What if you could see if you overtrained or did an effective altitude workout with one device? Check if you have “silent hypoxia”? Even more, how your lungs are working if you suffer from COPD. Well, you can. How? The best pulse oximeters for home use will monitor your blood oxygen and pulse rate and provide you with the readings you need to understand how your body is doing.

A Digital Oximeter Helps You Monitor Training Recovery And Altitude Acclimatization

Whether you’re using a finger clip oximeter for tracking recovery or altitude workouts, this simple gadget can provide precious insight. Its ultra-clear OLED display gives a snapshot of how well you process oxygen. This is a key factor both in overtraining or training at altitude.

How a Pulse Oximeter Helps You Monitor Recovery

When you use a pulse oximeter rating of oxygen saturation alongside usual exercise metrics, you can track how well you’re recovering from exercise.

Let’s take a look at an athlete who’s not feeling good enough to train. Moreover, our athlete didn’t sleep well for the last couple of days. However, this isn’t enough to validate him skipping a workout. Yet, if he checks out his oxygen saturation and sees it's below normal, he will have a strong case to avoid workouts and focus on rest.

So, rather than continuing his exercise program as planned, our athlete can focus on proper rest and recovery for the next couple of days. Once they spot that their oxygen saturation levels are back to normal, they can continue with the program.

Digital Pulse Oximeter Helps You Monitor Altitude Acclimatization

At higher altitudes, the air is thinner and has less oxygen. This means your body has a harder time supplying oxygen to your tissues and muscles. For instance, at 10,000 feet there’s only 15% of oxygen in the air. Compare this to sea level where there is 21% of oxygen in the air.

If you haven’t lived and trained at a higher altitude, this change in oxygen levels produces different physiological adaptations. Some of them benefit your training whether you’re racing at sea level or high altitude.

But with a pulse oximeter, you can take this to the next level. Here’s how:

  1. In the first 3-5 days, you’ll spot lower oxygen saturation and elevated pulse rate.
  2. This is your body balancing lowered oxygen in the air by sending it faster through blood.
  3. As you stay at altitude, your oxygen saturation level will stay the same.
  4. But your pulse rate and training capacity will normalize.

The sweet spot for oxygen saturation is 88-92%. This provides the most advantageous altitude adaptation without producing too much fatigue.

A Home Pulse Oximeter Helps You Monitor Lung Disease And “Silent Hypoxia”

A pulse oximeter is a great tool to manage COPD — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A study from 2017 on COPD showed digital oximeters are highly efficient in forecasting when COPD symptoms suddenly become worse.

Moreover, this device shows if you have low levels of oxygen. The so-called “silent hypoxia”. This is when COVID-19 patients exhibit a likely dangerous level of blood oxygen, without actually experiencing breathing issues.

If you don’t have a pulse oximeter at home, you’ll never know this. Even worse, you can get used to feeling like this, even though your oxygen levels are low. By the time you reach a hospital, your blood oxygen could get very low, possibly leading to advanced Covid-19 pneumonia.

If your blood oxygen fell this low suddenly, you would be unconscious, or otherwise, feel its impact. However, when hypoxia happens for several days, you won’t feel it. Hence the name “silent hypoxia”.

A Digital Fingertip Pulse Oximeter May Ease Your Anxiety

If there’s one thing the Covid pandemic taught us, it’s that stocking up on essentials is not a bad thing. The plethysmography pulse oximeter can be one of those essentials. Especially if you have lung conditions or have a higher risk of contracting Covid-19. Basically, this gadget lets you prepare for any eventuality.

There’s medicine, and there’s anxiety. We’re scared. Buying an oximeter lowers your fears, since it:

  1. Helps know when to seek medical care if oxygen saturation is low.
  2. Lowers anxiety if you’re diagnosed with Covid-19.

It’s simple. You can monitor your oxygen levels at home. If they get low, you’ll know you should call a doctor.

What People Often Ask About Finger Pulse Oximeters

Doctor helping patient to put on pulse oximeter device for checking oxygen saturation.

What is a Fingertip Pulse Oximeter?

It is a small digital device that looks like a big pin for clothes. Once you place your finger inside it, in a couple of seconds it will show your heart rate and blood oxygen levels.

  1. For most healthy people blood oxygen levels are around 95-98%.
  2. If you have health conditions you may have lower readings.

A digital oximeter shows your heart rate as well. The usual heart rate at resting for adults is 60-100 BPM or beats per minute. However, if you’re an athlete with improved cardiovascular fitness you’ll get a lower number.

What is a Normal Reading on a Pulse Oximeter?

Healthy, normal blood oxygen levels are between 95-98% for most healthy people. Anything below warrants a visit to a physician unless you have lung conditions or are training at a high altitude.

That’s why it’s good to measure your baseline levels with a physician first. Once you got them, you can easily spot a change and act accordingly.

Are Digital Pulse Oximeters Accurate?

Most pulse oximeters provide an accurate reading with a ±2% margin of error if your oxygen saturation is 70-90%. Regarding BPM, they’re more accurate. You’ll see your BPM with only ±1 margin of error.

However, you may get an inaccurate reading if your fingernails have artificial nails, nail polish, or are just dirty. The same is true for cold hands. Moreover, a study discovered the results aren’t as accurate for 1 out of 10 Black patients.

Does it Matter what Finger I Use for a Digital Fingertip Pulse Oximeter?

Most experts agree you should use your index finger. However, research done on 37 individuals showed the best pulse oximeter rating comes from the 3rd finger on your dominant side. The close second belongs to your dominant thumb.

A Single Solution to Monitor Everything from Overtraining to Hypoxia

The best digital pulse oximeter helps with different training and medical issues. It’s especially useful for tracking “silent hypoxia”, overtraining, altitude training, and exacerbations in lung conditions. This is because all of these conditions are followed by changes in blood oxygen, which is primarily what this device tracks.

So, if you don’t want to overtrain, train better at altitude, or simply know when it’s time to visit your doctor, buying a pulse monitor is a nice addon.