When it comes to technology, you’re constantly seeing upgrades, new products, and advanced features and functionalities. In this day and age, you’re connected to technology in so many ways; it’s nearly a part of you! As you read on, some of the many blessings of technology will be discussed as it relates to fitness trackers and wearable watch technology. The technology discussed today is incredible! Think of how much you can do and all the information you can collect about your health habits nowadays - all on your teeny little smartwatch! Now to talk about health and wellness, specifically: A few metrics that can be measured by your wearables are as follows: Blood pressure, pulse oximetry, calorie counter, and sleep data. All of these can support the understanding of where you are in terms of your health and wellbeing through the data collected by your wearable. For example, say you’re starting an exercise program, you can use your smartwatch heart rate monitor to stay within target heart rate zones while training to ensure appropriate progression and effort. You can use your blood pressure feature to track how your blood pressure responds to your exercise programming. You can also use the calorie counter feature to estimate how much energy you expended during the exercise session! These functionalities will be discussed soon, however, here are some examples of a few wearable devices with diverse and helpful capabilities:
Wearables
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Blood pressure:
The same technology that is used for heart rate monitoring is used for blood pressure monitoring in smart watches. Physics and mathematics are behind the scenes as your blood pressure is identified and measured through your heart rate based on various data points available to your smart watch using pulse wave analysis. Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is on the cutting edge, but even so- it requires calibration. You have to measure your blood pressure 3 times and manually enter the results on your smartphone Samsung Health App. You re-calibrate after 4 weeks, but in between, your watch can measure your blood pressure with just your watch!
Blood Oxygenation & Pulse Oximetry
Using a combination of light sensors and light emitters, your blood oxygenation is identified by your fitness watch/smart watch. Red and infrared light technology is behind the scenes of this helpful feature.
ECG (Electrocardiogram): You’ve seen the medical shows on television, where the patient is hooked up to wires and wires and wires on their chest and the medical team is observing their heart rate? What you saw was likely what’s called a 12-lead ECG or Electrocardiogram. As opposed to the 12-lead ECG, your watch can perform what’s called a single-lead ECG. Although the single-lead ECG can identify normal sinus rhythm (NSR, a normal, healthy heart beat), AFib (atrial fibrillation, a medical condition that involves the atria (your atria are 2 of the 4 chambers of your heart) beating too fast for blood to be optimally moved out into your ventricles (the other 2 chambers of your heart). AFib can lead to things like shortness of breath, difficulty exercising, blood clots, or even stroke; so you can see how helpful this technology could be in supporting the identification of AFib. In addition to identifying NSR and AFib, your watch’s ECG sensors can also detect tachycardia (fast heart rate) or bradycardia (slow heart rate).
There are limitations to this technology. One glaring limitation is that a single lead ECG cannot identify whether or not the wearer is having a heart attack. A 12-lead ECG (not available in your wearable smartwatch) helps to understand your heart’s electrical activity from many different “views”. For example - one of the 12 leads to another will help you see your heart rhythm one way, in one area of your heart, another lead to another lead will help you see your heart rhythm a different way, in a different area of your heart. A heart attack is when your heart muscle is being deprived of oxygen; depending on where your heart is being deprived of oxygen, only particular “views” of your heartbeat can capture the visual representation of a heart attack through an ECG.
Calorie counter/food journal
By using your wearable smartwatch, you can see your estimated caloric expenditure based on your activity level and time spent at rest. This can be helpful metrics to consider when you have goals such as lean muscle mass building, weight loss, or weight maintenance. Furthermore, you’ve heard it mentioned before… MyFitnessPal. Possibly the Queen of the Castle when it comes to an electronic food log, MyFitnessPal integrates with many wearables so you can see your progress, goals, and food log. The awareness gained from keeping track of these data points can support your health and wellness goals and are backed by scientific evidence of such.
Sleep
Sleep is a restorative element of your health and wellbeing and your wearable can support you learning more about your sleep patterns. Wearing your watch overnight tracks your movements and heart rate; the combination of both data points is used to estimate how much time you spend in what sleep cycle. You typically cycle between 3 different phases of sleep and depending on your movement and heart rate - more or less movement, slower or faster heart rate, you can learn about your quality of sleep!
A word to the wise, this technology does not replace your doctor nor should the findings and measurements be used to diagnose or treat a chronic or acute condition. Although these capabilities of your wearable technology supports your health and wellbeing, your doctor has access to more accurate and specific monitoring/measurement tools.
For more support on how to use your wearable device to aid in your process of improved health, happiness, and wellbeing, reach out to Amanda at amanda@voswellness.com.
In Happiness, Mamas,
Amanda, Founder of Vos Wellness
Interested in improving your health and wellbeing? Schedule your complimentary 30-minute wellness consult today.
For more information, visit:
Pule Ox. Garmin.com. Accessed January 25, 2024. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/garmin-technology/health-science/pulse-ox/.
Garmin Smartwatches Track More Sleep Data. Garmin.com. Accessed January 25, 2024. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/health/garmin-smartwatches-track-more-sleep-data/.
Blood Oxygen App on Apple Watch. Apple.com. Published October 2022. Accessed January 205, 2024. https://www.apple.com/healthcare/docs/site/Blood_Oxygen_app_on_Apple_Watch_October_2022.pdf.
How to Use the Samsung Watch 5 Series Blood Pressure Monitor. Samsung.com. Accessed January 25, 2024. https://www.samsung.com/ae/support/mobile-devices/how-to-use-the-samsung-watch-5-series-blood-pressure-feature/.
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