If you’re at all interested in wellbeing and health, you’ve probably been exposed to social media influencers promoting various ways you can track aspects of your health. Whether it’s an app to track your sleep; a ring or watch to track your heart rate, temperature, movement and more; a diet diary or a fitness tracker, we live in an information age when it comes to health.
So-called ‘biohackers’ are measuring every possible aspect of their bodies with the aim of cheating death (or at least gaining a few more years). And there’s a ton of marketers with products to sell, all aimed at helping us monitor and track our health. So, what’s worth monitoring and what’s too much information? Are there trackers that are health-enhancing tools? And what aspects of our health should we be keeping an eye on?
Why track?
“Some people are fascinated by data,” says dietitian Kate Ellison, who’s aware some of us are glued to our health tracking devices. “They absolutely love to know what’s going on 24-7.”
The question she and other health experts ask is how we’re interpreting all that data.
“I think probably in some cases it feels a little bit arbitrary,” Kate notes.
