Fitness trackers continue to be at the forefront of much of the innovation taking place right now, whether it helps us monitor our stress levels or even tap into our emotional state to see if we're really in the mood for it.

The hydration monitoring concept could very well be one of the next big additions. In a recent survey, hydration monitoring was at the top of the wish list for next-generation wearables.

A person's hydration status can significantly affect many aspects of their well-being, including mood, physical performance, kidney function, skin condition, and even mental and cognitive status. Older adults are at significantly greater risk of dehydration due to cognitive decline, inadequate care, and / or physiological changes associated with aging and comorbidities, such as poor kidney function and thirst response.

Despite these well-known health implications, most people in the United States still don't drink enough water. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey studied 4,000 children in the United States between the ages of 6 and 19.

The study showed that more than half of the children and adolescents failed to stay adequately hydrated. The problem is similar among adults, especially for "weekend warriors" and amateur athletes who like to stay active.

The sad truth is that most people have no idea how to keep well hydrated. thinking about drinking It's easy to say "stay hydrated," but maintaining healthy and mindful hydration habits can be difficult. Most people who are not high-performance athletes do not have access to the tools or analyzes necessary to regularly measure their hydration level to see if their habits are adequate to optimize a state of health and well-being.

In fact, apart from fluid analysis, only a few indicators of hydration status are available to the general population. The feeling of thirst is one. But it's a late indicator, only providing a rough approximation of when to drink, often after it may be a little late.

When you're thirsty, your body has probably already lost nearly 2% of its fluids, a state of mild dehydration. To maintain adequate hydration, people should drink water long before they are thirsty. For example, if you are in the middle of a long run or bike ride and find that you are thirsty, you will probably not be able to rehydrate quickly. As a result, your performance is likely to suffer.

Other indicators of the state of hydration are the color and production of urine. Darker urine and lower production are generally indicative of dehydration. However, these are also imprecise ways to measure hydration. Clinical methods for assessing fluid status also have limitations. Part of the problem is that every person is different.

Some people need more fluids than others. Some people can drink less without becoming dehydrated. In addition to the immediate effects of dehydration, there can often be long-term consequences. Dehydration has been directly linked to being one of the causes of kidney stones. It also plays a role in the development of some cardiovascular diseases. Dehydration can also affect cognitive performance and lead to more frequent symptoms of depression and anxiety.

An Iranian study showed that adults who drank less water had a higher risk of anxiety and depression than those who drank more water. There are also very active groups who focus too much on drinking water and tend to overhydrate. This is commonly seen in competitive athletes and military personnel.

Also known as overhydration, overhydration can reduce the relative amount of sodium and other electrolytes in the blood. This can cause mild problems such as nausea or, in severe cases, water intoxication, life-threatening consequences such as seizures or coma.

Whether you consider the case of dehydration or overhydration, due to individual differences and the variability among the 8 billion people on our planet, there are many complicated nuances to understanding and managing hydration. Measure your hydration for better health Giving people a way to measure their hydration levels non-invasively and routinely can provide them with important information about their hydration status and thus lead to many significant benefits.

But it must be done in a way that is convenient and easily accessible to all. One way to generate this knowledge is through a platform that measures key biomarkers in real time using a wearable device. An emerging technology that could enable this capability is a photonics-based miniaturized sensor that can measure changes in the concentration of water in the human body in a non-invasive way.

This new type of sensor generates multiple laser wavelengths that penetrate the skin at different depths to identify the characteristics of the water spectrum. The sensor exploits the principle that changes in the concentration of components within the skin (e.g. collagen, lipids and water) can be observed by measuring the absorption spectra of the skin. As the water in the dermis decreases, the concentration of solutes increases, which changes the overall absorption spectrum of the skin.

Equipped with such hydration assessment capabilities, a wearable device would give people the potential to understand their hydration status in unprecedented ways. For example, with a quick look at the wrist, people can see that their hydration levels tend to drop and they avoid getting dehydrated first. Alternatively, if they become dehydrated during or after exercise, they may better determine how much they should drink to properly rehydrate.

This type of monitoring solution would benefit not only athletes but also many other people who may be more susceptible to dehydration, such as office workers who work hard during the day, people who have fallen ill and people who live in higher altitudes. People from almost all walks of life could benefit from knowing if they are drinking enough water for their individual needs and body types.

Having a wearable device that can monitor personal hydration levels is only part of the equation. It should also be easy for people to understand the information being tracked. One tool that could help achieve this is a unique index that makes it easy to report hydration levels and provides information and recommendations tailored to each person's individual hydration needs.

Solutions like this could help improve our ability to manage hydration. Staying well hydrated, whether at the gym or in the office, can help you sharpen your focus and improve your overall performance.

Smart devices for smart drinking Keeping track of water intake and maintaining healthy hydration isn't always easy in the busy life many people live today. However, given the ability to monitor hydration on a routine basis, smartwatches and other wearable devices could provide useful information to help people improve their lifestyle habits.

Leading device manufacturers have already begun exploring the integration of biomarker sensors to monitor hydration levels. These forward-thinking companies understand that hydration and other healthy behaviors are routine-driven and that providing contextual cues can trigger "automatic" responses and help people make positive changes in their behavior.

By enabling non-invasive measurement of hydration on a routine basis, a portable biomarker screening solution would have the potential to provide timely recommendations for personal hydration management, recommendations tailored to each individual's specific needs. With this knowledge, we could all make more informed decisions about our hydration, health and well-being.