Imagine. Exercise keeps me healthy. Many nudging tools are available to motivate and stimulate me. They are considered sticks (an electric shock If I don’t move enough using the Pavlok device) and carrots (healthcoins or Fitcoins to buy something with in the real world, a higher interest rate on my bank account, a lower insurance premium).
Here might be the prelude of a novel one. Your immune system getting stronger. Indeed, recent research has shown that exercise generates immune cells in bone.
Movements, such as exercise, lead to mechanical stimulation of bones, activating the mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1. This has two effects. First, it triggers differentiation of the cells, leading to bone formation. Second, it leads to the expression and secretion of a signalling molecule which helps to maintain nearby common lymphoid progenitors. Maintenance of the this population of cells renders them readily able to differentiate into cells of the immune system called lymphocytes that can fight bacterial infections. You can read the paper here.
So what if my wearable, a simple digital step counter, would link to an automatic cell counter and display these results. Would you be interested?
