Since the very inception of wearables, we have heard non-stop from manufacturers that they aim to make your life easier and better through the use of wearables.
In a real sense this has failed to materialise in most cases with the few exceptions such as ECG tracking, sleep pattern optimisation, fall detection and a few more.
Parkinson’s Disease is one disease that I never thought would even have any place at all in a wearable target market, but here we are. Charco Neurotech in the UK has developed a wearable device designed to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson’s Disease is caused by damage to neurons in the substantia nigra of the brain, making it harder for signals to move between neurons. The new wearable from Charco Neurotech is a non-invasive device that is stuck to the skin on the sternum.
This, in turn, vibrates at a high frequency pattern and these vibrations travel up to the substantia nigra in the brain, encoding for physical touch and proprioception. These are important for the function of the brain, helping to alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.
The vibration required differs from one patient to the next and thus an app (iOS and Android) is used to tailor the pattern to the patient with future functionality hopefully to include feedback in the app allowing for automatic adjustment of the pattern based on how well the patient is moving.
This sounds a bit out there but is backed by science and although not fully understood, does not make it less effective. There is a lot of peer-reviewed research on vibration therapy, and some in particular for the Charco Neurotech device in Parkinson’s Disease so this new wearable could well be the breakthrough so many people and families are hoping for.
For more information for you or a loved one head on over to the Charco Neurotech website. We look forward to many more of these medical breakthroughs using new wearable technology.
