I think it’s worth emphasizing that this is a “mix and read” test (like a COVID test), not something you could integrate in a smartwatch for example.
Still cool nonetheless.
Artificial biosensor can better measure the body's main stress hormone
21–30 of 33 posts
Re: Artificial biosensor can better measure the body's main stress hormone
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unless you plan to sit at your desk all day and do nothing but press the button on your monitor, it isn't. These are two very different things.
There are devices called "holter monitors" that a person wears continuously and which measure your blood pressure frequently. I would call this continuous though it's more like every 15 minutes or whatever it's programmed for. It's all without your intervention. My ex bought one when they wanted more data about their high blood pressure.
Because I fainted, I wore a holter monitor for a month that did not measure blood pressure but instead my EEG, uploading the data via the cellular network. My cardiologist said it measured about 1 million heatbeats in that time.
Re: Artificial biosensor can better measure the body's main stress hormone
#23Oh I don't need this, I'm well aware of how stressed I am.
Re: Artificial biosensor can better measure the body's main stress hormone
#24This is certainly an improvement over a lab test, but a continuous monitoring solution would dramatically expand the utility. You could rate employers on the median cortisol levels of their employees during and after the work day. At an individual level, those of us that are not very self-aware of our stress levels could monitor it objectively and determine stressors and implement and monitor interventions to reduce…
This is one of those ideas that might sound good when you don't think about secondary effects, but is actually commonly accepted to be a bad idea in the medical community. Similar to white coat hypertension [0], measuring your stress can induce stress, whether that's worrying about whether you're in a good range, getting more stressed when you find out you're already stressed, or etc. This is why continuous monitorin…
I suppose to mitigate that you could have that data not immediately viewable to the patient because seeing "stress line go up" would be pretty stressful and would skew the data anyway.
Re: Artificial biosensor can better measure the body's main stress hormone
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unless you plan to sit at your desk all day and do nothing but press the button on your monitor, it isn't. These are two very different things.
There are devices called "holter monitors" that a person wears continuously and which measure your blood pressure frequently. I would call this continuous though it's more like every 15 minutes or whatever it's programmed for. It's all without your intervention. My ex bought one when they wanted more data about their high blood pressure.
I'm well aware of this, but this is different from what we're discussing here. While Holters measure continuously, they don't give you continuous feedback. The general procedure is that the data is either gathered and downloaded or sent over network and the patient sees it only after the gathering is done.
Re: Artificial biosensor can better measure the body's main stress hormone
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is one of those ideas that might sound good when you don't think about secondary effects, but is actually commonly accepted to be a bad idea in the medical community. Similar to white coat hypertension [0], measuring your stress can induce stress, whether that's worrying about whether you're in a good range, getting more stressed when you find out you're already stressed, or etc. This is why continuous monitorin…
There's no reason to think that continuous monitoring with a comfortable wearable would contribute to a white coat syndrome. The Wikipedia link that you cited actually says that at-home blood pressure readings are more reliable than those taken by a professional in a clinic because (it is believed) that the presence of another human administering a single test is what causes stress concerning the test. With the multi…
I wonder why these kinds of arguments gain such wide acceptance.
specifically - measuring x has negative consequences, so don't measure x.
then at some point it becomes, don't bother measuring x ever.
Normally I hear abotu this like tests that can find cancer early, or full body MRIs.
I think these measures might actually be really good to establish a baseline and changes over time, or catch things early.
If the problem is that knowing leads to stress, maybe there could be a solution in the portrayal of the data. Maybe it could be "doctor, don't tell me unless there is a trend"
Doctors frequently give a disclaimer before ordering PSA tests, for example.
Re: Artificial biosensor can better measure the body's main stress hormone
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Smartwatches have been measuring all sorts from our bodies for a long time and whilst some people develop this type of thing, the majority have not. These watches have been monitoring stress in the form of HRV for many years now.
A recent studied shows that Garmin watches like the one I have give HRV stress readings that don't correlate well to self-reports of stress https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/08/smartwatc... The stress paradigm is probably the most holistic idea in medicine and I think any attempt to break it down to a number is reductivist.
I have a garmin watch and my take is that stress is not really a spot reading.
However, I am certain that some really bad days I've had have shown very high stress on the watch across the day.
also relaxing can show low stress during a window (like sleep is low stress)
Re: Artificial biosensor can better measure the body's main stress hormone
#28This is certainly an improvement over a lab test, but a continuous monitoring solution would dramatically expand the utility. You could rate employers on the median cortisol levels of their employees during and after the work day. At an individual level, those of us that are not very self-aware of our stress levels could monitor it objectively and determine stressors and implement and monitor interventions to reduce…
Obligatory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law
Re: Artificial biosensor can better measure the body's main stress hormone
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is one of those ideas that might sound good when you don't think about secondary effects, but is actually commonly accepted to be a bad idea in the medical community. Similar to white coat hypertension [0], measuring your stress can induce stress, whether that's worrying about whether you're in a good range, getting more stressed when you find out you're already stressed, or etc. This is why continuous monitorin…
Smartwatches have been measuring all sorts from our bodies for a long time and whilst some people develop this type of thing, the majority have not. These watches have been monitoring stress in the form of HRV for many years now.
I felt like I was trapped in a cycle of bad sleep -> stress -> worse sleep. And the two things that helped the most were exercising to burn of extra, nervous energy, and my fitbit breaking so I couldn't look at it and worry about how bad my sleep was.
Re: Artificial biosensor can better measure the body's main stress hormone
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no reason to think that continuous monitoring with a comfortable wearable would contribute to a white coat syndrome. The Wikipedia link that you cited actually says that at-home blood pressure readings are more reliable than those taken by a professional in a clinic because (it is believed) that the presence of another human administering a single test is what causes stress concerning the test. With the multi…
I wonder why these kinds of arguments gain such wide acceptance. specifically - measuring x has negative consequences, so don't measure x. then at some point it becomes, don't bother measuring x ever. Normally I hear abotu this like tests that can find cancer early, or full body MRIs. I think these measures might actually be really good to establish a baseline and changes over time, or catch things early. If the prob…
>If the problem is that knowing leads to stress,
And who says information hazards don't exist. Gotta love how anxiety builds on anxiety.