Diabetic Research Study

Earlier this week, I participated in a research study comparing the blood glucose levels of non-diabetic athletes with diabetic athletes during an exercise trial. I'm not diabetic so I was part of the control group. There were two part to the study. The first part involved cycling in a 35C/95F calorimeter to determine what wattage/resistance they should apply to the pedals during the main trial. The second part involved be wired up with a multitude of sensors.

• Four sweat capsules attached to my arms and legs to measure my sweat rate
• A heart rate monitor to measure my heart rate
• A laser sensor on my wrist to measure the maximal blood flow and oxygen level through my skin
• An oxygen mask connected to a long hose connected to a metabolic cart measuring my oxygen, carbon dioxide, breathing rate
• Three internal thermometer measure my body core temperature -- ear (tympanic), throat (esophageal) and anonymous place
• A blood glucose monitor. I have to take three blood samples during the trial
  

Once I was all wired up I headed into the calorimeter (35C/95F) and remained stationary for 30 minutes. The purpose of this segment was to let my body adapt to the warm conditions and to get some baseline measurements. The main part of the experiment involved cycling for 60 minutes at a fixed cadence and with fixed resistance. The final segment was sitting for an hour chilling. Apparently, all the data collected was of value as the researcher was eagerly analyzing it as I left. The idea was to compare all of the data from my session with a diabetic athlete having similar characteristics who also did the same trial to see how s/he responded to the stress of the exercise.