pounds.” Like millions of Americans, Ms. Irish, 31, usually makes it about two weeks. 
 
 But this year is different. 
 
 “I’ve already lost 18 pounds,” she said, “and maintained my diet more consistently than ever. Even more amazing — I rarely even think about snacking at night anymore.” 
 
 Ms. Irish credits a new wearable device called Pavlok for doing what years of diets, weight-loss programs, expensive gyms and her own willpower could not. Whenever she takes a bite of the foods she wants to avoid, like chocolate or Cheez-Its, she uses the Pavlok to give herself a lightning-quick electric shock. 
 
 “Every time I took a bite, I zapped myself,” she said. “I did it five times on the first night, two times on the second night, and by the third day I didn’t have any cravings anymore.” 
 
 As the name suggests, the $199 Pavlok, worn on the wrist, uses the classic theory of Pavlovian conditioning to create a negative association with a specific action. Next time you smoke, bite your nails or eat junk food, one tap of the device or a smartphone app will deliver a shock. The zap lasts only a fraction of a second, though the severity of the shock is up to you. It can be set between 50 volts, which feels like a strong vibration, and 450 volts, which feels like getting stung by a bee with a stinger the size of an ice pick. (By comparison, a police Taser typically releases about 50,000 volts.) 
 
 Other gadgets and apps dabble in behavioral change by way of aversion therapy, such as the $49 MotivAider that is worn like a pager, or the $99 RE-vibe wristband. Both can be set to vibrate at specific intervals as a reminder of a habit to break or a goal to reach. The $80 Lumo Lift posture coach is a wearable disk that vibrates when you slouch. The $150 Spire clip-on sensor tracks physical activity and state of mind by detecting users’ breathing patterns. If it detects you’re stressed or anxious, it vibrates or sends a notification to your smartphone to take a deep breath. 
 
 But the Pavlok takes things a step further, delivering a much stronger message. 
 
 To test the device, I wore it for a week, zapping myself every time I ate dessert. My goal was to curb my craving for sweets after dinner. First I zapped myself before and after I ate a square of dark chocolate, and did it again later in the week after eating ice cream, a red velvet cupcake and a chocolate chip cookie. 
 
 Set on low, it feels like a strong tickle. Set on high, it hurts. A lot. 
 
 It should be noted that the creator of Pavlok, Maneesh Sethi, once hired a woman to sit next to him and slap him on the face every time she saw him using Facebook, so he could increase his productivity. I called Mr. Sethi and told him that if we ever met, I’d try not to punch him in the face for creating such an awful torture device. “Yeah, I get that a lot,” Mr. Sethi said with a chuckle. “People either love it or hate it.” 
 
 “It’s not designed to be painful,” he added. “It’s instantaneous, a surprise sensation, a shock that knocks you out of automatic mode.” 
 
 But does this kind of self-imposed aversion therapy actually work? 
 
 “The most clever thing about this gadget is the name,” said Dr. Peter Whybrow, a Los Angeles author, psychiatrist and neuroscientist. “It’s an expensive spin on the idea of wearing an elastic band that you snap on your wrist to stop a certain behavior.” 
 
 Dr. Marc Potenza, a professor of psychiatry at Yale, says researchers have questioned the ethical nature of shock intervention when more comfortable options like cognitive behavioral therapies, pharmaceutical interventions and 12-step programs are available. 
 
 The practice of aversion therapy has been around for 80 years. Schick Shadel Hospital, based in Seattle, reports that it has successfully treated more than 65,000 people for alcohol or drug addiction using counter-conditioning methods like emetic drugs, which make people feel nauseated if they drink alcohol, or supervised shock therapy. The hospital’s medical director, Dr. Kalyan Dandala, said that he was interested in using Pavlok to help people continue recovery once they finish the 10-day inpatient treatment, but added that the device should be professionally supervised. 
 
 “It’s better suited as a prescribed tool for behavior modification,” Dr. Dandala said. “The company needs to refine it, put more education in the tool, and have more oversight.” 
 
 Michelle Freedland, a psychiatric nurse practitioner in Manhattan, has worked with five patients who use the device for nail biting, addictions, compulsive behaviors and more. 
 
 “When one of my patients told me he was using it last year to help him get out of bed in the morning, I was skeptical at first,” she said. “I mean, the notion of being shocked — you can have a little reservation. But when you understand how to use it properly and people are more engaged in their own treatment, they tend to follow through with it more.” 
 
 Mr. Sethi, the founder, said the company had just begun to collect data on the long-term success of the device, and was planning a clinical trial later this spring. The Pavlok has been available since November, and he said about 10,000 people had used it. 
 
 Despite the potential for pain and the lack of science backing a long-term effect, user feedback on Facebook groups and message boards has been enthusiastic about the device, especially as a last resort for problems like overeating and binge drinking. 
 
 Bud Hennekes, 24, a blogger in St. Louis, said he had used Pavlok to kick a nearly two-pack-a-day cigarette habit. “When I tried to quit before, I still had the craving to smoke,” he said. “When I used Pavlok, the cravings completely went away. I don’t know if it’s science or a placebo effect or what, and I don’t really care because it worked.” 
 
 Related:
– The Misfit Shine activity tracker is not only waterproof, but can apparently also withstand stomach acid. Doctors say a 13-year-old girl in South Korea removed the tracker from her watch band—it can also be fixed to necklaces and clipped to clothing—and popped it in her mouth while she went swimming; why she did so is unclear, as Live Science points out the tracker can be worn in a pool. At some point, she accidentally swallowed the disc, which is about an inch in diameter. A subsequent X-ray showed the device was in her stomach, and 30 hours later it still hadn't moved on. Doctors feared the lithium battery could come out of its casing and expressed "concern for obstruction at the ileocecal valve [which separates the small and large intestines]," and so they intervened. In a 72-minute procedure, they used an endoscopic snare to remove the device through the girl's esophagus. "To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of salvaging an operational watch from the stomach using an endoscopic technique," doctors wrote in the Jan. 19 issue of Case Reports in Gastrointestinal Medicine. When it was all over, the device still worked. "When synchronized to her mobile device, the [Misfit Shine] watch accurately recorded all advertised data points to include steps taken, calories burned, sleep cycles, and maintained accurate time," doctors wrote. The patient was sent home the next day. (A rare disorder keeps this women from swallowing.)