It’s a ca-patch-ino! A caffeine hit without the coffee
IN NEED of a caffeine hit but can’t face the coffee breath and stained teeth? Then this gadget could be just the thing for you.
A wristband has been developed which is said to give wearers a constant low level of caffeine without the unattractive side-effects.
The Joule bracelet holds patches that work in a similar way to nicotine patches, administering a controlled pick-me-up through the thin skin of the wrist.
Each patch provides the caffeine equivalent of a cup of medium-strength coffee over the course of four hours, after which time the wearer can insert another patch into the bracelet.
Developed by Alex Kryuk, a doctor who now works in the pharmaceutical industry, and former personal trainer Adam Paulin, the wristband with 30 patches is being offered for sale for £20 on the pair’s online crowdfunding page. While the skin is an effective barrier to many substances, caffeine molecules are small enough to penetrate the skin and get into the bloodstream, so can be delivered transdermally, they said.
The wearer’s body heat melts away the thin layers of formulation embedded on the adhesive patch.
‘Transdermal administration is simply another method of helping active ingredients reach your blood stream, which is also the goal of digestion,’ the developers said.
‘Transdermal release is more slow and controlled than oral administration so as long as the correct concentrations are used.’
The device is worn on the wrist because the process is more effective on regions of the body that don’t have much fatty tissue, they added.
And they claim that the steady supply of caffeine means there are no ‘energy crashes, jitters, or other negative effects of consuming your caffeine through beverages’.
Furthermore, the caffeine starts being absorbed ‘faster than with oral administration because it doesn’t have to go through the digestive process’.
Aimed at all of us who ‘rely on coffee or energy drinks to supply energy for alertness and getting things accomplished’, the inventors claim Joule can be used by anyone from office workers and students to taxi drivers and policeman.
The wristband currently provides 65mg of caffeine over four hours, and the company is working on new formulations to provide stronger and weaker doses in the future.