Repeated monitoring of wrist temperature linked to potential risk for future diseases: Study

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Continuous monitoring of wrist temperature can uncover insights into the potential risk for future diseases like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, liver disease, kidney failure, and more, a new study has revealed.

The study published in Nature Communications journal provides insights from a large population and indicates a wider spectrum of conditions are associated with poor temperature rhythms, measured in wrist temperature amplitude (the difference between the minimum and maximum temperature over the course of 24 hours).

"These findings indicate the potential to marry emerging technology with health monitoring in a powerful new way," said Carsten Skarke, the study's senior author and associate professor of Medicine in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics.

Researchers monitored the one-week data of more than 92,000 UK Biobank participants collected at home during typical daily activities, including sleep. The participants had their wrist temperature rhythms monitored which tracks the day to night changes of their wrist body temperature.

Monitoring includes both circadian as well as sleep-wake behaviour, along with components impacted by environmental conditions, such as reduction of core temperature during periods of sleep.

The researchers found that up to 73 different disease conditions were significantly associated with decreased temperature rhythm. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) emerged with a 91 per cent increased risk for these participants, followed by type 2 diabetes with 69 per cent, renal failure with 25 per cent, hypertension with 23 per cent, and pneumonia with 22 per cent.

"While temperature rhythms are only one aspect of one's circadian health, these findings add to a growing body of work that shows the importance of maintaining healthy circadian habits, such as the consistent timing of sleep and physical activity," said Thomas Brooks, PhD, the lead author and a research associate in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at Penn.

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