A Personal Review by Jessica Woodward
I’ve had the Oura ring for about a year now. I wear it everyday throughout the day and nighttime. The Oura ring tracks heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), nightly basal temperature, sleep stages, activity, menstrual cycles and many other metrics. It retails for $300 and requires a $5.99/month app subscription.
For general overall health metrics, the Oura Ring provides a wealth of useful data in addition to giving a daily “readiness” score based on those metrics. The daily readiness score, given from 0-100, breaks down into three main categories: optimal, good and pay attention. The ring also scores your sleep and activity level.
I’ve had the Oura ring for about a year now. I wear it everyday throughout the day and nighttime. The Oura ring tracks heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), nightly basal temperature, sleep stages, activity, menstrual cycles and many other metrics. It retails for $300 and requires a $5.99/month app subscription.
For general overall health metrics, the Oura Ring provides a wealth of useful data in addition to giving a daily “readiness” score based on those metrics. The daily readiness score, given from 0-100, breaks down into three main categories: optimal, good and pay attention. The ring also scores your sleep and activity level.
Interestingly, I’ve had many days with an optimal score and good metrics while being in a flare and feeling like utter crap. It reminded me of the many blood tests coming back normal, despite having daily diarrhea for hours on end, until I was finally diagnosed with microscopic colitis via colonoscopy. I’ve also had good sleep scores while feeling completely exhausted and fatigued.
While I think the Oura ring can be helpful for some health metrics, such as tracking heart rate and basal temperature, I do not think that the ring provides any useful information for microscopic colitis. I had hoped that my metrics would reflect inflammation levels as well as how I felt, but I didn’t find the two to correlate. So far, in my 12 years of having this disease, the best method to track the ebb and flow of microscopic colitis has been though journaling, utilizing both an old fashion journal as well as apps such as Happy Poop and mySymptoms.
While I think the Oura ring can be helpful for some health metrics, such as tracking heart rate and basal temperature, I do not think that the ring provides any useful information for microscopic colitis. I had hoped that my metrics would reflect inflammation levels as well as how I felt, but I didn’t find the two to correlate. So far, in my 12 years of having this disease, the best method to track the ebb and flow of microscopic colitis has been though journaling, utilizing both an old fashion journal as well as apps such as Happy Poop and mySymptoms.
