"Visualization" of the status of your diet by breath Murata Manufacturing supports the development of equipment that can　quickly and accurately measure exhaled breath components.

If only you could easily visualize the status of your diet by measuring your exhaled breath. We think there are many people who are waiting for this kind of thing.

As the number of people with lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure, or people with potential lifestyle-related diseases continues to increase year by year, the number of patients with diabetes has reached 10 million as of 2019 and the number of potential diabetics has reached 20 million according to the “National Health and Nutrition Survey” carried out by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and as of 2019, the national medical expenses for diabetes has increased to approximately 1.2 trillion yen and suppressing this has become a major issue.

Diets are recommended to prevent these lifestyle-related diseases, and at Murata Manufacturing, we are currently developing a small breath analyzer that can easily measure the acetone in exhaled breath. We are recruiting co-creation partners so that this breath acetone measuring device will be useful for product development by companies expanding their health management businesses such as diets.

This is a breath test that offers advantages in that it can easily take measurements, but until now, there have also been some challenges. For example, the gas chromatograph is a typical breath test device, but it requires highly skilled professionals who can make measurements using the device and professional utilities such as expensive analyzers and high-pressure argon gas, and the device is large, requires large maintenance costs and a lot of time high performance analysis and can only be handled by large institutions, so it could not be easily introduced at any company.

Also, the use of simple breath measuring devices using semiconductor sensors have spread in recent years, but there were many challenges such as not being able to make accurate measurements without imposing various dietary restrictions because it is difficult to completely separate gas and acetone generated from what you ingested during meals. For example, because there is no filter that can completely sort out interfering gases other than the target gas type, so there are disadvantages such as measuring data other than the desired target as noise and the sensor getting toxified and changing the measured values.

In order to solve these challenges, we at Murata Manufacturing are currently developing a breath analyzer that is compact, simple, and capable of precise gas measurement.

When using a semiconductor sensor to detect gas types, the sensor will not only react to acetone, but also to reducing gas (ethanol: alcohol/liquor) and its metabolites, acetaldehyde and hydrogen, and there were cases where the accuracy of the original acetone measurement deteriorates. Therefore, after drinking alcohol or eating oranges, or using toothpaste or sprays to prevent bad breath with conventional breath acetone measuring devices, there were cases where we were instructed to secure time until measurements.

With Murata Manufacturing’s “breath acetone measuring devices”, the contraindications during measurement can be reduced by separating and measuring these noisy gases, and the measurement accuracy can be improved. Breath measurement is required, but not enough to introduce a gas chromatograph. I don’t want to conduct various gas measurements, but rather measure specifically for acetone. I don't want to spend time measuring and I want to know the results quickly. I’m looking for an easy measurement method that is small and has few restrictions during measurement. This is the optimal breath analyzer for those who have such needs.

Acetone measuring device developer column
Murata Manufacturing, New Business Development Department : Hideki Ishida

When I was 35 years old, I was diagnosed as having metabolic syndrome at my first metabolic syndrome examination, and for 20 years since then, I struggled to lose weight even after attending swimming school, tennis school and going to the gym. However, when I tried limited carbohydrates after seeing a family member lose weight suddenly, I succeeded in losing 10kg in two months, and the numerical values such as triglyceride, liver function, and blood sugar level all went back to normal values.

At that time, I used a foreign-made breath acetone measuring device for the purpose of maintaining motivation, and the measuring devices that I could get my hands on were either cheap but not very accurate, or highly accurate but large and expensive. Also there were many contraindications before measuring, and the measured values sometimes fluctuated significantly after ingesting alcohol or oranges, or after brushing my teeth, so I didn’t know what to do. So, I decided to provide high-precision, compact, and inexpensive measuring devices that can’t be found existing products by reducing the size of the device using Murata Manufacturing’s small and thin parts and building a system that can measure only acetone gas with good selectivity.

From my own successful experience, I was convinced that carbohydrate restrictions using breath acetone measuring devices could become a socially meaningful businesses that can contribute to significantly reducing national medical expenses and lead to a reduction in prediabetes as an effective means to escape from the metabolic syndrome that has become a social problem.

Let's think together about how to promote the health of Japanese people, suppress medical expenses and solve issues of your product that support these.