In the United States, gut health is a big deal. According to a 2022 survey by the American Gastroenterological Association, 40% of Americans deal with digestive problems that disrupt their day-to-day lives. Many try different diets and supplements to assuage these issues, as well as use probiotics to improve overall digestion—but there might be a better way. Scientists may have found a way to analyze and pinpoint potential digestive problems; all you need to do is put on some special underwear and fart.
Researchers at the University of Maryland wanted to find a better way to monitor and measure human gut bacteria in the name of microbiome research. While past methods allowed them to see what gut bacteria species are living in the human body, there was no accurate way to see what the gut bacteria was doing hour by hour. Well, they seem to have found a way: a pair of underwear with a tiny sensor clipped near the rear can now record data from a person’s flatulence.
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This “Smart Underwear” measures the amount of hydrogen gas emitted each time a person passes gas, monitoring the gut bacteria’s activity within a person. Hydrogen gas is typically produced when certain gut bacteria breaks down undigested food. The whole thing may sound silly (and smelly), but early tests of this device have been able to detect dietary changes in people with 94.7% accuracy. This device and method of analyzing gut bacteria is better than most current tools that analyze stool samples, blood, or breath for such data. The Smart Underwear also has a battery that can last for a week without compromising comfort for the wearer.
“The Smart Underwear comfortably attaches to the exterior of the user's underwear near the perineal region via a snap system, in which a small plastic snap on the inside of the underwear fabric fits into a corresponding hole on the Smart Underwear on the opposite side of the underwear,” wrote Santiago Botasini and their colleagues in the study. “This sandwiches the fabric in place through friction, ensuring a stable but comfortable attachment of the Smart Underwear. Once attached, the Smart Underwear passively captures hydrogen concentration in flatus, as well as temporal dynamics including the frequency and duration of flatus events enabling longitudinal measurements of gut microbial metabolism.”
While additional studies are needed, this current study of 38 participants seems to suggest this device could help doctors. The Smart Underwear could pinpoint specific food sensitivities and intolerances within their patients, which proves to be a much better and more accurate practice than relying on patients self-reporting via "food journals" to capture patterns.
The study shows that self-reporting isn’t always accurate. For example, the device revealed that the participants farted 32 times per day on average, which is more than double the typically cited daily average of 14 incidents.
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It will be a while before gastrointestinal doctors start prescribing Smart Underwear to figure out what’s causing their digestive discomfort, but the research is promising. At any rate, whether the Smart Underwear will be used just for studies or becomes a widespread method to identify food intolerances, getting more information will ultimately lead to a sweeter smell of success over time.
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