Smart Health
It’s now easier than ever to track your performance, your body stats, sleep patterns and general health
How to get motivated and monitored the smart way.
Apple devices have been part of many people’s health and fitness regime ever since Apple released the first iPod, way back in 2001. The iPod could only play music, of course, but just having a playlist of workout tunes helped many people to get motivated as they pounded the pavement or thrashed away at the gym.
The arrival of the iPhone took things further, thanks to Apple’s HealthKit software, which allowed other companies to develop apps that could calculate the distance you run, the calories you burn, and even connect with specialized devices for monitoring your blood pressure or sugar levels at home. Just recently, a teenager in Massachusetts was alerted to serious medical issues when his new Apple Watch detected his abnormally high heart rate.
Apple continues to take a lead in this area with its recently announced CareKit and ResearchKit software, so here’s our guide to the latest home tech that can help to keep you fit and healthy.
For many people, modern fitness technology arrived in the form of the iPhone, with its built-in accelerometer and GPS features that allowed it to track your location, distance and speed while you were out jogging around the local park.
But running around with an iPhone strapped to your arm isn’t an ideal solution – especially if you own one of the latest Plus-size iPhone models. That led to an explosion of new fitness tracker devices that are small and light enough to be worn on your wrist while you’re
exercising. These fitness trackers are a lot less expensive than an iPhone too, as they tend to focus on just a few specific activities, such as measuring the distance you run, the calories you burn, or even just the number of steps that you walk during the day.
FLICK OF THE WRIST
The simplest and smallest devices – often known as “fitbands” – tend to have a very simple digital display that just shows a few key statistics for your daily workout. In fact, one of the most popular fitbands is the Jawbone UP2, which at around $100 (or cheaper if you hunt around online) doesn’t even have a screen at all, but allows you to transfer all your fitness data into the UP app on an iPhone or iPad.
The more sophisticated fitness trackers tend to be a bit larger, with a screen that looks more like a traditional watch. Needless to say, the Apple Watch is one of the leading products here, although its $299 starting price has left plenty of room for less expensive rivals to flourish. The new Go from Withings has a simple black-and-white “E-Ink” display and costs just $80, but it’s also water-resistant up to 50m, which makes it an affordable option for swimmers. At the other end of the market is the Fitbit Blaze, priced at $200. The Blaze looks a lot like the Apple Watch and includes similar features, such as a heart-rate monitor and a colorful touchscreen that can display notifications for calls and texts.
Some of the latest fitness trackers also include built-in storage, which allows them to store and play music without having to be connected to a smartphone. The TomTom Spark fitness trackers start at around $150, but for $200 you can get the Spark Music, which has 3GB of storage and can hold up to 500 songs for your workout.
SLEPON IT
The motion sensors used in fitness trackers have another use too, as they can monitor your movements while you’re asleep at night in order to produce a kind of “sleep diary” that tracks your sleeping patterns. However, for greater accuracy, you can also buy specialized sleep monitors that can be attached directly to your mattress. Serious athletes can use the Emfit QS, which is a bit pricey at around $299 but aims to improve your sleep in order to reach peak levels of fitness. Another option for more general use is the Aura from Withings, at around $300. This two-part system includes a sensor that goes under your bed to track your nocturnal breathing and movement patterns, along with a digital alarm clock that can play you soothing music at night, and also monitor temperature and light levels to see if there are external factors affecting your sleep.
Scaling down
One health device that can be useful for your entire family is a set of smart scales. There are several of these available at the moment, starting at around $130 for the Fitbit Aria, which is an obvious choice for people who are already using one of Fitbit’s
some fitness trackers include built-in storage, so you can store and play music
popular fitness trackers. Other companies, such as Garmin and Under Armour, also make digital scales that can be used in conjunction with their fitness trackers. All these scales allow you to measure body fat as well as just your weight, and you can create profiles for several different family members that you can upload to an app on your iPhone or iPad. However, the heavyweight when it comes to scales is Withings, with its Smart Body Analyzer ($150). As well as checking your weight, body fat and BMI, the Analyzer includes sensors that can monitor air quality and can even measure your heart rate through the soles of your feet.
If you need to make regular checks on your heart rate, then you could also look at the Kito+ from Azoi. This versatile sensor costs just $160 and is actually housed in an iPhone case – though only for the iPhone 6 and 6s ranges – so you can keep it with you at all times and check your heart rate, blood oxygen, temperature and respiration rate whenever you need to. If blood pressure is a particular problem for someone in your family then Withings makes a dedicated blood-pressure monitor priced at $130.
There’s also a company, aptly named Qardio, that makes a number of specialist products for heartrelated issues, including the QardioArm blood pressure monitor ($80) and a high-end ECG monitor called QardioCore, priced at around $650. That’s expensive, but obviously a good investment if you have a heart condition that needs regular monitoring. With Apple’s new CareKit and ResearchKit software now available, you’ll soon be able to monitor your condition and send regular updates to your doctor, pointing the way forward to much more personalized healthcare.