How to Use Heart Rate Training to Get Faster.Healthy people generally don’t need to track their blood oxygen levels, because your heart and lungs will react automatically to decreases in oxygen levels by increasing your heart rate or breath rate to maintain normal oxygen levels. “And in a normal, healthy person, those oxygen levels should stay very stable. “Normal SpO2 values are in the high or even mid- to low 90s,” says Atul Malhotra, M.D., a critical care pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist at UC San Diego Health. Healthy blood oxygen levels are important because oxygen is what fuels your cells, tissues, muscles, and organs. Understanding what’s normal for you in terms of different health metrics can be valuable, just in terms of helping you stay on top of what’s going on in your body. For data-driven runners, says Parsons, “they’re accurate enough to give you a ballpark number and frame of reference as to how your numbers are trending.” Why do blood oxygen levels matter? “It's challenging because the oxygen levels in the back of the wrist may or may not reflect what’s going on in the rest of the rest of the body,” explains Malhotra.įWIW, Apple stipulates that its blood oxygen app is “not intended for medical use” and is “only designed for general fitness and wellness purposes ” Fitbit’s disclaimer says its blood-oxygen app is “not intended for medical purposes, nor is it intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition ” and Garmin clarifies in its app that “Pulse Ox data is intended for recreational use only should not be treated as any type of medical diagnosis or treatment of disease.”īut the fact that wrist-based oximeters can only provide an estimation of your SpO2 levels isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “Then, it can quantify that difference and give a percentage of red blood cells that are actually carrying oxygen.”Īre the results from these smartwatches as accurate as what you’d get in a doctor’s office, hospital setting, or even from an at-home finger sensor? Probably not, says Parsons. “The sensor emits infrared light, and when that light hits your blood cells, it’s absorbed differently by those that have hemoglobin with oxygen on them versus those that don’t,” says Parsons. ![]() Now, smartwatches have redesigned their wrist-based optical heart sensor to add blood oxygen measurement capabilities. Pulse oximeters can be attached to your fingers, forehead, nose, foot, ears, or toes, but you’re probably most familiar with the finger sensor commonly used in doctor’s offices. ![]() ![]() “Pulse oximetry is a non-invasive way to measure the saturation of oxygen carried in your red blood cells,” explains Jonathan Parsons, M.D., a pulmonologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
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