Over 47% of Americans say they are concerned with the amount of stress in their lives. With a stat like this, one might assume that our culture is among the most stressed in the world. Many of us would like to believe we are managing our stress levels well. But did you know that events we experience throughout the day can contribute to our stress levels without us even knowing? Considering that long-term exposure to stress can result in hypertension, anxiety, depression, and obesity, it is crucial that we keep our stress to a minimum. VivaLNK, a provider of healthcare devices, believes they can assist in managing stress levels through a device they call the Vital Scout.
Want to track your stress in real-time? Get 10% off the Vital Scout with code VivaBold at checkout.
What is the Vital Scout?
The Vital Scout works similarly to your average heart rate and fitness watch. However, instead of wearing the device on your wrist, it is a wearable patch that attaches to your chest where it can be worn for up to 3 days on a single charge. (No strap around your chest—hallelujah!) From there, the device will monitor your stress and stress recovery levels, your heart and respiratory rates, fitness activities and even your vitals when you sleep.
This information is all recorded through a form of electrocardiography, measuring your body’s Heart Rate Variability (HRV) or the time variation between your heartbeat intervals. A higher HRV means that your body is recovering from stress whereas a low HRV is a result of increased stress levels. The device records all this information and displays it on a readable graph that can be viewed on the vital scout application on your mobile device. After the 3-day period, you should have enough information to accurately determine your average stress intake on a typical day.
How the Vital Scout Helps With Managing Stress Levels
While we all experience some level of stress every day, we are often unable to identify the symptoms or the events that are triggering it. The Vital Scout records our levels of stress throughout the day and identifies exactly when our stress levels are spiking. This allows us to determine when we’re stressed and how much stress we are experiencing.
The device also documents when you are most relaxed during the day, allowing you to determine which activities calm you. Not only does this help identify calming practices, but it may also help in discovering activities you never knew calmed you down. That is, you may discover that some activities you thought were calming may be adding to your stress or vice versa. The Vital Scout can also identify how your daily stress intake affects your sleep. You can compare your levels of stress in your sleep to the levels of stress you experienced throughout the day and determine if your daily activities are affecting your sleeping habits. The Vital Scout will not reduce your stress on its own. However, it does give you the tools to help you identify which activities cause stress and which activities calm you down.
While we all experience some level of stress every day, it can be difficult to determine which activities stress us out the most. And given that prolonged exposure to high-intensity stress can lead to severe negative consequences in our health, managing stress has never been more important. The Vital scout, however, allows us to easily manage our stress by letting us know when our stress levels are at the highest throughout the day.
Want to track your stress in real-time? The Vital Scout is currently available for purchase and retails for $149.00. PBL readers get 10% off with code VivaBold at checkout.
