You surely know by now that
the Apple Watch has saved several lives thanks to health-related tools such as the heart rate sensor which alerts you when your ticker is running too fast or slow. The fall detection feature alerts emergency services and your emergency contacts when you’ve fallen and can’t get up, and the electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors the user for abnormal heart rhythms.
Those who purchased an Apple Watch Series 6, Series 7, Series 8, and Series 9 before January 18th, 2024, still have a pulse oximeter which measures the saturation of oxygen in a person ‘s blood. Because an International Trade Commission (ITC) judge
ruled that Apple infringed on a patent owned by Masimo related to the feature,
Apple Watch Series 9 and later models purchased on and after January 18th, 2024 can not have a working pulse oximeter.
This year, the
Apple Watch Series 10 has a sensor that is on the lookout for Sleep Apnea. This is a condition that leads the person who has it to repeatedly stop and start breathing while sleeping. This makes it difficult for the afflicted to get a peaceful night’s sleep and could lead to other health issues.
The Vitals app on watchOS 11 for the Apple Watch can give you a heads up that you’re about to fall ill. | Image credit-Reddit
Now, some Apple Watch users are alleging that the Vitals app available for the Apple Watch with the watchOS 11 update is giving them advanced notice when they are about to get sick Redditor “dalethomas81” said that the Vitals app showed that he had three nights of higher-than-normal wrist temperature overnight.
And sure enough, he eventually fell ill. Another Reddit subscriber, “RCG21,” wrote, “I started using Vitals when it first came out on the beta and since then I’ve gotten sick about twice. Both times it knew a couple days in advance and I hadn’t felt anything wrong. Kinda insane how useful this feature can be.”
The Vitals app takes a week of overnight use to compute a baseline range for the health metrics tracked on the watch. These metrics include heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen, and sleep duration. If more than one of these metrics is outside of the normal range you will receive a notification alerting you to these readings along with some factors that could be responsible such as medication, elevation changes, and illnesses. If none of your metrics are outside the range, that’s a good sign as it shows that the metrics being tracked are all within range.
Imagine having a two or three-day-heads-up before you get sick. This could help you prepare for an illness by buying the OTC meds (like Tylenol) and food (Chicken soup) that you need to return to health.
