How to Watch Your Health with Smart Devices
Our health is a top priority in our lives. A popular myth, often used as an excuse for unhealthy lifestyles, is that health is inherited. But it is not. We are each for the most part responsible for our own health. When we are not active, eat poorly or irregularly, and don't sleep enough, the result is often obesity and related illnesses such as diabetes, heart and liver disease, and strokes. It can also lead to greater psychological burdens, more stress and the risk of premature death. The recipe for prevention is therefore fairly clear - movement, a proper diet and adequate rest. Smart devices can help you manage each of these important lifestyle choices.
How to Watch Your Health with Smart Devices
- Healthy Lifestyle as a Prevention of Illness
- Which Smart Devices to Use for Healthy Movement
- How Smart Toothbrushes Work and How to Care for Your Teeth
- How to Eat Right and How to Lose Weight Fast
- Which Smart Devices to Use for Healthy Sleep Without Morning Fatigue
- When Prevention is Not Enough
Healthy Lifestyle as a Prevention of Illness
Are you wondering why you should change your lifestyle for the better when you feel just fine now? Prevention is much easier and much cheaper than follow-up treatment.
Therefore, it is important to start a healthy lifestyle with someone who will motivate you at the beginning and keep you guided daily so that you don't slip into old habits. Smart devices make the perfect partners. Unlike people, they will not forget about you, and their most important mission is to motivate you on your way to health. Which gadgets will help you maintain full bodily well-being?
For Healthy Movement and Longevity
Movement is one of the most effective means of preventing disease, especially cardiac and vascular diseases. It affects not only the physical state of your body but also your psychological well-being. This usually manifests itself much faster than weight loss, so you'll see results very soon.
Pedometers to Count Every Step
Regular walking is a perfect way to help you lose weight and maintain your physical fitness. To make it more fun for you, you can use a pedometer. It will help you keep track of daily performance, beat your personal record, and watch your daily and weekly totals. Optimally, you should walk about 10,000 steps a day, with the absolute minimum being 6,000 steps. Your pedometer will become your personal motivator on your way to health. Among other things, it is a popular aid to seniors who have to care for their health far more than young people.
Fitness Trackers to Evaluate Your Physical Activity
Fitness and activity trackers have become popular in recent years. These devices look like wrist watches, but they can do more than just show the time. They are equipped with a pedometer and can measure heart rate, sleep patterns, and number of calories burned. Some can even play music, record missed routes and number of floors climbed, alert you to calls and SMS, and much more.
Sports Watches to Help You Lose Weight Effectively
Customise running, cycling, skating, and other activities to your heart rate and reach your goals more easily. Your heart rate affects the burning of body fat.
At what heart rate do you lose weight most easily? You can roughly calculate it as follows:
- From 220, subtract your age. The result is your maximum heart rate.
- 55-65% of your maximum heart rate is the best for burning fat.
E.g. the maximum heart rate of a 38-year-old man is estimated to be approximately 182 beats per minute, and a heart rate of about 100-118 beats per minute will provide the best results for burning fat. However, maximum heart rate varies for each person.
You can track your heart rate with a sports watch (with a chest strap or sensor on your arm). It will evaluate your activity based on time, speed, distance, heart rate, and other measures, so you can be confident that you are exercising effectively.
Smart Watches are Intelligent Partners on the Way to a Healthy Lifestyle
Smart watches are not just a stylish combination of a sports watch and a fitness tracker, but also a perfect companion for sports and day-to-day activities. One key advantage is the ability to connect your watch with your smart phone. Basic features include a time display, a stopwatch, an activity monitor like a fitness tracker, and a GPS sensor. In advanced features, you can also find a heart rate sensor, recognition of individual sports activities, altimeter, barometer, compass, thermometer, music controls, and sleep monitor.
A smart watch also lets you read SMS and alerts you to calls from your mobile phone. You can expand its options with special applications for smart watches. For help choosing a smart watch, see our article how to choose a smart watch.
Smart Phones Immediately Show Your Progress
Some smart phones can replace other smart devices. They are equipped with an accelerometer that monitors the speed of movement and tilt of the phone. With special applications, you can record your number of steps, distance travelled, speed, and number of calories burned. Smart phones can share and compare your sports achievements with friends, which is often the greatest motivation to stay active.
In the "Health" app on iPhones or Google Fit on Android phones, you can find data from smart watches, fitness trackers, smart scales, smart gadgets, and more in one place. You have a complete overview of your movement and vital functions.
Apps for Monitoring Sports Activities
Several apps can help you with monitoring various sports activities, for example:
- Runtastic ( iOS, Android, Windows Phone )
- Sports Tracker ( iOS, Android, Windows Phone )
- Runkeeper ( iOS, Android )
- Endomondo ( iOS, Android, Windows Phone )
Not every application suits everyone, so you can try them and find what's right for you. All are free and also offer paid extensions with additional features.
Applications for Training and Exercise
Smart phones offer training and fitness applications that will give you exercises to strengthen your muscles, enhance fitness, and do yoga or pilates exercises. Popular favourites include:
- Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout app ( iOS , Android ) - just 7 minutes a day
- Lose it! ( iOS , Android ) - calorie counting and exercise apps with an incredibly strong community of people who support each other
- Runtastic app ( iOS , Android , Windows Phone ) - offers a wide range of applications for training different body parts
Correct Posture Diagnosis Will Alert You to Slouching
Specialised gauges for posture diagnosis are ideal for people with sedentary occupations. Simply place the gauge at the base of your back with a velcro strap and calibrate in an upright position. The sensor then alerts you as soon as you start to slouch, so you can finally start working without unnecessary back pain. In your mobile phone application, you can select a training program to help you strengthen the muscles around your spine and improve your posture.
For Healthy Teeth
Oral-B surveys have shown that 60% of people do not clean their back teeth at all, and the average length of teeth cleaning is shorter than one minute. In order to avoid rotten teeth and gum disease, it is necessary to take care of your teeth properly.
Smart Toothbrushes Know Where You Have Brushed
Smart toothbrushes will help you manage your dental hygiene. They keep track of cleaning time and warn you of poorly cleaned areas. In addition, they help you maintain correct pressure on the toothbrush, which greatly affects cleaning efficiency. Special Android and iOS apps process data from the brush sensor and inform you of poor dental habits. You can connect your mobile phone with both oscillating rotary electric toothbrushes and sonic toothbrushes.
Dental Hygiene Apps Help You Achieve Proper Cleaning Techniques
Smart phones can help you track your dental cleaning, whether you own a smart toothbrush or other electric toothbrush. Special applications measure time and identify areas that you still need to clean.
Applications for Dental Hygiene
How to Eat Right and How to Lose Weight Fast
A regular and balanced diet is essential for a healthy lifestyle. But everyone is built differently, has different goals, and has different caloric needs. To set up the right diet and movement plan for you, you need to know some data that normal devices can not measure. To avoid having to go to a pharmacy or nutrition consultant, use a smart bathroom scale.
Smart Scales Know Almost Everything About Your Body
A smart bathroom scale will help you not only measure your weight, but also your percentage of body fat, muscle, and water, your BMI, bone mass, and other interesting and useful data. Every day you can see how a healthy diet and movement are positively effecting your body. Your smart scale can be connected to your mobile phone to get a convenient long-term overview of your progress.
Smart Bottles and Mugs to Keep You Hydrated
Water is the foundation of life. That's why maintaining a healthy drinking regime can do miracles. It improves your physical condition, relieves you of constant fatigue, perks up your mind and, last but not least, benefits your appearance. Smart bottles and smart mugs will help you drink as much water as your body needs.
Apps for a Balanced Diet
Smart phones can also play an important role in maintaining a balanced diet. Using Healthy Eating and Drink Mode allows you to see how much calories you eat daily and how much fluid you drink.
Applications for Healthy Eating
- Calorie Tables ( iOS , Android ) - the best-known Czech application with an extensive database of food and sports activities, allows you to monitor and create your diet and monitor your drinking regime
- MyFitnessPal ( iOS , Android ) - an American alternative to Calorie Tables, offering links to various fitness trackers and an enjoyable design
- Fit Recipes ( iOS , Android ) - Czech application with diet and cooking recommendations, will tell you how long your cooking will last, what you need to prepare, and what nutritional value the food has as a whole
For Healthy Sleep Without Morning Fatigue
Sleep is the basic pillar of health. Even if you eat healthy and exercise regularly, it will not do you any good if you do not sleep enough.
Sleep Monitors to Monitor Sleep Phases and More
Sleep monitors will tell you how to sleep "right." They monitor your body functions, record sounds, heart rate, individual stages of sleep, and environmental data. All this data goes to your smart phone mobile app, which will help inform you why you're tired or when you're sleeping best.
There are three types of sleep monitors on the market:
- Pads - the most accurate sleep monitor, placed on the bed underneath you
- Bracelets - fitness bracelets that also monitor sleep phases
- Lamps - Sleek monitors with intelligent lighting capabilities will induce sleep or simulate morning sunrise, so you wake up naturally
Anti-Snoring Headset Will Solve Your Snoring Troubles
Do you snore? Now you can resolve it once and for all. The anti-snoring headset is a gentle treatment that reduces snoring using sound and vibration signals. In addition, it provides accurate snore analysis using a smart phone app that helps prevent snoring.
Healthy Sleep Application Tells You Why You're Tired
Your smart phone is more than just an alarm clock - it will also help you sleep well.
Apps for Healthy Sleep
These applications provide an accurate analysis of your sleep. The sensor in your phone monitors your movement during the night and analyses sounds during sleep using the microphone. This helps you track your sleeping patterns and wake up at the best time. You will not be so tired after waking up, as when your classic alarm clock pulls you out of deep sleep.
Home Doctor or Telemedicine
Whether due to the underestimation of prevention, poor lifestyle, or various other reasons, we sometimes have to deal with health problems. With smart medical aids, you can more easily monitor the condition of your illness.
Smart Thermometer Quickly Measures Temperature
Among your basic household equipment (especially if you have children) should be a smart thermometer that measures not only body temperature, but can also send the measured values to a smart phone application. This gives you a perfect and convenient overview of your child's condition. Some smart thermometers also offer an alarm function to remind seniors to take their medication. Women will appreciate an ovulatory thermometer with the possibility of linking with a menstrual calendar application for predicting fertile and infertile days.
A Smart Blood Pressure Monitor Can Transmit the Results to Your Doctor Immediately After Measurement
Do you have problems with your blood pressure? Smart blood pressure monitors will help you monitor your blood pressure. By linking the monitor to a mobile app, you will never have to remember your measurements, and your doctor will be able to diagnose from the real data.
Smart Glucometers Measure Quickly and Accurately
Diabetics speak very highly of smart glucometers, which feature a modern design with accurate and fast measurements. After linking your glucometer with the mobile application, you can immediately send the measurement results to your doctor and record the data in the diabetes journal. In addition, some glucometers help you keep track of insulin injections or other medications.
Measure Blood Oxygen Level With a Smart Oximeter
Asthmatics and people with breathing problems often use smart oximeters to measure their blood oxygen saturation and heart rate. A smart oximeter works non-invasively by simply placing it over your finger. It is also connectable to a mobile phone, where you can use the application to track daily and nighttime statistics.
