Accelerometers and Implants to Measure Blood Biochemistry

As an exercise physiologist, there are things you can measure and analyze.

For starters, there’s height, weight, body fat and lean body mass.

For metrics, there’s the good old fashion stop watch and tape measure.  And high speed film analysis.  If you don’t own a HD HQ video camera, they have gone down dramatically in prices.

But how about measuring other aspects of human performance?  Stuff like power output, force, velocity?

Or intrinsically, how about measuring blood lactate (IF that is the determining factor on why muscles slow down after 40 seconds!)

I won’t get into specifics but the Steve Austin 6 Million Dollar Man era is here now.  Dr. Marco Cardinale has a great article on Implantable electronics and possible application in sports science.  It’s quite spooky and not for the faint of heart.

Tufts University biomedical engineer Dr. Fiorenzo Omenetto is using silk as the basis for implantable optical and electronic devices capable of measuring vital signs and blood biochemistry in real time in a continuous manner.

This implantable electronics are based on silk which is a biodegradable material and it is capable of carrying light like optical glass. Silk can also serve as a mechanical support for arrays of electrically active devices, allowing them to be placed on biological tissues without causing irritation.

Depending on how it’s processed, silk can be made to break down inside the body almost instantly or to persist for years. And it can be used to store enzymes for a long time.

While I think it’s great to study the human body, I feel the research should go towards real time applications for medical science and find a cure for cancer or any other disease that destroys the quality of life.