Is core body temperature monitoring new?

We regularly get questions asking "Is core body temperature monitoring new?" For many people, this appears to be a new concept as it has not been accessible and popularised, but the recognition of core body temperature as an important metric has been around for a while. In practice, however, it has been limited to physiological researchers and elite athletes. With CORE there is now the opportunity to easily monitor core body temperature and take this metric beyond the closed circles where only very few had access and make it available to many more people. 

Core body temperature is a key parameter used to understand the human body’s performance. Researchers and top athletes have been measuring these metrics for many years, seeking to understand how disease, sleeping or physical performance relate to core body temperature. We have covered this in more detail in this post; Why is it important to track core body temperature?

In summary the human body needs to maintain a stable core body temperature to stay healthy and tracking this provides useful insights into the body's performance under different circumstances. 

How is core body temperature tracked?

Until now, there were two approaches. The first one is using thermometers applied to different parts of the body. The reliability of this approach is impacted by many factors, and added challenge with this method is that it is very, very difficult to continuously measure the actual core body temperature with thermometers in real-time. Thermometers are a simple approach to temperature measurement with varying accuracy so while this approach can be acceptable for some circumstances, for performance sports however it is usually unsuitable.

To solve the issue of accuracy and continual monitoring fort sports, coaches and trainers have turned to electronic pills (e-pills). These are small devices that the test-person swallows (ingests) to continuously track the core body temperature.  This approach requires separate hardware to activate the e-pills and to read (monitor) the results. 

While e-pills provide very accurate core body temperature readings, it is an invasive approach and each e-pill lasts around 1-day before it is then passed-through. This remains the default-approach for monitoring the core body temperature of performance athletes, in particular to help prepare and train for endurance events with hot conditions. For instance, for preparations for the Tokyo Olympic Games and potential heat-wave conditions, many of the top level athletes have used this approach to help train for endurance in hot conditions.

So, core body tracking is not new. What is new is our approach.

CORE have developing a tracking method that is both non-invasive (like the thermometers) and allows us to continuously monitor the core body temperature (like the pills did). CORE accomplishes this using patented sensor technology developed by greenTEG in Zurich, Switzerland. The sensor is worn on the skin, just like a heart rate monitor and as been built to easily integrate with existing training electronics which athletes already use to collect and display their training and racing data.  

Using Artificial Intelligence to train this technology and mountains of testing, the CORE body temperature units is as accurate as other methods but is more convenient and easier to use. 

Just the beginning of a long journey

While the CORE body temperature device now opens up more possibilities to athletes and coaches, the ease of tracking and collecting this data marks a new era where these metrics are more commonplace and are a catalyst for new use-cases and approaches to training and competition. 

The team at CORE has trawled through mountains of scientific research on the effects of temperature on sporting performance and as we continue to work with athletes and coaches we can see that the requirements are very individual and we look forward to sharing further insights.