Samsung saw me plans to help us age better (one galaxy watch at a time)

Samsung I’m pushing Galaxy Watch Beyond daily health and fitness tracking, we enter the realm of preventive care with personalized wellness coaching and new blood analysis capabilities aimed at helping people dodge illnesses and support healthier aging. We spoke with Dr. Hongpark, Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Health, Samsung, to get a closer look at what’s coming to Galaxy Watch and how we can change our way of thinking about wearables.

“There’s disease, there are cancer, there are many other conditions that can actually be prevented,” Pak told CNET. “We know these actions are important, but in our busy lives it is often difficult to maintain them. At Samsung, it’s about meeting people where they are and supporting those healthy behaviors in meaningful ways.”

The new tool will debut alongside the upcoming Galaxy Watch in July and will include non-invasive blood tests that measure antioxidant levels (or carotenoids), cardiovascular health ratings, personalized sleep coaching, and AI-capable performance ratings with live feedback.

“What we really think we can do is bring this data with data on sleep, nutrition, activity and stress and really contextualize it for our users,” Pack said.

Samsung aims to evolve the Galaxy Watch from passive tracking devices to aggressive health monitors when the number of smartwatches and wearables consumers can choose is dizzy. The goal is to help people control their health and track their health over time. The company, which has more than 68 million people worldwide participating in Samsung Health, hopes to bridge the gap between a quick snapshot of data collected in doctors’ offices and ongoing health data. Wearable It will help you draw a more complete picture of your health.

Antioxidant detection, no needle required

Beta-carotene is just one example of many naturally occurring carotenoids or antioxidants found in vegetables such as carrots and sweet potatoes that help neutralize toxins (free radicals) in the body. According to the National Institutes of Health. These toxins are usually caused by stress, diet, smoking and aging, but they accumulate over time and can contribute to serious health problems such as cancer, heart disease, and premature aging. Currently, one of the most common ways to detect carotenoid levels is to use lab tests by taking blood.

With a new feature called the Antioxidant Index, the next Galaxy Watch will allow you to instantly measure carotenoid levels in your skin without needles or lab work. Instead, place your thumb on the back of the watch sensor for a few seconds.

“This is a non-invasive way to see how your diet and lifestyle are affecting your antioxidant levels,” Pack said. “We use LED light sensors that measure four different wavelengths to detect beta-carotene in the skin. We then validated the measurements (from the Galaxy Watch) against blood levels.”

On the Galaxy Watch, people receive scores ranging from “low” to “appropriate” with general guidance on habits to improve antioxidant levels. In the long run, Samsung is working on more targeted, AI-driven recommendations related to specific recipes, supplements and nutritional plans.

“If your level is low, we might suggest lush greenery or sweet potatoes,” Puck said. “Ultimately, we want to tie this to personalized recommendations through nutrition coaching and recipe suggestions.”

running

Samsung is debuting a 12-minute run test to help Galaxy Watch owners establish their baseline fitness level, from beginners (level 1) to marathon-ready (level 10). Once the evaluation is complete, the watch will generate a personalized training plan to help you achieve specific distance goals, such as a 10k or half marathon.

You can also get real-time encouragement from the AI ​​coach on the watch to help you push through the run, just like Apple’s newest one Training Buddy Features In Apple Watch. Samsung AI coaches will provide verbal guidance like “Push a Bush a Harder” and “Easy” to adapt future training plans based on performance. As users progress, they unlock new training challenges and make the program dynamic and goal-driven.

It also helps to bring training into context by showing how it already affects other health indicators on the watch, such as the Vo2 Max, a key indicator of overall fitness. Ultimately, these health indicators can be used not only as distance targets to map training plans, but also as training targets.

“It’s going to be something that people want to do because they’re clearly targeting more athletes,” Puck said. “That’s the upcoming teaser.”

sleep

Sleep is another core puzzle piece in Samsung’s overall approach to preventive care and a key indicator of overall health, Pak said. Deprivation of sleep is associated with serious long-term risks such as dementia, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.

“Many of the physical repairs occur physically and mentally during sleep,” he said.

A new feature called Bedtime Guidance is based on Galaxy Watch’s existing sleep tracking tools, such as sleep stage analysis and sleep apnea detection, by providing personalized recommendations for optimal sleep and wake-time. It starts with a 3-day analysis of your sleep habits and determines your unique circadian rhythm and sleep pressure (also known as sleep debt). From there, this watch offers tailored advice that will help you improve metrics such as total sleep duration and energy score based on your own sleep data.

Bedtime Guidance recommends personalized sleep and wake windows rather than simply sending general reminders for 8 hours of sleep. The goal is to help you recover from poor sleep and irregular nights and improve your daytime arousal. So, for example, if you get jet lag, this feature can (in theory) help you reduce your sleep debt and return your sleep schedule faster.

The Galaxy Watch takes a more subtle approach to coaching, taking into account the actual inputs collected by watches, Galaxy phones and other Samsung devices when available. For example, lowering the thermostat or darkening the room may suggest that you can improve your sleep environment.

“There are some wise people connected to Samsung, so you can control the environment, such as automatically closing the environment, humidity, temperature, lighting, and even blinds. There are medical features like sleep detection. After just a few nights, you might be able to detect signs of sleep apnea and suggest seeking medical care,” Pack said.

Vascular loads can strain the heart

Another new metric is vascular load, which reflects cumulative stress in the heart and vascular system during sleep. Emphasises that ideally should decrease overnight. According to Pak, the Galaxy Watch uses pulse wave analysis and optical sensors to track arterial stiffness and overall cardiovascular strain trends. These measurements are translated to low to advanced scales and help us understand how behaviors (such as sodium and alcohol intake) contribute to the risk of long-term heart disease.

“Something like lack of sleep, bad diet, chronic stress can increase the burden on your blood vessels,” Pack said. “This is one way of trying to make these connections look in a meaningful and measurable way.”

Who gets these features and how much does it cost?

The new features will be available through the beta programme on the latest Galaxy Watch series starting this month (currently limited to US and South Korean customers with Galaxy Watch 5 and later). Vascular load and antioxidant index have been introduced as LABS functions. In other words, it is thought to be experimental before the official release and can be used for early previews.

All of these features are expected to make their official debut on the next Galaxy Watch. This is scheduled to arrive in July. The availability of each particular feature depends primarily on whether there is an advanced LED sensor needed to power the Galaxy Watch. For example, vascular load and antioxidant index are Galaxy Watch Ultra After that, you will need a Galaxy Watch 7 or later for running coaching features.

Pricing is still in the air too. During the interview, the company said it was exploring a premium subscription model similar to Fitbit Premium or Garmin’s new Connect Plus, which requires a monthly subscription to unlock advanced coaching features. Ideally, the features are included free on new watches, but older models have access to the back of the paywall. We will update this article as soon as Samsung shares model eligibility and pricing details.

Samsung’s future health plan

Optical-based glucose measurements may not be too far away, Pak proposed. As Samsung continues to investigate non-invasive medical testing, it is clear that the company sees wearables as growing roles as daily health tracking and preventive care. Samsung’s goal is to make clinical-level insights accessible at home and turn wearable data into actionable guidance before the problem gets worse.

“We believe wellness is not just something,” Pack said. “It combines activity, nutrition, mental health and sleep.”

Whether it all works as intended (and whether people actually stick to it) depends on Samsung’s execution. But one thing is clear. Samsung plays seriously to turn his wrists into the heart of true health.