When you visit a doctor for a check-up, what’s the first thing you are asked to do before the doctor even consults you? Your height, weight, blood pressure, and heart rate are recorded. In other words, healthcare providers make note of your vital signs as a preliminary form of inspection.
Vital signs (or vitals) are the essential functions of your body. They are a window into your well-being, offering an accurate glimpse of a healthy body. Vitals are necessary measurements that determine the stability of your health as well. Fluctuations in vital signs could indicate anything from infection to underlying health issues and lifestyle changes. This is where phr apps play an important role.
The Most Important Vital Signs You Need To Monitor
1. Body Temperature
Your body temperature can point out inconsistencies in your health. If it is high, you could be experiencing a viral fever or an infection caused by unhealed wounds. The optimal body temperature for healthy adults is between 97.8°F to 99°F (36.5°C to 37.2°C).
How to track it at home: Use a thermometer.
2. Heart Rate
The heart rate measures how many times your heart beats every minute. The normal heart rate for healthy adults is between 60-100 beats per minute. Measuring a person’s heart rate can help detect early signs of or underlying cardiovascular diseases.
How to track it at home: Use fitness trackers and wearables like an Apple Watch or FitBit. You can also set a timer for a minute and count the number of times your heart beats.
3. Blood Pressure
Blood pressure measures the force with which your heart pumps blood through the arteries. It notes how much force is used when your heart contracts and relaxes. Blood pressure is critical to understanding if a heart is healthy.
How to track it at home: Use a blood pressure monitor, fitness trackers, or wearables.
4. Respiratory Rate
Respiratory rate measures how many times you breathe per minute. This vital sign is calculated when resting and can flag respiratory illnesses. Adults’ respiratory rate varies between 12-20 breaths per minute. However, this could fluctuate if someone has allergies, fever or infection.
How to track it at home: Use fitness trackers and wearables or count the number of breaths you take in 15 seconds and multiply it by four.
5. Oxygen Saturation
Oxygen saturation refers to the amount of oxygen in your blood. Since oxygen is crucial for the functioning of your tissues and organs, an adequate amount is necessary for a healthy body. 95% – 100% is the normal oxygen saturation range for healthy adults. If it drops below 95%, you must seek immediate medical attention.
How to track it at home: Use fitness trackers and wearables or a pulse oximeter.
5 Benefits of Regularly Tracking Your Vital Signs
1. Get A Picture Of Your General Health
Since vital signs are vital for your health, keeping tabs regularly helps gauge your overall health. Maintaining a detailed and time-specific record of your vitals can support your healthcare provider in getting a basic understanding of your general health. In most cases, inconsistent vitals signal disruptions in your health. You can take the necessary precautions to protect your health by monitoring these signs regularly.
Also read– One for all: store your medical files in PHR Apps
2. Prevent Yourself From Getting Misdiagnosed
When experiencing a health problem, you don’t immediately check your vitals. So when you visit your doctor, you cannot give them a record of your vitals during your illness. Since more than one health condition can have the same or overlapping symptoms, the key to a correct diagnosis lies in the vital signs. Maintaining a thorough record of your vital signs can prevent misdiagnosis and undergoing the wrong medical treatments.
3. Catch Underlying Health Conditions
There are certain diseases with symptoms that go under the radar. Since they don’t outwardly disrupt your health, the health conditions causing these sneaky symptoms go unnoticed. However, when you track your vital signs regularly, you have a clear idea of the normal range of your vital signs. When you notice sudden spikes or dips, you can immediately seek medical attention and prevent the issue from snowballing into a larger one.
Also read–4 Reasons Why it’s essential to share medical records
4. Make The Necessary Lifestyle Changes
Vitals fluctuate depending on external conditions, such as chronic stress, changes in sleeping patterns, substance use, sedentary lifestyle, weight, and age. If you regularly track your vital signs, you can ascertain what normal means for your body. Hence, when you notice a change in your vitals directly from these conditions, you can take the necessary preventive measures to ensure you are making healthier choices. Doing so contributes to better health and early detection of health conditions.
5. Know If Prescribed Medications Are Working For You
Your medications might be working, but are they working for you? Since everyone’s body reacts differently to medicines, sometimes it may not offer the desired results. This could be seen in changes in your vitals as well. Therefore, regularly tracking your vital signs can help your healthcare providers determine if a particular medicine and its dosage have the desired effects.
Keep A Detailed Report Of Your Vitals With PHR Apps
PHR apps are online platforms where you can store all your health-related data. Whether that means doctor’s notes, prescriptions, imaging, lab results, and more, store everything you need with PHR apps. One lesser-known function of PHR apps is streamlining your vital data.
The Ayama PHR app collates and maintains a daily and detailed record of your vital functions, helping you monitor your health. With user-friendly navigation and secure systems, Ayama is the best PHR app to track your vitals regularly.
Download now.
