A wearing health tracker hailed as England’s Euros ‘secret weapon’ could help predict if you have diabetes, a new study has found.
Researchers found sleep monitoring data measured by the Oura Ring — unique among trackers as it is a ring worn on the finger — could also detect illnesses like flu or Covid.
Fans of the fashionable Finnish tech already include Gwyneth Paltrow, Cristiano Ronaldo and even Prince Harry.
The scientists, who tracked the sleep patterns of more than 30,000 Americans, identified five main types of sleep, which they dubbed sleep phenotypes.
They discovered how often someone switches between phenotypes could help predict health conditions.
Prince Harry made a buzz around the Oura ring in 2018 when he was snapped wearing the titanium jewellery during a trip to Australia. The Duke of Sussex sported the black band on his right ring finger on the first three days of outings in Australia alongside Meghan Markle
The Oura Ring has become an addition to England’s armoury as they compete in the European Championships. Several players have also used the ring while training. Pictured, Marc Guehi wearing the Finnish tech
Professor Benjamin Smarr, study co-author and expert in data science at the University of California San Diego: ‘We found that little changes in sleep quality helped us identify health risks.’
The Oura ring, launched back in 2013 by Oura Health, a Finnish technology company, comes with a hefty price tag, starting at £299 and costing up to £549.
The company claims the ring is the first wearable designed to paint a truly holistic picture of your health.
On social media, users obsess over their sleep and stress scores and confess to making dramatic lifestyle changes, like cutting out alcohol or overhauling how they sleep, for better results.
Wellness guru Gwyneth Paltrow, 51, has shared snaps of herself wearing the ring on multiple occasions
Inside the ring, there are three sensors: tiny infrared lights that measure heart and breathing rate, while an accelerometer tracks movement and a body temperature monitor spots fevers and forecasts women’s menstrual cycles.
While an Apple Watch, Garmin or Fitbit record much of the same data, Oura insists being a ring sets it apart.
The location — the index finger is recommended — means it captures signals directly from the heart to provide better data than can be gathered on the wrist, it claims.
Under the study, the scientists tracked data from more than five million nights of sleep by 33,152 participants and logged how often they switched between phenotypes.
They found they could detect up to 10 times more information of those suffering a fever than without the ring.
Kim Kardashian, 43, previously shared a snap of her Oura ring biometrics to her Instagram story, and later challenged the brand to a sleep quality competition
This stood at three times and five times more information with flu and Covid respectively.
The device also provided twice as much information on sleep apnoea and diabetes.
Writing in the journal, npj Digital Medicine, the researchers said: ‘Diabetic and sleep apnea individuals are more likely to stay in insomnia-like sleep clusters.
‘There are significant differences in distribution between the months prior to and the weeks around Covid, flu, and fever diagnoses.’
Professor Edward Wang, study co-author and expert in mobile health sensing at the University of California San Diego, added: ‘We found that the little differences in how sleep disruptions occur can tell us a lot.
The Oura ring, launched back in 2013 by Oura Health, a Finnish technology company, c omes with a hefty price tag, starting at £299 and costing up to £549. The company claims the ring is the first wearable designed to paint a truly holistic picture of your health
‘Even if these instances are rare, their frequency is also telling.
‘So it’s not just whether you sleep well or not — it’s the patterns of sleep over time where the key info hides.’
The researchers, however, acknowledged the study had ‘several limitations’, including only involving those who already owned an expensive Oura Ring.
Results were also based on participants self-reporting their ring data, meaning ‘some “healthy” periods may have contained unreported conditions.
Source: Mail Online
