Researchers Developed Biosensor for Measuring Athletes’ Exhaustion Level

Researchers from the UC San Diego developed a biosensor which can alert the athletes, marathoners, competitive bikers as well as extreme athletes when they are about to get exhausted. This biosensor should be applied to the human skin in order to receive alerts.

The device can also be useful for the soldiers as well as other people engaged in intense kinds of exercises. This biosensor could also be used to monitor the fitness as well as stamina of the athletes.

Researcher Joseph Wang as well as his colleagues from the UC San Diego explained sensor has the capability of monitoring lactate, which is a kind of lactic acid released in the sweat. Lactate is formed when the muscles require more energy than a human body can supply. In such a case, the human body shifts to anaerobic metabolism, thereby producing lactate as well as lactic acid.

The researchers explained that this can help for a little while, but eventually when the lactate starts building up in the body; it causes a lot of fatigue as well as bonking out and compels the athlete to stop exercise.

The team of Joseph Wang wanted to develop such an approach which is better than the present methods because measurement of lactate is very difficult and requires blood samples. Also, there is a disadvantage that it does not provide immediate results.

The researchers explained that the first human test of a biosensor for measuring lactate, when applied to skin was like a temporary tattoo. It sticks on the skin and flexes together with the body movements. Therefore, it is capable of measuring the lactate levels absolutely accurately during the sweat exercise.

The researchers, in the meanwhile, also explained that the skin-worn metabolite biosensors could also be useful in providing insights into the physical performance as well as the complete physiological status of a person, thereby offering a promise for the diverse sport, biomedical applications as well as military. Research in the future in context with this, will further help in correlating sweat lactate levels with blood lactate levels, performance as well as fitness.