Why It’s Important to Track Stress
A big topic of discussion in today’s climate is about stress. And before we can discuss the ways to measure and track stress, we must know why we should do so. Firstly, It’s important to understand that stress is not entirely negative. There is good stress, and bad stress. Stress isn’t only caused due to outside factors such as work or school either. Exercising can cause your body stress, or become stressed as a way to stay alert (again not always a bad thing!).
Monitoring your stress levels throughout the week and help you identify the bad stress from the good stress, and allow you to develop healthy stress management behaviours. This helps you deal with and anticipate high negative stress levels and will allow you to better prepare yourself and cope in stressful situations, especially when caused by outside factors.
Heart Rate, HRV, and Oxygen Saturation’s Connection to Stress
There are multiple ways our body responds to stress. And these can be measured to give us useful information and better help us manage stress levels when needed. Your heart rate variability (HRV) is the variation in the length of time between each heartbeat. HRV can be used to measure how stressed you are. The lower the variability and more stressed you may be, causing things like fatigue and dehydration. Similarly oxygen saturation indicates the amount of oxygen traveling through your body with your red blood cells. Oxygen levels can be used to determine stress because the body’s response to stress can often be faster, more shallow breathing. Knowing these signs is important so that you can participate in activities and exercises to reduce your stress levels.
How to Measure These Stats
There are many ways to determine your level of stress and the stats mentioned above. You can visit a pharmacy or a doctor to get these levels tested, or even purchase your own medical devices such as heart rate monitors, oximeters, and blood pressure machines. New technology has paved the way for fitness watches and trackers, devices such as the apple watch and fitbit, to track these measures as well.
The problem with the above methods is that they can often be time consuming or costly. Not everyone has the means to afford costly medical devices or new tech. Going to a pharmacy can take time and may not always be an option for everyone. veyetals, a wellness app developed by MarkiTech (Markitech.AI ™), in collaboration with Queen’s University Computer, Vision and AI Lab, uses a real-time health monitoring system to measure thse biomarkers and more. Within 90-95% accuracy levels using your smartphone’s camera. veyetals is easy to access, use, and track information on, making healthcare more accessible to at-risk populations without the need for costly medical devices.
About Us
Our cloud based, lightweight API allows veyetals to be integrated with the healthcare apps and platforms that matter to you most. The app is interoperable with other healthcare management systems including, but not limited to, SenSights.AI. veyetals drives information sharing with other health management solutions and further enhances the continuum of patient care.
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Credits: Integris Health, Psychology Today
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