TIL: The Track-Your-Fart Pill

Image from: commons.wikimedia.org - Author, Pulpy - License

Today's post is dedicated to @lemouth (for obvious reasons). 

Scientists in Australia (RMIT and Monash Univeristies) have developed an ingestible capsule in order to explore the mysteries of the gut. Like a tiny submarine that dives into the abyss to look for the monsters of the deep, this pill takes a dive into the dark world of our intestines to look for... gases. The capsule is the size of big vitamin pill and is powered by a silver-oxide battery. It is equipped with sensors to track temperature and gas presence (O2, H2 and CO2) and is connected to a pocket-size receiver that communicates via bluetooth with a smartphone app (you could call it a Gut Tracker).

a, Three-dimensional rendering of the human gas sensing capsule sliced to demonstrate the internal components. b, Photo of the packaged gas capsule and receiver device. c, Dimensions of the capsule. d, Schematic representation of intestinal gas penetration through the gas permeative membrane, reaching the sensing elements. e, Basic circuit diagram and operation of gas sensors in the capsule. 

Image from: nature.com

The capsule was firstly tested on animals. Humans received a different version, adjusted correspondingly in size and density. It also had a more advanced system in order to differentiate among the various gases it was about to monitor. 

Seven individuals took part in the study and followed both a high and a low-fibre diet. It took one day for the first to pass the capsule through their system and three days for the latter. Variations on gut fermentation were also noticed. Moreover, test subjects that received a high-fibre diet experienced abdominal discomfort (a known side-effect of excessive fibre consumption).

What "winds" blow in there and where do they come from?

In your guts winds of change (sorry, that's a song), winds of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen and methane (H2, CO2, O2, N and CH4) blow. These gases come from air swallowed, but most of them originate from "chemical conversions, enzymatic perturbations and metabolic activity of the intestinal microbiota". In plain english, it all has to do with the food breaking down, the transformation of one chemical substance into another, disturbances caused by enzymes and the reaction of our intestinal population (bacteria) with unabsorbed substances.

Why would we want to test anyone's farts?

Gases reveal a lot about someone's health helping in diagnosing any intestinal disorders. This capsules promise to offer an easy and less invasive (compared to tube insertion tests) diagnostic method. Providing more information on how the body processes the food, this new capsule will be a lot more helpful, since its predecessors could only measure pH and pressure levels. The former "models" were also used as "medication monitoring tools, and esophageal optical coherence tomography monitoring using tethered capsules". 

Scientists still need to develop their new tool and further testing is also required. But one thing is for sure, the Big Brother will end up watching you not only from the outside...

Check this short video for more:

References

nature.com
nerdist.com
cnet.com

Thank you so much for your time!

Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!