Wearables to Improve Your Health
Image by Mary Taylor
There are many new devices that can track your health data and report back what is working well and what needs improvement. These devices have improved with time. Consider one below based on your area of health to advance.
Let’s start with metabolic health. Several aspects that affect your metabolic health are in your control. Healthy eating and regular physical exercise are two ways to maintain a beneficial metabolism. The market is offering wearables to help people experiment with things like fasting and tracking metabolism to enhance their metabolic flexibility. This flexibility indicates how easily you can move between the energy sources of glucose and fat. Research from the journal Endocrine Reviews describes that being more metabolically flexible may be beneficial for weight management, glucose control, insulin sensitivity, sleep, and physical activity and performance.
Metabolic Health
Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) – This is a small sensor that is inserted into the skin and estimates your blood glucose (blood sugar) from the tissue in your arm or the abdomen. It collects data continuously throughout the day and night. These were first used for patients with Type 1 Diabetes. But now, patients can wear a device with a prescription from the doctor to see what a blood glucose level is at any time. There are also companies like Levels and Nutrisense that you can purchase a subscription and will provide this device. They often come with a service to help with nutrition and guidance to read the data. With either of the apps, you can review how your blood glucose level changes with a meal and the hours following. These trends may be affected by food, sleep, or exercise. It can be especially helpful for patients trying to avoid diabetes and improve insulin sensitivity. It has a built-in feature to record food, and exercise so you can reflect on these trends and make changes to avoid high variability in blood glucose.
Lumen – This breathalyzer will measure the carbon dioxide in your breath (RER- respiratory exchange rate) detecting a diet high in carbohydrates or one that is higher in fat. With repeated use, it tracks and creates recommendations. Lumen reports levels such as 1-2 meaning you are more in fat burning mode, 3 is a balance of energetic intake and 4-5 is higher carbohydrate intake. It offers a flex score to indicate if you are in your optimal flexibility, 0 - 6- not flexible, 7-14 balanced and 15-21 an optimal flexibility. It also offers a food log so you can monitor your scores along with your meals. Compared to the CGM, it requires more time and consistency of logging, but measuring may be as personalized.
Sleep
Pick up any health magazine or read an online health source, they will be talking about sleep. Dr. Matthew Walker in his book Why We Sleep, is making sleep a priority again among health enthusiasts. Understanding the sleep stages is important. These stages allow the brain and body to repair and regenerate. Some good trackers to consider:
Oura Ring – A ring you wear that detects subtle changes in your heart rate, oxygen levels and can record physical activity and sleep data. Oura creates a score based on the time you spend in each of the four stages of your sleep cycle. Measuring both quantity and quality. The ring can help highlight obstacles to obtaining enough of both deep sleep and REM sleep. It takes two weeks to gather data to begin to give you recommendations to improve sleep habits. It also tracks heart rate and heart rate variability, body temperature (even a menstrual cycle detection with body temperature change), and oxygenation. It requires device purchase but offers an upgrade for subscription.
Whoop – This wearable is a bracelet. Like the Oura ring, it tracks multiple items in addition to the sleep stages. Both need to be worn during sleep to detect data. It requires a subscription in addition to the device.
Activity
From increasing muscle mass and bone density to improving depressive symptoms, physical activity is one of the many levers of health we should all be pulling. A few devices to consider:
Garmin – A great choice for the very active type. Offered as a smartwatch or a wristband, this device has step tracking, calories burned, minutes of intensity and training status. It supports activities like running, cycling, swimming, walking, hiking, golf, skiing, gym and fitness equipment, tennis, surfing, sailing, rowing, and more. An associated Garmin app helps to track data and make behavior changes.
WHOOP – This bracelet has GPS tracking, measures strain – both cardiovascular and muscular. With Strength trainer, WHOOP tracks weights, reps, and sets to understand the demand on the muscles. It also reports on recommendations for recovery based on heart rate and heart rate variability among other things. It offers accelerometer that detects subtle changes in types of movement, like HIIT.
Oura – Oura offers heart rate tracking to record a workout, estimates calories burned, steps and progress to goal. It offers a score each day to stay on track.
Apple Watch - through the Activity App, you can track activity, standing time, active time, cardio fitness, and distance as well as calories burned.
Stress
Heart rate variability has become a way to predict how stress affects the body. Measured in milliseconds, it detects the time between heartbeats. The lower the number the more the body is spending in sympathetic nervous system, or “Fight or Flight mode” the higher the number the more in parasympathetic tone or “Rest and Digest”.
Oura – Provides “tags” and a free text option that allows following how a particular stress reduction activity may affect body reactions. By tracking heart rate variability, heart rate and sleep each day, stress behavior modifications can be made. It also has selected meditations in app to use prior to sleep or other times of day.
Whoop – It measure heart rate and HRV to estimate a stress score. Provides a stress and anxiety journal to document your daily experience.
Apple Watch – Under the app Stress Monitor, HRV data can be interpreted and scored.
Garmin – Offers heart rate tracking, HRV and breathwork activities to track how this can affect overall stress levels.
These devices are available to help you learn how to recognize the categories of your health that may need more support. By following the device trends and setting new behavior modifications, measuring your progress just like a science experiment, you can improve your nutrition, sleep, physical activity, and stress.