12 July Tattoos are not only a fashion accessory any more. Now they have a new, great use
Thanks to innovative technologies a smart, biosensing tattoo has been developed. It responds to changes in blood sugar levels. Regular blood tests of patients with diabetes are often being done only when a patient feels bad since they are expensive, time-consuming and invasive. With this new tattoos, sugar level can be monitored on a daily basis, which speeds up detection in case of sudden changes in blood sugar levels.
A team of researchers at Harvard and MIT have now come up with a special color that contains chemicals sensitive to changes in sugar and sodium levels in the blood. When blood sugar increases, biosensing tattoo changes color from blue to brown. When a person’s salt levels increase, the sodium sensing ink becomes a more vibrant green under UV light. When alkaline levels shifts, a pH sensor changes from purple to pink. and in the case of altered pH of blood, color becomes pink and purple.
Until now, the smart color was tested only on the samples of pigskin, and before they enter the market it is necessary to pass series of additional tests to examine their durability, measurement accuracy, and possible allergic reactions.
Taking into account that people with diabetes are forced to check blood sugar levels daily, by taking blood from a finger, scientists believe that the use of these non-invasive biosensing tattoo in controlling blood sugar levels will significantly make life easier for people with diabetes.
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/color-changing-tattoos-aim-to-monitor-blood-sugar-other-health-stats/