A pill to monitor core body temperature

Filed in archive Diagnostics on August 13, 2005

Some NFL teams are having their players ingest a pill to measures their core body temperature:

Now the Vikings, and a few other NFL teams, are giving some of their players a pill that allows trainers to monitor their core temperature in hopes of never again having to create such a memorial.

The Core Temp Ingestible Core Body Temperature Sensor was developed in the late 1980s by HQ Inc., of Palmetto, Fla., as a research tool used for a number of projects, including monitoring how certain pharmaceutical drugs affect the body's core temperature.

In the past two years or so, according to marketing director Susan Smith, the product has evolved into a protective device for Athletes in football, tennis, running and other sports who train in intense heat.

The Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles are using it to more accurately gauge the effect the suffocating August heat has on huge men running around the field in pads and a helmet.

Without the pill, monitoring is anything but an exact science.

("Vikings, others try to anticipate dangers of heat", AP/ESPN, Aug.12)