Scientists develop sweat detectors that give real time health updates

A team of scientists has in the US, have developed with a wearable skin sensor that detects the wearer’s sweat to analyse it and provide real-time updates on one’s health problems like dehydration or fatigue.

This was published in a study in the latest edition of Science Advances. The report said that the new sensor design can monitor the wearer’s electrolytes and metabolites in their sweat.

The researchers also developed a way to quickly manufacture the sensor patches in a roll-to-roll processing technique similar to screen printing, which prints the sensors onto a sheet of plastic like words on a newspaper.

The sensors also have a spiraling microscopic tube that wicks sweat from the skin. The sensor is also able to track how fast the wearer sweats, by tracking how fast the sweat moves through the microfluidic.

The devices are also outfitted with chemical sensors that can detect concentrations of electrolytes like potassium and sodium, and metabolites like glucose.

To better understand the potential of the wearer’s sweat, the research team placed the sweat censors on different sports on the volunteer’s body, like the forehead, forearm, underarm and upper back.

The sensor measured the sweat rates, the sodium, and potassium levels in their sweat, as the volunteers rode an exercise bike. The team found that local sweat rate could reflect the body's overall liquid loss during exercise, meaning that tracking sweat rate could be a way to give athletes a warning when they may be pushing themselves too hard.


They also used the sensors to compare sweat glucose levels and blood glucose levels in healthy and diabetic patients, but they found that a single sweat glucose measurement cannot necessarily indicate a person's blood glucose level, so they need more research to identify the potential correlation.

"We've shown that there isn't a simple, universal correlation between sweat and blood glucose levels," said Mallika Bariya, a graduate student in materials science and engineering at UC Berkeley and the co-lead author on the paper.