New Smartphone Test Measures Stress Levels for Just $5

Orig.src.Susanne.Posel.Daily.News- stress.cortisol.smartphone.test_occupycorporatismSusanne Posel ,Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | The US Independent
July 8, 2014

 

At a meeting of the 2014 International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society (ICE/ENDO) Joel Enrenkranz, director of diabetes and endocrinology at Intermountain Healthcare (DEIH) presented a prototype of a new method of measuring stress levels in humans.

The operating-system-agnostic (OSA) software can be used on smartphone platforms such as:

• iOS
• Android
• Windows
• BlackBerry

Enrenkranz provided a tube, software, a sample of saliva and explained how cortisol, the stress hormone, could be measured via “a method by which anyone with a smartphone will be able to measure their salivary cortisol level quickly, easily and inexpensively.”

This new method of test cortisol levels has been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval by 2015.

A “straw” saliva collector can be inserted under the tongue and be used to take in “saliva by capillary action to an immunoassay strip housed in a cassette and the cassette is inserted into the reader.”

This smartphone test would cost $5 and ensure “parts of the United States and the rest of the world that lack facilities to measure cortisol will now be able to perform this essential diagnostic test.”

Enrenkranz explained: “A lab charges about $25 to $50 for a quantitative salivary cortisol test and has a turnaround time of days to a week. This test, taken in a medical office or at home, will cost less than $5 and take less than 10 minutes. The device is a reader that includes a case, a light pipe, and a lens and costs about a dollar to make. There is no battery power and it’s unbreakable, passive and reusable.”

Cortisol is the hormone secreted by the hypothalamus in the human brain when a perceived threat is encountered.

Cortisol travels through the nervous system and prompts the adrenal glands to surge adrenaline and cortisol throughout the body which causes:

• Increased heart rate
• Elevated blood pressure
• Boosts energy
• Increased glucose in the bloodstream
• Enhanced brain activity
• Altered immune system responses
• Suppressed digestive system, reproductive system and growth processes
• Controls mood, motivation and fear in the human brain

Lissa Rankin wrote in her book “Mind Over Medicine” about how cortisol manifests in the human body and warning signs that our stress levels are too high:

• Chronic backaches and headaches
• Insomnia
• Chronic fatigue
• Weight gain surrounding the abdomen
• Easily catch colds and infections
• Crave food high in sugar
• Diminished sex drive
• Nausea, heartburn, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, constipation
• Chronic anxiety, panic, paranoia
• Depression



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