sure do you buy a pulse oximeter if someone has a reliable pulse oximeter at home and they know
how to adequately use it it can be beneficial for some people having normal oxygen levels can
be reassuring although there's no guarantee that someone won't have a fast decline with
their breathing status it is quite possible that someone has normal oxygen levels and can quickly
progress to very low oxygen levels sometimes that are life-threatening and there are so many factors
that come into play one is the quality of the pulse oximeter itself - how well the person is
using it three various factors that artificially raise or lower the reading of the pulse oximeter
and most importantly the different factors that have to do with the person such as what
underlying medical conditions they have or do they have sudden worsening of their illness do
they have new infection that's changing things so these are all factors that are gonna have to be
accounted for another factor to consider is what is their oxygen level at baseline I have plenty
of patients who are at home who have an oxygen saturation of 90% and that is their baseline
that's the best they can get some of them have lower oxygen levels than that and they require
supplemental home oxygen so if someone normally has a baseline Oh to saturation of 100% and
they're now reading at 93 percent that's much more concerning than someone who has a baseline
of 93 percent so that's another factor to consider but generally speaking when I'm on the phone with
one of my pulmonary patients and I'm trying to figure out if I should send them to an ER or an
urgent care center I want to know some more things because even if the oxygen level is accurate it's
not the only thing to consider besides what we already talked about it helps to know some more
information about that person such as do you feel short of breath how many breaths per minute are
you taking are you struggling to move air in and out of your lungs is there any cyanosis of the
fingers or the toes meaning are the toes or the fingers do they have this bluish purplish hue
to them are there any other concerning symptoms such as chest pain light headedness dizziness or
if you're thinking about Covid is there any fever or body aches or call or loss of taste or loss of
smell when someone with Covid 19 does have symptoms the most common symptoms are gonna be fever cough
and shortness of breath although shortness of breath is a subjective feeling that alone can
be enough to seek medical attention most but not all people with Kovach pneumonia have shortness of
breath most but not all people who have low oxygen levels have shortness of breath but there are some
people with Covid 19 who don't necessarily feel short of breath display having Kovan pneumonia
and display having low oxygen levels does that mean you should run out and buy a pulse oximeter
maybe before you decide on whether or not you're likely to possibly benefit from a pulse oximeter
let's understand some things about them a pulse oximeter is a device that measures the saturation
of oxygen in a person's red blood cells for most people who are healthy the oxygen saturation is
a hundred percent that's the highest number that anyone could possibly get there is no 110 percent
here most devices will clip onto your finger they work by measuring the amount of light transmitted
or reflected through the skin at two different wavelengths and then they use mathematical
algorithms to estimate the level of oxygen saturation in the blood smartphone apps they
don't generate as accurate readings because the camera can't measure the light reflection at two
wavelengths so the oxygen saturation readings that are obtained through an app on a smartphone are
not accurate enough to depend on for clinical use there's actually been a study done on that that
showed that these are not reliable so even though pulse oximeters aren't perfect there's still much
more accurate compared to the smartphone apps pulse oximeters are always used in hospitals
and are sometimes used at home for people who have underlying health conditions especially for lung
conditions like COPD emphysema now a lot of people want to know what a pulse oximeter be a good early
indicator of Covid 19 infection it's unlikely because low oxygen levels are a relatively late
indicator of a person with Covid 19 pneumonia so unless someone is feeling ill or feeling short
of breath the pulse oximeter could be helpful in that situation in other words for most people if
they feel fine the chances of them have low oxygen levels is highly unlikely so when it comes to the
Covid 19 pandemic the purpose of the pulse oximeter for most people is best served when someone is
feeling ill and they're deciding on whether or not they should go to the hospital here's the other
kicker let's say someone doesn't have any lung or heart conditions and they feel totally fine
and they check their oxygen level and it reads 94% which is considered low for most people does that
mean they have covid pneumonia probably not well then doctor why is it so low well it could be that
you have an undiagnosed heart or lung condition but that's highly unlikely what's more likely is
that it's a falsely low reading for example there are about seven reasons why someone could have a
falsely low reading on that pulse oximeter such as nail polish artificial nails nails that are
too long that affect the placement of the pulse oximeter on the finger cold hands poor circulation
having high lipids in the blood and last but not least the lighting in your environment can
actually impact the light that's being used by the pulse oximeter and that can cause falsely
low readings so all these things that I just mentioned they can give you a falsely low number
and what we don't want is people unnecessarily seeking medical attention because health care
workers in certain regions are already overwhelmed during this pandemic so there's really only three
scenarios in which having a pulse oximeter might be useful okay scenario number one you
already have or have recently have had low oxygen levels either due to an underlying heart or lung
condition or possibly a recent infections such as pneumonia okay scenario number two you have
symptoms that are concerning for covid especially like fever cough body aches but especially if you
have shortness of breath scenario number three you already have tested positive for Covid 19 and
you're recovering at home so if you don't fall into one of these three categories it's highly
unlikely that you're gonna benefit from having a pulse oximeter but if you do buy one also know
that some are better than others there are tons of companies that make them and they all have
their own algorithms to calculate that number and some give more accurate readings than others so
I'll put some links below to the better ones me personally I don't have a pulse oximeter
and I don't really feel the need to get one you might argue that I fall into one of those three
categories which is kind of questionable I do have exercise induced asthma so basically I only get
asthma when I work out when the cold weather so other than that my asthma is very well controlled
now when I do get asthma when I'm exercising in the cold weather that does trigger my asthma to
the point where it's causing inflammation within the Airways of my lungs and also in our Airways
or around our Airways we have smooth muscle and that's what muscle constricts and that's due to
whatever is triggering the asthma so when that constriction occurs that's called bronchospasm
so with asthma there's not only bronchospasm but there's also inflammation within the lungs
and it's the inflammation that don't that not only makes people more prone to getting infections but
also it's the inflammation that could make the asthma worse when you do get infection
so people with uncontrolled asthma that's who I would put into one of those categories but also
realize that asthma is not a condition of low oxygen asthma is a condition like I mentioned
you have the bronchospasm and inflammation but that in itself is not what's causing low oxygen
levels people with asthma don't get low oxygen levels unless they're on the brink of requiring
a breathing tube meeting a ventilator so it's only for the people who have an asthma attack
where it's so severe that they have to go and get a breathing tube in the hospital at
that point that's when they can start to have low oxygen levels but even then when they do require
breathing tube they don't always have low oxygen levels so a pulse oximeter for asthma by itself
is not going to do you any good the way that we monitor asthma patients in the out setting in the
outpatient setting is actually by more subjective so how are they feeling are they feeling short of
breath are they having wheezing are they able to move air in and out either subjectively or
by measuring it with a peak flow monitor so that's how we measure asthma in the outpatient
setting not with a pulse oximeter there are other medical conditions that we want people to have a
pulse oximeter at home for example people with advanced COPD / emphasis people with pulmonary
hypertension that's advanced so these are the more common scenarios where we want someone to
have a pulse oximeter at home but again to get it just for Covid unless you have one of these
underlying conditions or unless you have symptoms of Covid or your concern that you tested positive
for Covid and there's that concern that you're getting worse so unless you're in one of those
three categories you're not really gonna benefit from a pulse oximeter with that said hey you want
to drop the 50 bucks it's not gonna hurt by any means we just don't want people to unnecessarily
seek medical attention that's all well thanks for watching this video I know I have an upcoming
video that's gonna be posted tomorrow it's gonna be on blood clots and why there's so many blood
clots going on with covid my goodness so many things going on I'll catch you in the next one
proper use of the inhaler is to shake it up and then act like you're taking a big puff
kind of hold it really you know five 10 seconds
total lung capacity medication gets in there it feels good