Sweat Based Health Tracker That Is Better Than Anything Known

When Fitbit first came into the market I was wowed. I told myself that was cool. I could track all sorts of things about my health and performance. Along with Fitbit came a host of other gadgets that can help you understand your health status. But they all lacked one quality – they could not replace diagnostic tests required by medical doctors.

 

Now, there is a product that can. It is a sweat-based flexible electronic sensing thread that can be sewn into clothing to analyze all sorts of biomarkers and give accurate diagnosis. The threads come equipped with special sensors for collecting sweat while you are walking, running, working, or even watching TV. It then has electronic components that are wirelessly connected to a smartphone for real-time data acquisition and processing. These patches are just great.

They were developed by engineers at Tufts University who saw a need in the market. Present biomarkers could only track heart rate, temperature, glucose levels, walking distance and take only gross measurements. They could not do the real work of replacing laboratory diagnosis required often by doctors when analyzing your health status. So, the engineers decided to concentrate on something that could replace blood diagnosis. They decided on sweat.

Sweat is holistic. If you can detect and track sweat you could detect and track electrolytes in the sweat, like sodium, chloride, and ammonium ions, along with other biomarkers that could be detected for a more accurate analysis while doing it at your comfort. These patches are more accurate than present trackers. They are more indicative of the human health status and could be used for athletic performance measurement, workplace safety, clinical diagnosis, and even managing chronic health conditions.

For example, take the ability to detect sodium in sweat. With these threads on clothing, one could detect when he or she is hydrated or if there was electrolytic imbalance in the body in a matter of seconds. Lactate sensitivity is built into the threads and it can be used to indicate muscle fatigue for athletes or those who do strenuous activities. Cortisol, which is a stress hormone, could be detected in sweat and it can be used to assess emotional stress as well as metabolic and immune functions. The whole range of uses of these threads when sewn into clothing are immense. Their benefits are beyond recount. Even athletes could use the patches sewn into their clothing to monitor their physical exertion and aid them in predicting performance peaks or decline during competition.

The engineers came up with a unique ability to integrate these patches into clothing using flexible threads that were coated with conductor links and these threads are different for detecting different biomarkers that are present in sweat. The threads are then connected to a miniature circuit module linked to microprocessors with wireless capability for real-time communication with a smartphone.

When the engineers were asked why they chose sweat they said it is not only convenient to collect when clothing is on, it is easily accessible, can be collected non-invasively, and it correlates with the samples that could be derived from blood. I think I would love to invest in the company that would make this product commercially viable. It would replace many diagnostic techniques that we have today because sweat is a good surrogate for diagnostic fluid such as blood samples.

During tests it was discovered that the markers were accurate to about 5 to 30 seconds, enough for the real time needs of the average health conscious individual.

This is surely an innovative twist to helping those who are health conscious and individuals with chronic health problems; not to mention athletes who need to monitor all sorts of biological markers for performance enhancement. The engineers solved a problem.

You can read the full report at the Tufts website.