Wearable monitor detects stress hormone levels across a full 24-hour day

Press release issued: 21 June 2023

Early warning signs of diseases caused by dysfunctional levels of stress hormones could be spotted more easily thanks to a new wearable device developed by endocrine researchers. This is the first time it has been possible to measure changes to people’s stress hormones as they go about normal daily activities, across both day and night. The new collaborative research led by the University of Bristol, University of Birmingham and University of Bergen has the potential to revolutionise how diseases of the stress hormone system are diagnosed and treated.

The technology, funded by an EU Horizon 2020 project grant shows how tracking adrenal steroid levels at high resolution and over an extended time period can provide better information about how hormone levels change across daily (circadian) and faster (ultradian) time periods.

Stress hormones such as the hormone cortisol are crucial for life. Disturbance of their rhythms due to disease and lifestyle factors are related to diseases like depression, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and even critical illness. However, until now scientists haven’t been able to define what normal rhythmicity looks like in healthy daily life.

Read the full University of Bristol news item

Paper: High-resolution daily profiles of tissue adrenal steroids by portable automated collection' by Thomas J. Upton, Eder Zavala, Stafford L. Lightman et al. in Science Translational Medicine