The Apple Watch 6 can measure blood oxygen saturation, but what does that mean, and how do you do it?
The Apple Watch has evolved to become a smartwatch that isn’t just another screen to keep an eye on for your steady stream of notifications or to hit the skip button on your gym playlist without having to reach for your phone. It’s also emerged as a place you can turn to if you care about keeping a closer eye on your health and being somewhere that can do a pretty admirable job of tracking your fitness too. If you opt for the newest Apple Watch Series 6, then you’ll get the best that Apple has to offer in wrist smarts. That includes its new blood oxygen sensor, which might not be a new innovation for wearables, but is the first time Apple has offered the ability to take blood oxygen measurements from one of its watches. So what’s the big deal about measuring blood oxygen levels? How do you do it on the Apple Watch and why would you want to do it? Here’s everything you need to know about the Blood Oxygen app on the Apple Watch and why you might want to start using it. Before getting into how and why Apple lets you measure it, let’s get into exactly what we mean by blood oxygen. In its simplest form, it refers to the amount of oxygen present in your red blood cells, which carry that oxygen all around the body. That oxygen is the body’s fuel and it’s vital for every function it performs to keep us alive. If the body is struggling to take in the appropriate amount of oxygen it needs, it may struggle to carry out those functions properly and that’s when you might experience low blood oxygen levels and issues that can be as a result of those lower levels. There’s a variety of causes for blood oxygen levels in the body to drop. Conditions like asthma, infections like pneumonia and respiratory viruses and illnesses like Covid-19 can impact on the body’s ability to get oxygen where it needs to be causing levels to fall. Being in high altitude environments where oxygen in the atmosphere becomes lower than normal is also another scenario where you can experience blood oxygen levels to drop. You may then experience symptoms like headaches, dizziness, confusion and shortness of breath. It’s rare for someone to experience blood oxygen levels that are too high and would be usually associated with someone who requires assisted oxygen support. Right now, Apple will let you take on the spot measurements and monitor blood oxygen levels during the day and while asleep. Apple says the data and measurements generated by its blood oxygen sensor are only designed for general fitness and wellness purposes. So for those hoping they can use it in a similar way to a dedicated pulse oximeter device to offer more serious health insights that could allude to some issues tied to low blood oxygen levels, that’s not the case with the Apple Watch. At least, not yet it isn’t. So what does Apple mean by ‘general fitness and wellness purposes’? Well, Apple doesn’t go into any detail about that really, so it’s very much open to interpretation. One of the ways it could be utilised is in the altitude scenario we mentioned, keeping tabs on your body’s levels when oxygen concentration in the atmosphere is lower to see how it’s responding to the conditions.
