Vital Sign Tracking Rings

[GearChange]

I have a big CSA (Central Sleep Apnea) issue. In a nutshell I stop breathing altogether as soon as I fall asleep. Clearly an internal circuitry malfunction which causes other issues such as sleep depravation and some serious coronary issues caused by massive drops in Blood Oxygen Saturation Levels (SpO2) such as Hypoxemia, if it goes untreated for a long time.
Thankfully I am on ASV therapy which is basically having a non-invasive Respirator breath for me when I stop breathing in sleep, however I was also interested to maintain a log of my SpO2 levels on a 24/7 basis but clearly wearing a Pulse Oximeter or a finger type Oximeter was out of the question since they are so impractical.
This is when I started looking into "Wearable" electronics and came across "Ring Technology" whereby small sensors are packed into a ring that I could wear.
So I started researching this space and found that there are several manufacturers who currently produce these rings in a variety of designs and features, mainly centered around activity and calories monitoring but some also have built in sensors to measure HR and SpO2 blood Oxygen Saturation levels.
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So I ordered 5 different makes of these rings and found that while all of them produce a pretty accurate log of my SpO2 , they do not however maintain an accurate log of my sleep stages .
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I know this because I compare each ring's sleep staging results with my old Zeo Brain Activity Analyzer which logs and produces a pretty accurate analysis of my sleeping patterns, using brain activity .Too bad the company is no longer in business so I can't upload my data for conversion.
Anyhow, i wonder if anyone else has gotten into constant Vital Sign monitoring using a Ring or other wearable electronic.
Leave your comments below and don't be shy to ask questions.

[Hang Fire]

I have a big CSA (Central Sleep Apnea) issue. In a nutshell I stop breathing altogether as soon as I fall asleep. Clearly an internal circuitry malfunction which causes other issues such as sleep depravation and some serious coronary issues caused by massive drops in Blood Oxygen Saturation Levels (SpO2) such as Hypoxemia, if it goes untreated for a long time.
Thankfully I am on ASV therapy which is basically having a non-invasive Respirator breath for me when I stop breathing in sleep

Haven't you been here long enough to know the members are very familiar with this?

[GearChange]

Haven't you been here long enough to know the members are very familiar with this?

That was a courtesy intro to new members.
You should exercise courtesy sometimes.

[lazarus]

I personally don't get the reasoning behind using health toys for constantly monitoring things that I would have no way of treating/tweaking anyway.

AHI alone allows me to be informed enough to decide on day-to-day-PAP-machine-home-treatment settings. And I might use a recording pulse-oximeter once a year or so, if that, just for the comfort of seeing the assurance that I am not desaturating a large amount for long periods of time at night. Other than that, I have no use for constant consumer-level test data from toys that do not directly inform any of my treatment-parameter choices.

But hey, if people find it an entertaining hobby to look at inexact estimate numbers that have no actual practical value, I applaud their support of the worldwide gadget market economy. Maybe that data collection will keep the AI robots happy enough not to attack us for a while, delaying the coming AI apocalypse. But other than that . . .

Hey, just me.

And I'm probably just too dense to understand the point of a lot of the stuff that people do these days.

Sure hope I don't get any grumpier in my posts as I get older.

And I never found Zeo any good at all in differentiation between fragmented wake (SWJ) and REM, myself.

[chunkyfrog]

"Health toys."

[lazarus]

"Health toys."

Yep.

[GearChange]

I personally don't get the reasoning behind using health toys for constantly monitoring things that I would have no way of treating/tweaking anyway.

"Health toys" (the kind that you can't get at Toy's R Us), can save your behind one day because if you don't have a clue about your vital trends, then you have no idea when to see a professional, which means you would only call the doctor when symptoms start to show up and that may already be too late
Just saying!

[lazarus]

I hypothesize that users of wearables may easily fall mostly into one of two primary categories:

(1) Those for whom the device seems to provide a basis for a false sense of security. ["I am impervious to harm because of this lucky charm I wear that was provided by my technological talisman."]

(2) Those who become so obsessed with the unreliable "data" noise that they get distracted from the things that can actually improve their personal health. ["Hello. Doctor? Yes. Yesterday my mood ring said my SpO2 dropped below 96% for two whole seconds! I need an immediate appointment and some powerful drugs so I won't drop dead on the street today."]

The red-herring-rings-and-wrist-devices have become a big business with its own form of misleading rhetoric in the form of ads and slippery-worded paid endorsements.

Do some consumer-grade wearables have specific useful applications for certain athletes and for those in need of motivation to be active? Yes. Sure. Maybe.

Are they more of a problematic form of entertaining distraction than a beneficial solution for most everyone else being sold the goods? That is a realm ripe for further study by those who have no financial stake in the answer either way. Those kinds of studies have not yet occurred, and probably won't occur any time soon.

Until then, I refuse to buy the hype, on the basis of common sense and the lack of any compelling independent data verifying anyone's claims and assumptions about possible widespread benefits from today's ubiquitous, trendy health toys that are again being promoted for the holidays, in between the beer and fast-food commercials.

After all, just as an example, body temp is a vital sign, sure. So having a thermometer in the medicine cabinet makes sense to me. However, paying to wear something day and night that verifies five times a second that I probably don't have a fever does not make sense, even though in an ad that could be described by someone as "tracking a vital sign" that could give an early warning of impending doom and destruction and give me a feeling of having some kind of added control in my life.

[VVV]

After getting a stern lecture from my doctor at my annual physical, I started using my Apple watch's heart rate zones during aerobic exercise. I was definitely taking my heart rate way too high for a man my age. This was even above Apple's orange zone and high in the red zone. I now keep it in the blue and green zones. Time will tell, but in the initial results, I seem to be feeling better and sleeping better.

[lazarus]

I consider the keeping of one's pulse in the correct range during aerobic exercise to be an important consideration.

Fortunately, doing that does not require any of the trendy health toys.

[loggerhead12]

(1) Those for whom the device seems to provide a basis for a false sense of security. ["I am impervious to harm because of this lucky charm I wear that was provided by my technological talisman."]

I bet you like Cool Hand Luke.

[lazarus]

I bet you like Cool Hand Luke.

Only when what we have here is a failure to communicate.

[lazarus]

And speaking of communication, these days many fitness-tracker toys fail to communicate with their buyers at all without expensive subscriptions. What a rip-off!:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/fi ... t-of-hand/

[ChicagoGranny]

Poor Lazarus hates tracking devices and wants everyone else to hate them.

I love my Apple watch.

[lazarus]

A healthy dose of media literacy never hurt anyone. And no one makes advertisers tell the truth. A variety of voices and viewpoints keep forums healthy.

I don't consider the Apple watch to be a bad product, as long as people aren't misled about what it can and cannot be replied upon to do for them.

Few people read the fine print, and most just follow the hype.

SoClean claimed to have proof of health benefits, too. And many "liked" and "loved" their products.

Some people may especially need to avoid fitness trackers to keep from abusing them:

https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/health/ ... iety-worse

And even those who use the information from their health toys properly and beneficially may want to research and consider the privacy and security concerns some have:

https://digitalhealth.med.brown.edu/new ... nal%20data.

Especially if involved with sensitive intelligence roles in government or business or other:

https://www.zerofox.com/blog/key-person ... 0apps%20do.