Nurse Practitioner Says Oura Ring 'Knew She Had Cancer' Before She Was Diagnosed After Change in Metrics

Brenton Blanchet

March 8, 2025 at 3:00 AM

A nurse practitioner on TikTok is crediting her Oura Ring with encouraging her to take a sickness "more seriously" -- before she was diagnosed with cancer.

Nikki Gooding of Virginia shared a now-viral clip to TikTok on Wednesday, March 5, claiming that her Oura Ring -- which provides insight and metrics on sleep, fitness and stress -- "knew I had cancer before I did."

In the green-screen footage, which has since surpassed 150,000 likes on the platform, Gooding opened by noting that she "religiously" wears her device. But she recently began to notice how some of the metrics it was tracking looked drastically different than they usually would.

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While returning from a trip "super fatigued" with "night sweats," the TikTok user said she "knew something was wrong" with her body, but couldn't figure out what it was.

That's where she said her Oura Ring came into play.

"Every day, my Oura Ring, on my app, would look like this," Gooding said, pointing to a symptom radar alert on the fitness app alerting her to "major signs" of something "straining" her body.

Gooding's "readiness score" -- which estimates how prepared users are for their respective days -- was also considerably low consistently in the 30s and 40s, she added. Per the company's website, those numbers indicate someone is in need of "recovery and rest."

"Take extra care and rest if you're feeling low on energy," her alert read.

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Gooding's body temperature was also "elevated," per her Oura Ring, which offers such data and gives users a chance to track their cycles. "But it's nice because it can also give you a heads up of when you're getting sick," Gooding said, before detailing the difference in her body temperature before and after she started having symptoms. As she explained, it "spiked as high as 2.7 above my baseline."

"Both your body temperature and resting heart rate are elevated. How are you feeling," the app would ask. "To help regain balance, give yourself time to recover today."

Ultimately, the nurse practitioner revealed she was grateful for the device. "If I didn't have the Oura Ring, I'm sure I would've figured it out eventually, but having this information laid out in front of me definitely made me take it more seriously," she said.

"Because if you're a nurse, you know, we're not running to the doctor for any little thing," Gooding added. "If you needed a sign to get an Oura Ring, this is it."

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While her Oura Ring encouraged Gooding to be proactive -- for what appeared to turn out to be lymphoma, according to the TikTok users hashtags -- its "power" lies in "supporting proactive health awareness rather than reactive care," according to Shyamal Patel, senior vice president of science at Oura.

"Oura Ring is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, monitor, or prevent medical conditions or illnesses," Patel said in a statement provided to PEOPLE. "Instead, our technology aims to complement the healthcare system by helping users better understand their bodies and have more productive conversations with medical professionals."

The device -- which may display "variations" in "heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate, skin temperature, blood oxygen levels and sleep patterns" upon stress and illness -- has even led to other users with different conditions noticing changes in metrics.

Paralympian Hunter Woodhall, as Oura pointed out as an example in an email to PEOPLE, recently sought treatment for appendicitis following his use of Oura's Symptom Radar feature.

"Other conditions that may affect readings include sleep apnea, arrhythmia, heart conditions, blood circulation issues, and restless leg syndrome," Patel added.

"We always advise users not to make any changes to medication, nutrition, or exercise routines based solely on Oura data, and we encourage anyone who does notice concerning trends in their data to consult their healthcare provider."

Read the original article on People