Feb 10, 2021 06:00:00

A wearable device that accurately measures stress levels from sweat is under development

Previous studies have shown that when the human body feels stress, it secretes a hormone, cortisol . And new devices are under development to measure stress levels by measuring the amount of cortisol secreted with sweat.

Extended gate field-effect-transistor for sensing cortisol stress hormone | Communications Materials
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43246-020-00114-x

Feeling Burned Out? Scientists Can Now Tell by Monitoring Your Sweat

https://www.sciencealert.com/feeling-stressed-your-sweat-is-giving-you-away-and-there-s-now-a-device-that-can-measure-it

Cortisol, a type of corticosteroid, is known to be secreted into the blood along with adrenaline when the human body is stressed. In addition, it has been clarified that when the cortisol concentration in the blood becomes chronically high, damage to the heart and skin appears, and it has been pointed out that there is a risk of continuous excessive stress.

Increased cortisol due to chronic stress reduces memory and thinking ability and even causes brain contraction --GIGAZINE

Cortisol can be detected not only in blood but also in 'saliva', 'sweat' and 'urine'.

Focusing on this, a research team led by Professor Adrian Mihai Ionescu of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne is developing a device that detects cortisol contained in sweat and measures stress when worn on the body.

According to the research team, the concentration of cortisol contained in the secretions is 0.14 to 0.69 μmol / L 30 minutes after waking up, and changes to 0.083 to 0.36 μmol / L at night, periodically throughout the day. It will change. However, when stress is felt, the concentration of cortisol increases rapidly.

The device developed by the research team is a

graphene ' Extended–gate field effect transistor (EG-FET) ' that can measure the concentration of cortisol in the range of 1 nmol / L to 10 μmol / L in 0.2 nmol / L increments. thing. As a result, the research team claims that it covers a range of cortisol levels that change throughout the day and can measure cortisol levels throughout the day.

“With a reliable and wearable stress measurement device, Ionescu can objectively determine if depression or burnout is occurring, and we have quantitative data. This will be useful for doctors' diagnosis and treatment, 'he said, highlighting the benefits of the device under development.

At the time of writing the article, the research team is planning to test the device under development.