New Smartphone App Measures Stress Hormone in Your Saliva

A new smartphone app can help measure your stress level, find researchers.

Experts from the Intermountain Healthcare in Murray, Utah, have developed a new cell phone app that measures the level of stress hormone in saliva samples.

The saliva gets collected on an assay strip and when exposed to the lens and light diffuser in a smartphone's camera, it measures the cortisol levels (stress hormone). Unlike traditional stress tests that cost over $50 and require an entire week to process,  the smartphone app is far cheaper and provides the result within 10 minutes. This simple technological development helps early diagnosis and treatment of stress-related health conditions caused by over or under production of cortisol, reports the Reuters News.

"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," said Joel Ehrenkranz, director of diabetes and endocrinology at Intermountain Healthcare, reports Reuters News.

"Also, measuring salivary cortisol with this technology will provide a way for individuals to monitor their personal biometric stress levels easily and inexpensively."

Almost 3 percent of diabetic patients have Cushing's disease, a condition in which stress hormones are released in excess. Individuals suffering from depression also have excessive amounts of cortisol and suffer the risk of gradual deterioration of mental health. This app will enable people, who have limited access to medical and health care facilities, to check and control stress hormone levels on their own.

 The new stress testing app device is unbreakable and reusable having a pipe, case and a lens. These are economical to manufacture, costing only a dollar each and can be configured in any type of cell phone.

"We are trying to make sure a skilled 8th-grader or a 12-year-old can get accurate results. The measurement system's smartphone and reader act as a photo studio. The complex and difficult processes are put into the strip chemistry and embedded into the smartphone application, so if you have a charged phone and a test kit you can get accurate results without complicated infrastructure and highly trained technicians," said Dr. Randall Polson, senior optical engineer in the College of Engineering at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, in an email to Reuters News.

The authors believe many patients suffering from mental illnesses and disorders like depression, anxiety and chronic stress can be treated by keeping a tab of their daily cortisol levels with the help of this app to prevent them from having a psychotic break. The stress testing app must first bag FDA's approval as a class 2 medical device before entering the market.

The research was presented at the joint meeting of the International Society for Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society in Chicago.