Whether you’re a professional athlete or a health enthusiast, keeping track of your body’s biosignals can tell you plenty about the efficiency of your training or the condition of your body. We’ve put great effort into developing Aidlab, our 24/7 health monitor, to help you achieve better results and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Follow Your Heart
That heart is number one on this list is not a coincidence. Following your heart rate (HR) is crucial when you want to improve your performance and work out in tune with your body. That’s why while working on the device, we consulted athletes and health professionals to help us develop as accurate heart rate monitor as was technologically possible.
Let’s now take a look at how you can improve your training by measuring your HR.
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Maximum Heart Rate. First, you should calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR). To do this, subtract your age from 220. The result is only a raw estimate of your MHR, which can vary between 10 to 20 beats per minute (BPM) in either direction.
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Resting Heart Rate. Now that you know your MHR, you should determine your resting heart rate (RHR). To do this, check your heart rate for a few days in the morning before you get out of bed. Your RHR should fall somewhere between 60 and 100 beats per minute (BPM). If you’re consistently noting increased or lowered RHR, it can be an indication of an ailment. Keep in mind, however, that if you’re an active person who exercises a lot, your RHR can be lower than 60 and it’s not a reason to worry. Some professional athletes have RHR of 50 or less.
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Working Out with Your Heart Rate. In general, it’s advised to work out within 55 to 85 percent of your MHR during aerobic exercises. But if you’re into more professional training sessions, you can calculate your training heart rate zones here. Exercising in different HR zones helps you achieve different training goals. NOTE: Reading your heart rate at every stage of your daily routines (in the morning, before, during, and after exercise) gives you valuable insight as to your physical condition.
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What Irregularities in Your Heart Rate Can Mean for Your Health? Checking your heart rate often can help you diagnose the onset of various ailments. Using Aidlab for daily heart monitoring increases you chances to find a problem before it does serious damage to your health.
Thyroid issues — thyroid-related conditions are a plague these days. Both elevated and lowered heart rate can indicate hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism respectively.
Hydration — higher heart rate and arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat) can be linked to dehydration. Low levels of electrolytes in your blood stream impact your cardiac function. Remembering to replenish enough fluids is especially important if you work out a lot.
Chronic stress — elevated RHR can indicate that you’re under constant stress. Don’t ignore this symptom as chronic stress causes inflammation and can result in many other dangerous ailments.
Measure Your Respiration Rate
A healthy person breathes between 12 to 16 times a minute during periods of rest. Such frequency guarantees that your body receives enough oxygen to function properly. During exercise, you can take from 35 to even 70 breaths a minute (endurance athletes).
If your resting respiratory rate is elevated or lowered, it can indicate an underlying health problem, for example, lung disease, drug overdose, asthma, or pneumonia.
You can try to measure your respiration rate yourself. While it’s relatively easy to do it during resting periods (still, counting in your head can alter your breathing), it can be a daunting task during exercise or while you’re working. We’ve designed Aidlab so that it collects your body’s respiration rate during every activity you perform, drawing an accurate picture of your breathing patterns.
Keep Your Stress Under Control
Just like you resting heart rate, an elevated resting respiratory rate can also mean that you’re suffering from chronic stress.
Chronic stress or severe anxiety can sometimes lead to a dangerous condition called hyperventilation. When you hyperventilate, you breathe too fast for your body to properly distribute oxygen around your muscles and tissues, causing you to feel dizzy and nauseated. Aidlab will notice any abnormalities in your breathing pattern and tell you to calm down if things start getting out of hand.
Check Your Skin Temperature
Although you often can tell when you’re running a fever, sometimes the numbers of things on your daily schedule can make you forget about the signs of warning your body is giving you. Taking regular measurements of your body temperature can help you stay healthy and catch an illness before it develops into something severe.
Normal human body temperature for an adult person should fall into a 97.8 degrees Fahrenheit (36.6°C) and 99.1°F (37.3°C) range. If you’re experiencing readings above or below that range, it can mean an illness or infection you should get checked by a healthcare professional. But before you go to a doctor, make sure that nothing is interfering with your body temperature. Hot and cold beverages, exercises, ambient temperature, will all tamper with your readings.
Diagnosing Your Thyroid with a Thermometer
Taking your temperature in mid-afternoon can help you diagnose hypothyroidism. If your temperature at that time of the day is below 98°F (36.6°C), don’t ignore it and check for other symptoms of hypothyroidism just to make sure. Aidlab collects your temperature daily at different times of the day, allowing you to target that symptom of hypothyroidism fast.
Monitor Your Sleep
Sleep is lauded as one of the three crucial elements of a healthy lifestyle, the other two being diet and exercise. Ensuring healthy sleeping routines is important for your body to properly regenerate after exercise; it will also help you stay energized and focused. Following your sleeping routine closely can help you find and fix adverse elements that interfere with your sleep.
What to Measure?
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How many hours a night do you sleep?
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How long does it take you to fall asleep?
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How does your body behave when you sleep?
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Which stages of sleep prevail in your sleeping cycle?
Answering each of these questions can tell you if there’s anything wrong with your sleeping pattern. For example, if it takes you a lot of time to fall asleep each night, it might mean that you need changes in your sleeping hygiene. Similarly, if you sleep for less than six hours a night, you run a greater risk of suffering from an injury.
Thanks to built-in accelerometer, heart and respiration rate monitor, our device recognizes when you go to sleep automatically. After you wake up, you can analyze your night on your mobile phone or computer, and find any abnormalities in your sleeping routine.
Daily checks of your vitals can help you maintain a healthy lifestyle and let you see any signs of various illnesses before they develop into something severe. Working out in tune with your body will also help you increase performance for your training sessions ahead. We know how important biosignals are and what can be the consequences of their ignorance. We’ve created Aidlab to do exactly what its name says — aid you in your everyday life.
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