pill Archives | Restoring Liberty

The Daily Smart Pill that Can Remember All Your Passwords: Tablets Can Transmit Personal Details to Devices as They Pass Through Body

June 24, 2013/1 Comment/in Featured, The Offbeat /by NICK MCDERMOTT

Photo Credit: Alamy

For forgetful types, it promises to be a new wonder pill.

But far from boosting the memory, the tiny swallowable capsules contain a minute chip that transmits an individual’s personal details.

Electronic devices will be able to read the unique signal, ending the need for passwords and paper forms of ID, such as passports – and freeing users from such mundane tasks as recalling countless codes and security answers.

Already approved by the both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European regulators, the ingestible sensor is powered by a battery using the acid in the wearer’s stomach.

Each pill is designed to move through the body at the normal process of digestion, and according to engineers working on the device, it can be taken every day for up to a month.

Medicine Now Can Be Tracked by Microchips

August 28, 2012/1 Comment/in Featured, News /by Reuters

Photo credit: ninasaurusrex

Pills for anything from the common cold to diabetes or cancer can be embedded with tiny ingestible chips that keep track of whether a patient is taking their medicine on time.

The digital feedback technology, devised by Redwood City, California-based Proteus Digital Health Inc, can also prompt patients to take their medicine and even ask them to take a walk if they have been inactive for too long.

“Overall, people only take their medications half of the time … adherence is a really big issue across all treatments,” Eric Topol, chief academic officer of Scripps Health, a non-profit medical service provider, told Reuters.

Some patients might not like their pill-taking being tracked but the system can help manage patients’ complicated medicine routines, such as diabetes or heart conditions.

“This is a way to have a “friend” helping look after me, since my doctor can’t be there most of the time,” said Kelly Close, a diabetes patient and the founder of diaTribe, a newsletter for people with diabetes. She has not yet used the pill.

Teenagers on the Pill are at risk of significantly higher blood pressure

July 12, 2012/0 Comments/in Kathleen's Korner /by Sophie Borland

Teenage girls who are on the Pill are at risk of having high blood pressure in later life, according to research.

Scientists have found that even those who have been taking the contraceptive for only a few months have readings which are significantly higher than those of other girls.

Doctors have long known that high blood pressure is one of several side-effects of the Pill but this is one of the first studies to show its effect on young girls within such a short space of time.

Although the girls’ blood pressure was still within the healthy range, the Australian researchers are concerned that it may rise further when they get older, putting them at risk of heart attacks and strokes.

High blood pressure is known as the ‘silent killer’ within the NHS as there are rarely any symptoms, but it gradually puts extra strain on the blood vessels and heart.

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