Withings Body Cardio smart scale gets Vascular Age metric
Withings has announced a new cardiovascular index. Vascular Age for the Body Cardio scale provides you with an easy-to-understand assessment of arterial health.
The Body Cardio is the most advanced smart scale on the market today. It looks great, plus you get a host of data some of which is to do with your heart health. One of these metrics is called Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV).
This is info that cannot be found on any other smart scale. It measures arterial stiffness by calculating the time it takes for the pressure wave generated by the heart to travel along the arterial tree and reach your feet. The resulting value can be useful in assessing your risk of having or developing hypertension. Faster speeds indicate stiffer arteries.
In my review of the scale I found that this works well. In my several weeks of use, the readings fluctuated between 5.5 and 5.9, which means that for my age I was “optimal”.
Vascular Age
The new Vascular Age metric builds on this to provide users an even easier way of understanding their heart health. It does this by taking the PWV readings and comparing them to people your age and physical characteristics.
Withings has a huge database of user info to tap into – the company has acquired an incredible 80 million PWV readings in its user database since the metric was introduced back in 2016.
 | Withings Body Cardio |  |
Previously you only got an assessment whether your PWV was in the optimal, normal or sub-optimal range. What’s more, this wasn’t available in all countries due to regulatory constraints.
The new algorithms provide you with a Vascular Age. This can be at, below or above your chronological age. Basically, the metric lets you know the age of your heart so you can make healthy lifestyle choices to improve it – a way of understanding how old you are on the inside.
Your Vascular Age will also be shown on a quarterly and annual chart. This shows whether you are in the optimal, normal or sub-optimal range. The first group includes the top 10% of Withings users your age and physical characteristics. The second indicates that you are in the same range as 80% of Withings users, the third is for the lowest 10%. These would do well to make some better lifestyle choice such as eating healthier foods, avoiding stress and smoking.
Essential reading: Best fitness trackers and health gadgets
Withings adds that their users are more health conscious as compared to the general population. So if you are in the lowest 10% that doesn’t mean you are in the lowest 10% of the general population.
A short assessment of your heart health is available below the Trend information.
All existing and future owners of the Body Cardio scale will get the update. The progressive rollout starts today and will make its way to everyone during the next two weeks. Unlike PWV, Vascular age is available in all countries, including the US (check price on Amazon).
Like this article? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and never miss out!
