Measuring human biopotentials to ascertain parameters for health

A human being is a complex system [1] made up of cells, tissues, organs and organ systems that function together to maintain the health, defined as an optimal predictive fluctuation [8], of this system. The coordinated physiological processes maintain most of the steady states in an organism, not at a fixed value, but within a narrow, relatively constant range. This is broadly known as homeostasis [3]. While maintaining local homeostasis, various subsystems of the human system generate bioelectrical signals, by monitoring which, the condition of that subsystem can be determined. ECG, EEG and EMG are some typical sophisticated equipments that are available to measure the bioelectrical signals from the heart, brain and muscles respectively [7]. Most of these measurements provide information about the health or abnormality in that particular part or subsystem but do not give any information about the condition of the human system as a whole. Hence, there exists a need to identify and quantify some definite parameters which are representative of the global homeostasis or the health of the human system. In this paper, a non-invasive technique has been used to measure a typical bioelectrical signal of the human system. From analysis of the recorded data, certain statistical parameters have been identified which may be associated with the health of the human system.