BodyCap has just announced the successful testing of the new e-Celsius Performance connected pill that performs temperature monitoring for elite athletes. The testing took place on ten FC Nantes soccer players during two French League 1 games on September 13 against Rennes and on September 26 against Paris Saint-Germain. The e-Celsius Performance connected pill aims to analyze player’s ability to regulate their temperature during warm-up and play and track the return to baseline values during recovery.
e-Celsius Performance, the ingestible pill, continuously monitors the user’s internal temperature. Players swallow the pill a few hours before the match begins and there is no requirement to wear a monitor. Every 30 seconds, the pill wirelessly transmits the athlete’s gastro-intestinal temperature measurement to a monitor called e-Viewer Performance. The pill stores measurements for up to 16 hours when away from the monitor and then this data is wirelessly transmitted once the pill is back within the 3-meter range.
The goals of the pill are to regulate core temperature and manage elite sporting performance. It does this by measuring the effectiveness of recovery techniques like ice treatment for players. BodyCap says the pill is most proven useful in monitoring players during the ice treatment phase of their post-match recovery. Spending five minutes in a bath at 8 degrees Celsius is vital for the recovery of athletes and has positive results on their sport performance. e-Celsius Performance also aims to minimize the risks of hypothermia and hyperthermia for elite athletes.
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The pill is achieving the purpose of personalizing the recovery process for individual athletes. “FC Nantes uses advanced techniques to improve player performance. The club is already making use of ice treatment and is keen to measure its impact,” said Philippe Daguillon, the team’s physio and the founder of ice bath specialist Cryobain®. “The data obtained from the BodyCap pill will help to introduce individual recovery programs for each player, based on their capacity for recovery, their position on the field and weather conditions. There is real value in developing and expanding on this initial analysis.”
This innovative pill is following the trend of technologies in elite sports for optimizing sport performance. “The next big step for our company is the routine use of our pill in elite sports such as cycling, rugby or long-distance running,” explained Sébastien Moussay. “We are currently working with partners in these sectors and are receiving a large number of inquiries. We also plan to export to the US, where the market for elite sports uses different models from European sport.”
The pill has other purposes too. Exertional heat illness is among the leading causes of death in young athletes. A report by the United States Centers for Disease Control found that these illnesses occur during practice and in competition. Clinicians who care for athletes and others who exert themselves in the heat (e.g. firefighters, soldiers, construction workers) need to be aware of the basic physiologic principles of thermoregulation. The pill aims to create strategies for preventing and treating these illnesses to determine a safe return to the game or work.
BodyCap, which specializes in wearable connected devices for energy management and physiological data surveillance will be attending the CES trade show in Las Vegas from January 6 until January 9 with hope to enter the US market.