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Visiting the doctor for twice-yearly checkups, taking your medication as prescribed, getting a healthy diet and enough exercise — these are all important ways to improve wellness. But just as the computer or smartphone you’re using to read this right now evolves, the tools you use to keep yourself well evolve over time, too. That’s why many patients are turning to wearable health devices for a helping hand.
This article will review a few of the most popular wearable health devices. It will discuss how they help, when you should use them, and how to best utilize them for better health. They may not be a cure, but they certainly can motivate you, improve safety, and keep you on track so you can better understand your health.
The future is now!
1. Heart Rate Trackers
At the simplest end of the spectrum of health devices are heart rate trackers like FitBit. These devices, typically worn around the wrist, keep track your heart rate and report it back to you. Some devices also track perspiration or steps, and many devices interface with either smartphone technology or computers to make it easier to monitor your progress.
More advanced devices may even even provide next-level technology like echolocation or translation for people who are blind or hard of hearing.
Heart rate trackers work best for those with a pre-existing exercise program to follow, especially if they also track steps. You can factor in trips up the stairs, commutes to work, walks around the block, and just about every single step you take within the day.
With on-the-spot heart rate results, it’s easier to tailor your exercise (or even housework) to burn more calories and speed up your metabolism.
A note of caution: you should never use a heart rate tracker to replace a doctor’s care for cardiovascular problems. if you detect beats-per-minute outside of the traditional norm (around 60-90 BPM) while at rest, speak with your doctor.
2. Air Pollution Monitors
If you live in a heavily congested city like New York, you already know how smoggy days can impact health. If you struggle with allergies or respiratory struggles like Asthma, those smoggy days can seriously threaten your wellness. Air pollution monitors give you information on smog levels on a dime can empower you to make better decisions about where you go and when.
Home air pollution monitors have existed for some time, but they’re generally large, bulky machines that require permanent installation into a window or wall. That’s not much use if you’re in the city going about your day.
Newer portable (and wearable) options monitor air quality as you move — and that includes both indoors and out. Quick responses and alarms for tobacco smoke, chemicals, pollutants from cars, or sudden spikes in smog alert you when levels begin to rise so you can react quickly and get to safety.
If you don’t have asthma or respiratory issues, you can still benefit from these health devices. The World Health Organization estimates that over 7 million people die each year as a direct result of pollution; many of these deaths are due to chronic exposure. Knowing when exposure occurs is half the battle.
3. Smart Toothbrushes
The toothbrush you use can have a significant impact on your oral health — that’s especially true for the innovative smart toothbrush. Depending on the brand you choose, a smart toothbrush may simply help you keep track of when and how long you brush, or it could provide intimate details and feedback about your health status.
As expected, the majority of smart toothbrushes are mono-user and fully portable. They’re no bigger than a traditional battery-powered toothbrush and require only occasional charging. That makes them just as suitable for cozy family homes as they are for people traveling for business.
Some smart toothbrushes, like the Ara, have built-in artificial intelligence, gyroscopes, accelerometers, smartphone integration, and even gamification built right in. That’s just the ticket for parents who struggle to get kids to brush because it’s “boring.”
4. Sleep Trackers
How often and how long you sleep plays a critical role in your overall health. Healthline reports that struggling with insomnia or waking up frequently can deprive you of sleep, and when it does, it can result in everything from short-term memory trouble to weakened immunity. Add to that the fact that research shows chronic sleep struggles to be associated with everything from heart disease to diabetes and you have a powerful motivator to get a good night’s rest.
The trouble is we don’t always know if we’re sleeping well or not. There’s a common misconception that “sleeping well” means sleeping, period, and that’s just not true. Sleep architecture (how we sleep) also matters.
Most experts agree that the human brain needs between 6 and 8 hours of sleep per night, but we also know that we need to achieve both rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and deep sleep to feel and be truly rested. When that doesn’t happen, either due to conditions like sleep apnea or for other reasons, we wake up confused, cranky, and feeling under the weather.
Though a sleep study is the best way to determine if your sleep architecture is healthy, sleep trackers can provide a significantly cheaper alternative with on-the-spot info. Most are fully portable; just plop them down on a nightstand beside your bed at night. Sensors detect breathing rate, snoring, and respiration to detect when you’re sleeping soundly and when you’re not so you can address sleep problems before they make you sick.
5. Infant Monitoring Health Devices
Parents have so much to worry about in the first few months: is your precious new bundle sleeping soundly? Has she had enough to eat? Does he need a diaper change? That and frightening risks like Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), infant apnea, and even smothering hazards is exactly why most parents listen in with monitors and personally check on their babies at multiple points throughout the night.
Wearable tech is solving this problem, too, by building monitoring devices right into the very clothing your little one wears. Products like Owlet monitor your baby’s heart rate, oxygenation, stirring, crying, and fussing so you can react to problems as they occur.
Because your baby wears the device as a sock, it’s kept snugly secure away from the face while doing its job. There’s less of a risk of smothering, rolling over onto the device, or otherwise choking on it at night, and that may make monitoring safer for baby.
Infant clothing-embedded monitoring devices usually interface with a smartphone or computer that will ring an alarm to let you know when baby’s awake or needs help. No more peeking and accidentally waking baby up unless you just can’t resist a glimpse at that sweet face.
Whether or not these health devices are life-saving seems to remain on the table; some pediatricians think they’re excessive, while others feel they’re fine to use in addition (not instead of) traditional safety measures. But parents like Ryan Golinski, who credits the sock for saving his infant son’s life, certainly have experienced immense benefit.