Stay ahead of your health, as Oura brings new tools for stress and blood pressure

The Oura Ring 4 on the Oura Ring Gen 3.

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What you need to know

• Oura is dropping an update for its Preventive Health features, beginning with Cumulative Stress, to help users understand how chronic stress is affecting them.
• A Blood Pressure Profile study is kicking off soon in Oura Labs, aiming to help identify risks and signs of hypertension.
• The Oura app is updating its UI and overviews, while Cycle Insights expands its window for broader understanding.

Helping users stay on top of their health is a major catalyst behind two major updates arriving for the Oura app today (Oct 20).

In a press release, Oura states that its newest updates rolling out for its app today are a part of its Preventive Health capabilities. It teases that the two main features were developed using "peer-reviewed studies and continuous algorithm refinements." Seeing as Oura is interested in offering Preventive Health assistance daily, the new features begin with "Cumulative Stress."

Oura states the purpose of this new feature is for users to understand how stress affects their bodies. More specifically, Cumulative Stress will monitor and inform users on how their bodies "respond to chronic stress over time." If left untamed, long-term stress can lead to severe problems, such as fatigue, burnout, and even illness, according to Oura's research.

(Image credit: Oura)

Cumulative Stress will also break down where stress is affecting them. In the new "Stress Management" screen rolling out with this feature, users can see how their chronic stress is affecting their sleep, heart stress-response, temperature regulation, and more.

Cumulative Stress will arrive globally in "the coming weeks" on Android and iOS.

A Study on the Blood Pressure Profile

(Image credit: Oura)

This next feature is more of a test, as Oura states it is currently "engaged with the FDA and developing new blood pressure features aligned with our shared view of safe and effective innovation." Oura Members participating in this new Blood Pressure Profile Study in Oura Labs will more deeply understand their heart health. The press release details that users can receive alerts if the system detects they're at risk of hypertension.

This "reading" is a mixture of your Oura Ring data, short questionnaire answers about family history, medication, and lifestyle habits. You'll see an alert about your hypertension risk after answering these questions, which Oura states could fall within any of the following ranges: No signs, Moderate, or Major.

The Blood Pressure Profile will continue to monitor your body for any changes. Oura adds that this feature "passively" works in the background to detect potential signs of hypertension to educate users about their heart health. If something is there, or something doesn't sit right with you, book an appointment with your doctor. It mentions that, in conjunction with the FDA and following approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), Oura aims to detect "early signs" before they become serious.

This Blood Pressure Profile Study will arrive in Oura Labs for Members in the U.S. "in the coming months."

Cycle Insights & in-app UI updates

(Image credit: Oura)

Oura is rounding out its two major Preventive Health capability updates with an in-app UI overhaul.

This rework regards the Oura app's Today screen first. The new Today tab will work to better inform users about their well-being before engaging in daily activities and decisions. Oura says the highlight for this new tab is the "One Big Thing," an overview that brings relevant scores, insights, and Discoveries to the surface. Next, the My Health tab has been updated to provide a "clearer view" of their long-term health.

A new Habits and Routines section is said to "connect daily behaviors to measurable health metrics." Then, there's the Vitals tab, which is an at-a-glance view of your personal core health pillars: sleep, stress, and cardiovascular trends. Users can take a walk through their personal changes, seeing how they've (hopefully) improved in these core areas over the past few days, weeks, months, or even years.

This UI update isn't only for the app's tabs, but also for Cycle Insights. This feature is now expanded from one-month insights to a 12-month window about a woman's period and fertile window predictions. This feature is for Oura Members, just as a side note.

Oura states, "instead of waiting 60 nights, Oura Members will now receive personalized cycle phase and prediction data from a single night of sleep data."

The Oura app redesign and the updates to Cycle Insights are rolling out globally to users "in the coming weeks" on Android and iOS.