Health technology is a remarkable thing. Thanks to technologies such as vaccines and antibiotics, you’re likely to live longer than your great-grandparents did – and thanks to the technologies of the future, your great-grandchildren are likely to live longer than you will. Within the next several generations, technologies that haven’t been discovered yet may finally rid us of scourges like cancer and heart disease.
This article, however, isn’t about the big things that may revolutionize healthcare over the coming generations; it’s about the little things that are affecting your health in a positive way right now. Today, there are products you can buy that can improve your health outlook by helping you eat better, exercise more effectively, monitor your health and even eliminate long-term vices. These are the technologies that are revolutionizing health in 2021.
Wearable Health Monitors
Wearable health trackers have been around for a while, but it’s taken time for the technology to improve to the point where it is today. With the first-generation health monitors, about the most that you could expect a device to do was monitor your heart rate and track the number of steps that you took each day. Although those features were certainly useful for helping people live active lifestyles, they didn’t do much in terms of alerting people if they were experiencing potential health emergencies.
Today, though, wearable health monitors have reached an entirely new level of usefulness – and by the end of 2021, they’re expected to become even more useful. Already, a wearable health monitor such as the Apple Watch can record an ECG of your heart rhythm in real time, alert you if something is abnormal and send the recording to medical staff with your permission. If your health monitor detects that you’ve fallen, it’ll ask if you need help and contact emergency services if required. Your health monitor can even monitor your blood-oxygen levels and alert you if it seems like you might be ill.
What does the future hold for devices like the Apple Watch? The sensors on the bottom of the watch are going to get better, and they’re going to do more. Very soon, your health monitor will be able to track your blood sugar levels and alert you to any problems. It’ll be a life-changing development for diabetics who are tired of continually pricking their fingers.
Vaping
In terms of helping people eliminate a virtually unshakeable vice, it’s hard to find a more transformative technology than vaping. Vaping products from companies like vapejuice.com have enabled millions of smokers around the world to stop smoking and rid themselves of an addiction that many consider virtually impossible to quit. Vaping replaces tobacco smoke with a vaporized nicotine-infused liquid that the user inhales, thus allowing nicotine absorption through the lungs.
So, why is it that vaping has succeeded where other forms of nicotine replacement have failed? The main difference between vaping and other nicotine replacement technologies is that it’s simply more satisfying. Nicotine gum and patches, for example, do deliver ample amounts of nicotine to the blood. Because those products are absorbed through the mouth or skin, though, the rate of absorption is slow. It takes time for the nicotine to build up in the bloodstream, and any amount of waiting is really too long when you have a craving that you need to deal with immediately. Inhaling vape juice, on the other hand, produces satisfaction just as quickly as smoking a cigarette.
The other reason why vaping has been so successful in helping people quit compared to traditional smoking cessation methods is because, unlike those products, e-cigarettes are actually pleasurable to use. Vaping isn’t just something that allows you to absorb nicotine through your lungs rather than your mouth or skin; it’s also a technology that combines nicotine with an endless assortment of flavors. Vape juices use various combinations of food-grade flavorings to achieve their flavor profiles, and an e-liquid can taste like almost anything imaginable. A cigarette, in comparison, can only ever taste like a cigarette.
Internet-Connected Exercise Systems
Exercise equipment for the home is nothing new. People have been purchasing weight benches, stationary bikes and more for decades with the hope of getting fitter at home and sparing themselves the potential embarrassment of going to the gym. Until recently, though, the problem with home exercise equipment was that many of the people who purchased the products had trouble motivating themselves to use them. After a few days or weeks of rapid improvement, people would plateau and lose interest. Eventually, the equipment would end up gathering dust in the basement.
Internet-connected exercise systems from companies like Peloton have changed home fitness by helping people stay motivated to continue using the machines. When you use an Internet-connected exercise system, you’ve got a fitness monitor tracking your progress and a digital display that’s constantly downloading new videos for you to watch while you work out. Some makers of exercise equipment even give you the ability to connect with a personal trainer who can monitor your progress, provide advice and help you maintain motivation.
Plant-Based Meat
Even if you’re a committed carnivore, you can’t deny the fact that Americans as a whole eat more meat than they should. Fatty cuts of meat are terrible for heart health, and the factory farming of animals also harms the environment. The creation of greenhouse gasses by cattle is one problem, and another problem with meat production is that it’s simply inefficient; we grow enormous fields of grain, but we don’t use the grain to feed people – we use it to feed cattle. The output doesn’t match the input.
With those things being said, one of the problems with plant-based protein is that, until recently, some people simply didn’t enjoy eating it. If you wanted a plant-based alternative to a burger, for instance, you basically had two choices: a salty soy puck or a mushy black bean burger. These days, though, companies are taking plant-based meat technology to entirely new levels with the addition of compounds like heme, which gives a plant-based burger a realistic “bloody” color and satisfies the desire for savory flavor. It’s easier than ever to go meatless some – or all – of the time, and that’s a good choice for your health and the health of the planet.
