U-RHYTHM wearable spots onset of disease caused by stress hormones

The new collaborative research led by the Universities of Bristol and Birmingham in the UK, and Norway’s University of Bergen is claimed to have the potential to change how diseases of the stress hormone system are diagnosed and treated.

According to the team, the U-RHYTHM device makes it possible for the first time to measure changes to people’s stress hormones as they go about normal daily activities, across day and night.

Funded by an EU Horizon 2020 project grant and published in Science Translational Medicine, the technology shows how tracking adrenal steroid levels at high resolution and over an extended time can provide better information about how hormone levels change across daily (circadian) and faster (ultradian) time periods.

Hormones like adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine are released in the body when people experience stress. They help deal with stressful situations by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. Disturbance of their rhythms due to disease and lifestyle factors are related to diseases like depression, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and even critical illness. Until now scientists have not been able to define what normal rhythmicity looks like in healthy daily life.