The 10 Best Tools for Total Body Care
'Skin care' only used to include the skin from our neck up; for a long time, we neglected our body in favor of our face. But that's quickly changing. Since 2022, data from Google Analytics and Meta shows a 1,025 percent increase in searches for 'body care,' according to a recent report from Cosmetics Design .
As body care has gotten more popular, so have body care devices. These tools range from health trackers to sauna blankets to yes, even humidifiers. For this year's Tools and Treatments Awards, 28 ELLE staff members gamely tested body care gadgets that ran the gamut. We had staffers wear an Oura ring 24/7 for over a month to learn its full capabilities. We asked them to put an air purifier in their living room and see how it affected their allergies. We even requested that they zap the hair on their legs with an at-home IPL device to see how it measured up to in-office hair removal.
Ahead, you'll find the 10 best-of-the-best body care devices on the market, with commentary from ELLE editors who tested each one. Skip Section
Best Sauna Blanket
Celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston swear by infrared saunas. They tout plenty of benefits, like increased circulation, muscle relief, stress alleviation, and more. This blanket allows you to enjoy all of the benefits of an infrared sauna from the comfort of your home. Our tester noted that the blanket was relaxing and even helped ease soreness following rigorous workouts. Set up was quick (though she recommends laying down a yoga mat and a towel inside for comfort), and the mat also folded up nicely for easy storage.
Best Electric Toothbrush
This toothbrush has over 10 different intensities, an LED touch bar for maximum control, and an easily swappable head—all designed to cradle each tooth and remove tough plaque buildup as it cleans. Our tester reported that it feels like a bespoke toothbrush, thanks to the various speed settings: 'I liked that I was able to choose how fast or slow I wanted the brush to be, and that, after 30 seconds, it alerts you with a vibration to ensure you brush each quadrant of your mouth equally for two minutes.'
Best Floss Alternative
Waterpik is the at-home version of the dentist's oral irrigator tool, using a small but powerful stream to floss between the teeth. Medical professionals love it, because it is effective enough to remove debris and plaque between teeth crevices. It is also so targeted that it can even be used with braces. Our tester liked the adjustable pressure and the ease of the Waterpik compared to flossing. On her most recent visit, her dentist even complimented her on the cleanliness of her teeth.
Best Health Tracking Tool
Compared to other wellness tech, Oura rings are actually sleek—they come in six different colors and are true to their name, looking like simple metal jewelry. Every day, the ring gives a 'sleep score' and a 'readiness score' based on factors like resting heart rate, heart rate variability, body temperature, respiratory rate, and how long you spent in three different types of sleep (REM sleep, deep sleep, and light sleep). It also tracks your activity, step count, and menstrual cycle, if you want it to. Our tester found that the Oura ring was easy to wear and helped her look at her overall health in a more holistic way. She said that the biggest benefit has been learning about what habits affect her readiness and sleep scores (for example, a big meal before dinner negatively impacts both) and making lifestyle changes accordingly.
Best Air Purifier
Sans Air Purifiers manage to pack an industrial-grade air purification system into an elegant vessel that's smaller than a carry-on suitcase. These purifiers use a combination of medical-grade HEPA 13 filtration (a filter that's able to capture 99.97 percent of airborne particles), activated charcoal, and an internal Ultraviolet-C Light (a wavelength that kills germs) to clean the air in your home and protect against pathogens. Even the brand's mini version can clean the air up to 490 square feet—perfect for New York City apartments or large rooms in a house. It's also whisper quiet, so it's easy to incorporate into any space. Our tester has severe allergies and frequently sneezes when outside. She found that this powerful purification system helped keep her allergies under control, and she stopped sneezing entirely in her apartment.
Best At-Home Hair Removal
If you're tired of making a trip for your laser hair removal treatments, this tool gives you professional results at home. It connects to an accompanying app to provide real-time expert guidance for at-home hair removal for light to medium-dark skin tones. This tool includes three interchangeable heads, including a wide model for the chest and back, a standard one for underarms and lower legs, and a slimmer model for the face and bikini areas. It also uses intense pulsed lasers and automatically adjusts the intensity of the laser based on your skin tone to help reduce any risk of burns or discoloration. You can also use the app to track your progress over time. Our tester reports that the app was easy to use, and though the treatment itself delivered a slight sting, the process was quick. After two weeks of use on fair skin, our tester reported a slight reduction of hair in treated areas and was optimistic about future results with continued use.
Best Humidifier
Did you know that humidifiers can benefit your skin by adding moisture to the air, which can boost hydration and strengthen the skin's barrier? With this 2.0 version, Canopy took its humidifier three steps further—it doesn't just produce moisture, it also functions as an aroma diffuser, a sound machine, and a night light. It even has smart sensors that inhibit mold growth.
Our tester's experience speaks for itself: 'I've used several humidifiers over the past few years, as my skin tends to be very dry in the winter, and I have chronic sinus issues and seasonal allergies. I've yet to find a humidifier that I liked as much as the Canopy. The special filter made upkeep easy and did not produce a wet mist. Every piece of this humidifier that touches water can go in the dishwasher, so it's extremely easy to keep clean. I have a humidity monitor in my room and found that this increased the humidity about 10 to 15 percent at the highest setting after about eight hours of use.'
Best Shower Filter
This shower head is almost like an at-home spa treatment. Its unique filter reduces and neutralizes chlorine, heavy metals, and calcium sulfite in your water to protect the natural oils in your hair and skin and prevent dryness. Each shower head also comes with aroma oils and a felt diffuser, so you can fill your bathroom with scents like rose and peony petals. Our tester notes that the shower head was easy to install and that the water stream felt luxurious and left their hair and skin feeling less dry than usual. He also noted that the scent tablets were a nice added bonus.
Best At-Home Gel Manicure
As our tester said, 'This tool takes the at-home nail extension manicure to the next level.' With a gel adhesive and an LED lamp, this system helps you achieve long, vampy nails that can last up to 14 days. Our tester loved that the larger version of the LED lamp didn't take up too much space in the bathroom, yet could also accommodate multiple fingers to make the curing process more efficient. 'It's really easy to use, and even has a light beam that tells you exactly where to place your hands.'
Best Body Sculpting Tool
This device combines red light therapy with microcurrent technology to create a sculpting effect on your body that you can really see. The Body Sculptor has 14 dual-chip LED lights, so it can emit both red and near infrared light to improve blood flow, boost collagen, and even out your skin tone. Four levels of microcurrent strength help promote lymphatic drainage, muscle stimulation, and fascia release, too. Paired together, these technologies help tighten, tone, and support recovery. Our tester found that the tool was easy to use, despite all of the different functionalities. After testing it consistently for a week, she said it helped her de-puff when she felt bloated and made her muscles look more defined every time.
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Time Magazine
2 days ago
- Time Magazine
How Oura Keeps Pushing Smart Ring Tech Forward
On a Monday morning in late April, Oura CEO Tom Hale was feeling well-rested despite having stayed up later than usual the night before to catch the latest episode of The Last of Us . Clicking through data logged by his smart ring, he ticked off stats he was pleased with. Hale had gotten close to eight hours of sleep ('pretty rare' for him these days), including nearly 90 minutes of deep sleep. His 'efficiency'—how much time in bed he was actually sleeping—was 91 out of 100. 'My timing was perfect,' he says. 'I didn't get up in the middle of the night, which is a very typical thing for me.' Hale's sleep stats are the very reason he decided he wanted to join Oura, the Finland-based company that pioneered the smart ring category. During a stressful period in the fall of 2021, he was having trouble sleeping. He bought an Oura Ring and then made a handful of behavior changes based on its feedback about his sleep habits, like no longer drinking alcohol to unwind in the evenings. Within six weeks, he experienced dramatic results. The fix 'made me want to be a part of the company,' he says. It just so happened that Oura was searching for a new CEO, and the company is now thriving under Hale's leadership. In December, Oura announced its member base and revenue more than doubled in 2024. It's now sold more than 2.5 million rings, including the Oura 4, which was released in October. That device introduced the company's 'smart sensing' technology, which tracks blood oxygen levels, heart and respiratory rates, skin temperature changes, and movement. TIME spoke to Hale about what he attributes the company's success to, how health data can spur action, and why Oura is prioritizing women's health. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. These days, the ring can collect data on more than 20 biometrics. Which are you most excited about? I'm trying to age gracefully, and the two things I'm concerned about are heart health and metabolic health. I hate to admit this, but I have a sweet tooth. So for me, the metabolic part is controlling my blood sugar. Right now, I'm wearing a continuous glucose monitor. As of May, our partnership with Dexcom supports integration of that data, which means it can flow between Dexcom devices and the Oura ring and app. What I don't like to see is an enormous blood-sugar spike. I've learned there are some foods that aren't what you might consider to be a sugar bomb, but still have that effect. Rice turned out to cause a huge spike. Just by dialing back rice in my diet or consuming smaller portions, I'm able to stay within my range. That's important, because I don't want to go into prediabetes. The partnership with [glucose monitor maker] Dexcom seems like a natural fit—two companies that value data. We met with the CEO of Dexcom, and when he and his staff walked into the room, they were all wearing Oura rings. I was like, 'Well, I'm wearing a Dexcom sensor right now.' That technology was developed for people with diabetes. We want to be part of the solution that keeps people from even getting to that stage. Part of that is understanding which foods are going to affect you in a very discreet way. The thing that's so powerful about this tool is that your glucose and your glycemic response and your insulin response are going to be different based on how rested you are, what activity you've done and when you did that activity. Your genetics and biome also play a role. So a big part of what we're trying to do is educate people. You've described the Oura Ring as a doctor in the pocket—a tool to help scale up preventive care. What exactly does that mean? Wearables are a tool—they're not the answer for everything. But they're a very powerful tool, both from the perspective of predicting things or giving you feedback, and educating you and motivating you to do the things that are hardest in preventive care—changing behaviors. For example, I stopped drinking alcohol [at night], and that was a behavioral change rooted in 30 years of my adult life. I changed it very quickly when I saw that alcohol ruined my REM sleep. We're not trying to be like doctors—but the fact of the matter is, there simply aren't enough in the U.S. With Oura, you have something on your body that's monitoring you and knows when you have a deviation from the norm. I would call it algorithmic care. There's a set of conditions in your biometrics, and we can say, 'Hey, you're getting sick, you're getting a cold, maybe you need to be checked out for something a little more serious. Maybe you should go talk to a doctor and share this data.' It's ultimately a tool that's part of your overall care. I've heard Oura staffers call what the company does 'giving your body a voice.' Is that a common phrase around the office? We say it all the time. What's really different about Oura is the fidelity of the information because of overnight tracking, as well as the accuracy of the finger [as a data collection site]. Getting it right builds trust. Lots of competitors are popping up, yet Oura's membership keeps growing. Do you attribute that to the trust you're describing? It's a couple things. If the Oura Ring says to you, 'Hey, it looks like you're getting sick,' you might go, 'Oh, I feel fine.' But two days later, when you're on the couch surrounded by Kleenex, you realize: 'It told me something I didn't already know.' That's the magic. The degree to which Oura can surprise you with something you don't know happens frequently and is, on balance, more often right than it is wrong. It's not always perfect, but it's pretty close. That gives us an edge. The other thing that's really important is that we nailed the use cases for women. How do you see women using the ring? Maybe in your late teens or early 20s, it's about knowing when you're going to have your cycle and planning for contraception. Then, as you enter your late 20s or 30s, maybe it's conception. A lot of Oura customers are trying to conceive. One of the things Oura does is it gives you a really good signal about your fertile window—which is actually our first U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved feature. Then there's pregnancy, a real focus for us this year. How do your biometrics change during pregnancy? What should you expect? Is this something maybe you need to talk to your OB-GYN about? But our vision is that we should be able to serve women and give their body a voice over pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause and menopause—that entire timeframe. Are there stories you've heard from Oura users that really stand out in your mind? So many. There was the grandfather who started to see his metrics decline. His grandkid was looking at it and said, 'Hey, grandpa, this doesn't look good. We should get you checked out.' It turns out he was on the brink of a myocardial infarction [heart attack]. There's a Paralympian who was visiting his parents at home. He's a sprinter, and he's like, 'You know, I'm not feeling great.' He's looking at his app and it's saying, 'Major signs, major signs, something is going on,' and he's like, 'No, I don't want to tell my parents because they'll put pressure on me to suck it up and keep competing.' It turns out he had appendicitis, and he basically credited Oura with helping him have the courage to say, 'I need to get this checked out. Something is going on.' Those kinds of stories aren't strictly speaking happy stories. But people get the opportunity to have agency in their health journey and to take action. That's really powerful. Disclosure: Investors in Oura include TIME owner and co-chair Marc Benioff
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
How (not) to track your health
You'd think I would have been more self-conscious about walking around New York City while wearing no fewer than six health trackers at a time. For the first six months of this year, I wore smart rings on both hands, fitness bands on both wrists, biosensors plugged into my arms, and sometimes even headphones that monitored my brain activity. I was a little embarrassed, sure, but mostly I was anxious. This health tracking ensemble was part of an experiment — a failed one, I'll admit. By tracking as many health metrics as possible, I thought I'd find a way to feel younger, more energetic, and more fit. Products like the Oura ring, the Whoop band, the Apple Watch, and a growing variety of continuous glucose monitors promise to track things like your heart rate, body temperature, and metabolic health metrics, while their companion apps crunch that data into actionable advice about how to live your life. If one health tracker is good for you, theoretically, half a dozen should be great. What I learned from obsessively tracking my health for half a year is that paying too much attention to what your body is doing can ruin your life. Or at least it can ruin your understanding of healthy living, since too much information can steer your brain toward assuming the worst. Looking at the readouts from these fitness tracking apps sent me down dark holes of Googling symptoms and self-diagnosing conditions that my doctor assured me I did not have. But, I reasoned, he did not have all of the data that the health tracker collected, so he could be wrong, and AI, which is increasingly embedded in this tech, is very good at diagnosing things. I wouldn't caution against any and all health tracking. Now that the experiment is over, I'm only ever wearing one health tracker at a time. I've gained a new appreciation for how technology could become an essential part of healthy living in the near future, if you do it right. I'm not saying I have all the answers, but there are some things I would recommend to tracker-curious readers. And there are some things I would avoid at all costs. Out of over a dozen gadgets tested, the one device that I added to my daily routine is an Oura ring that I only wear at night. (During the day, I wear an Apple Watch.) An Oura ring is a sensor-packed smart ring that measures a lot of the same things as a smartwatch, but is easier to wear while you sleep. The ring keeps track of your heart rate and movement to sense how well you sleep. Exactly how it does this is controversial with some sleep doctors, but it nonetheless generates a sleep score, which is oddly compelling. The first thing I do every morning, I'm almost embarrassed to say, is check my sleep score in the Oura app. If it's bad, I feel vindicated for feeling groggy. If it's good, I feel energized, even if I still feel groggy. The sleep score is a made-up metric, one that may or may not be correct based on how Oura's algorithms calculate various factors, but paying attention to the score was helpful for me. 'The way that we think about how we've slept can really make us feel better,' Thea Gallagher, a psychologist at NYU Langone Health, told me. 'If we think we've had a good night of sleep, we will actually feel better physically and mentally and emotionally.' Placebo effect notwithstanding, I'm also surprised by how much I listen to an app when it tells me to go to bed. Thanks to the Oura app, I've developed better sleeping habits, and frankly, I feel better. When I first got an Apple Watch, I liked the rings that track how much you move. Moving more seemed like an easy goal that would improve my health. But some trackers seem to collect data for the sake of collecting data, with no particular objective. Continuous glucose monitors, or CGMs, have been lifesavers for people with diabetes for years, but a growing list of companies sell them to non-diabetics over the counter. These biosensors stick a filament into your skin that measures the amount of glucose in your interstitial fluid, which can give you a good guess about what your blood glucose is at any given moment. If you don't know a lot about how metabolism works, the readouts can be horrifying. The first bowl of cereal I ate spiked my blood sugar outside of the normal range, which threw me into a panic — a panic that didn't entirely subside until I stopped wearing these sensors. Part of what fueled that anxiety was the fact that I didn't actually know how to make sense of the data that these monitors spit out. Most of them alert you when your glucose is spiking and then give you some kind of score, but it's not clear what a good score indicates other than that you've managed to eat fewer carbs, probably. The whole experience can feel like a high-tech diet. 'There's not a lot of time and effort spent on figuring out what is the actual question that I have that's really important to me and that I'm willing to go through some some effort and troubleshooting in order to come out the other side with a genuine discovery that I can use in my regular life,' said Gary Wolf, a tech journalist and founder of Quantified Self, a community of people who have been tracking their health metrics since the mid-2000s. Health tracking isn't confined to wearable devices. Some companies, like Viome, Function Health, and Ultrahuman, are getting into the labwork business. The idea is that you can pay for extra testing and get all the results back in an app that promises to help you understand the intricate details of your gut microbiome or metabolic health. Some assign you a biological age based on your test results, and all of them cost many hundreds of dollars. I did a battery of tests through Viome, including the gut microbiome test, which involved filling up little vials with poop and blood and dropping them at a post office. (Disclosure: Viome waived the fees for me.) The results seemed to tell me nothing that I didn't already reveal on the pre-test questionnaire, but I did have the opportunity to buy some very expensive supplements to address my problem areas. I don't recommend doing any of this. If you've ever seen someone wearing a band around their wrist with a little hunk of plastic where the watch face should be, you've seen a Whoop band. This fitness-forward health tracker works a lot like a smartwatch without a screen, but the app is geared toward gym rats. The app not only gives you a strain score that measures how hard you've worked out, it also encourages you to recover. It costs $30 a month to enjoy all the features. It's not just Whoop that wants you to keep paying. Oura also charges a subscription fee to unlock all of its features, but it's just $6. Apple has the Fitness+ subscription for $10, but that includes a bunch of classes, not unique features on the Watch. All of these little fees add up over time, so if you really just want basic functionality, skip the subscription. Without it, you can still see your sleep, readiness, and activity scores on an Oura ring. (That's all I look at anyway.) The Whoop band doesn't work at all if you don't pay. The best advice I got from the many experts I talked to throughout my health tracking journey was to take off the devices from time to time. The absolute flood of information about my health often made me uneasy, and it even led to some disordered behaviors, especially when it came to tracking my glucose levels and seeing my readings start veering away from normal levels. Still, I wondered if I shouldn't intervene somehow. 'Sometimes atypical results found by wearables can make people anxious, and it may be difficult to offer them definite reassurance for these results,' said Dr. David Klonoff, president of the Diabetes Technology Society. 'If traditional medicine cannot provide definite answers, then these people sometimes turn to natural or alternative medicine.' Some health tracking companies want to take your money every month to keep using their services. Some want to sell you the latest generation of their device. Some want to sell you supplements. They all want you to keep using the trackers and apps, even if they're not necessarily making you healthier. That's good to keep in mind. So check in with yourself when you're wearing a health tracker. Take it off, and leave it off for a while. Without a torrent of alerts telling you to stand, sleep, or eat, you may actually feel better. A version of this story was also published in the User Friendly newsletter. Sign up here so you don't miss the next one!
Vox
2 days ago
- Vox
How (not) to track your health
is a senior technology correspondent at Vox and author of the User Friendly newsletter. He's spent 15 years covering the intersection of technology, culture, and politics at places like The Atlantic, Gizmodo, and Vice. You'd think I would have been more self-conscious about walking around New York City while wearing no fewer than six health trackers at a time. For the first six months of this year, I wore smart rings on both hands, fitness bands on both wrists, biosensors plugged into my arms, and sometimes even headphones that monitored my brain activity. I was a little embarrassed, sure, but mostly I was anxious. This health tracking ensemble was part of an experiment — a failed one, I'll admit. By tracking as many health metrics as possible, I thought I'd find a way to feel younger, more energetic, and more fit. Products like the Oura ring, the Whoop band, the Apple Watch, and a growing variety of continuous glucose monitors promise to track things like your heart rate, body temperature, and metabolic health metrics, while their companion apps crunch that data into actionable advice about how to live your life. If one health tracker is good for you, theoretically, half a dozen should be great. What I learned from obsessively tracking my health for half a year is that paying too much attention to what your body is doing can ruin your life. Or at least it can ruin your understanding of healthy living, since too much information can steer your brain toward assuming the worst. Looking at the readouts from these fitness tracking apps sent me down dark holes of Googling symptoms and self-diagnosing conditions that my doctor assured me I did not have. But, I reasoned, he did not have all of the data that the health tracker collected, so he could be wrong, and AI, which is increasingly embedded in this tech, is very good at diagnosing things. I wouldn't caution against any and all health tracking. Now that the experiment is over, I'm only ever wearing one health tracker at a time. I've gained a new appreciation for how technology could become an essential part of healthy living in the near future, if you do it right. I'm not saying I have all the answers, but there are some things I would recommend to tracker-curious readers. And there are some things I would avoid at all costs. Today, Explained Understand the world with a daily explainer, plus the most compelling stories of the day. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Do wear a smart ring when you sleep Out of over a dozen gadgets tested, the one device that I added to my daily routine is an Oura ring that I only wear at night. (During the day, I wear an Apple Watch.) An Oura ring is a sensor-packed smart ring that measures a lot of the same things as a smartwatch, but is easier to wear while you sleep. The ring keeps track of your heart rate and movement to sense how well you sleep. Exactly how it does this is controversial with some sleep doctors, but it nonetheless generates a sleep score, which is oddly compelling. The first thing I do every morning, I'm almost embarrassed to say, is check my sleep score in the Oura app. If it's bad, I feel vindicated for feeling groggy. If it's good, I feel energized, even if I still feel groggy. The sleep score is a made-up metric, one that may or may not be correct based on how Oura's algorithms calculate various factors, but paying attention to the score was helpful for me. 'The way that we think about how we've slept can really make us feel better,' Thea Gallagher, a psychologist at NYU Langone Health, told me. 'If we think we've had a good night of sleep, we will actually feel better physically and mentally and emotionally.' Placebo effect notwithstanding, I'm also surprised by how much I listen to an app when it tells me to go to bed. Thanks to the Oura app, I've developed better sleeping habits, and frankly, I feel better. Do start out with a clear goal in mind When I first got an Apple Watch, I liked the rings that track how much you move. Moving more seemed like an easy goal that would improve my health. But some trackers seem to collect data for the sake of collecting data, with no particular objective. Continuous glucose monitors, or CGMs, have been lifesavers for people with diabetes for years, but a growing list of companies sell them to non-diabetics over the counter. These biosensors stick a filament into your skin that measures the amount of glucose in your interstitial fluid, which can give you a good guess about what your blood glucose is at any given moment. If you don't know a lot about how metabolism works, the readouts can be horrifying. The first bowl of cereal I ate spiked my blood sugar outside of the normal range, which threw me into a panic — a panic that didn't entirely subside until I stopped wearing these sensors. Part of what fueled that anxiety was the fact that I didn't actually know how to make sense of the data that these monitors spit out. Most of them alert you when your glucose is spiking and then give you some kind of score, but it's not clear what a good score indicates other than that you've managed to eat fewer carbs, probably. The whole experience can feel like a high-tech diet. 'There's not a lot of time and effort spent on figuring out what is the actual question that I have that's really important to me and that I'm willing to go through some some effort and troubleshooting in order to come out the other side with a genuine discovery that I can use in my regular life,' said Gary Wolf, a tech journalist and founder of Quantified Self, a community of people who have been tracking their health metrics since the mid-2000s. Don't send your poop or blood to anyone in the mail Health tracking isn't confined to wearable devices. Some companies, like Viome, Function Health, and Ultrahuman, are getting into the labwork business. The idea is that you can pay for extra testing and get all the results back in an app that promises to help you understand the intricate details of your gut microbiome or metabolic health. Some assign you a biological age based on your test results, and all of them cost many hundreds of dollars. I did a battery of tests through Viome, including the gut microbiome test, which involved filling up little vials with poop and blood and dropping them at a post office. (Disclosure: Viome waived the fees for me.) The results seemed to tell me nothing that I didn't already reveal on the pre-test questionnaire, but I did have the opportunity to buy some very expensive supplements to address my problem areas. I don't recommend doing any of this. Don't pay for a subscription unless the gadget really improves your life If you've ever seen someone wearing a band around their wrist with a little hunk of plastic where the watch face should be, you've seen a Whoop band. This fitness-forward health tracker works a lot like a smartwatch without a screen, but the app is geared toward gym rats. The app not only gives you a strain score that measures how hard you've worked out, it also encourages you to recover. It costs $30 a month to enjoy all the features. It's not just Whoop that wants you to keep paying. Oura also charges a subscription fee to unlock all of its features, but it's just $6. Apple has the Fitness+ subscription for $10, but that includes a bunch of classes, not unique features on the Watch. All of these little fees add up over time, so if you really just want basic functionality, skip the subscription. Without it, you can still see your sleep, readiness, and activity scores on an Oura ring. (That's all I look at anyway.) The Whoop band doesn't work at all if you don't pay. Do take breaks The best advice I got from the many experts I talked to throughout my health tracking journey was to take off the devices from time to time. The absolute flood of information about my health often made me uneasy, and it even led to some disordered behaviors, especially when it came to tracking my glucose levels and seeing my readings start veering away from normal levels. Still, I wondered if I shouldn't intervene somehow. 'Sometimes atypical results found by wearables can make people anxious, and it may be difficult to offer them definite reassurance for these results,' said Dr. David Klonoff, president of the Diabetes Technology Society. 'If traditional medicine cannot provide definite answers, then these people sometimes turn to natural or alternative medicine.' Some health tracking companies want to take your money every month to keep using their services. Some want to sell you the latest generation of their device. Some want to sell you supplements. They all want you to keep using the trackers and apps, even if they're not necessarily making you healthier. That's good to keep in mind. So check in with yourself when you're wearing a health tracker. Take it off, and leave it off for a while. Without a torrent of alerts telling you to stand, sleep, or eat, you may actually feel better.
