Summary

  • Oura’s smart rings offer innovative health features like Cardiovascular Age and Cardio Capacity.
  • These features provide valuable insights into arterial stiffness, pulse wave velocity, and oxygen supply.
  • Upgrading the Oura App unlocks potentially life-saving health insights for current ring owners.



When we hear the word “wearables,” most of us think of a smartwatch or a fitness tracker. However, there is a new kind of wearable that you might have rarely heard of, but it’s gaining more traction in the market. Smart rings, unlike smartwatches, offer health features but in a more compact and discreet form. Samsung Galaxy Ring and Oura Ring Generation 3 are currently the best smart rings you can buy.


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While smart rings may not yet match the comprehensive health features of smartwatches, manufacturers are constantly innovating. For instance, Oura has recently introduced two potentially life-saving features to its smart rings, demonstrating its commitment to enhancing user health and safety.


Oura smart rings now have two life-saving features for cardiovascular patients

The first of these new features is the Cardiovascular Age. This tool, as the name suggests, helps Oura customers understand their estimated cardiovascular age in relation to their actual age. By analyzing age-related observations within a photoplethysmograph (PPG) signal, the Cardiovascular Age feature provides valuable insights into arterial stiffness and pulse wave velocity (PWV).



A gold smart ring sitting on a charger.

Once users collect 14 days of data within the Oura App, they can finally see their estimated cardiovascular age and determine if they are trending below, above, or in alignment with their chronological age. With this data, users can check how their vascular system performs relative to their age and make informed decisions about their health and fitness.

The next feature to land on Oura rings is Cardio Capacity. This feature evaluates the body’s ability to supply oxygen to muscles during exercise, providing users with insights into how their cardiovascular and respiratory systems perform.

To enable the Cardio Capacity on Oura rings, users must first take a walk to set the baseline VO2 Max. Then, the ring can monitor the Cardio Capacity every time a user walks or runs. Higher cardio capacity is usually seen as a positive sign while checking the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.


The Cardiovascular Age and Cardio Capacity feature will start rolling out to Oura users in late May. If you’re already an Oura ring owner, updating your app to the latest version is all it takes to unlock these powerful health insights. It’s a simple step that can make a big difference in your understanding of your health.