CES 2026 was full of bodily fluids

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At CES 2026 this week, people kept asking me about the health tech I was seeing on the show floor. My only answer was: bodily fluids. As in urine, blood, sweat, and saliva.

With most people, my reaction was usually a combination of groans and amazement. Among insiders, I didn’t surprise anyone.

CES is ground zero in the wellness Wild West. At Eureka Park and the Venice Expo, you’ll find dozens of digital health startups selling everything from smart watches and smart rings to smart pillows. This is not new in itself. Urine technology in particular has been a staple of the show, but what’s notable this year isn’t just the presence of this technology — it’s the idea that extracting these fluids could help you live longer and healthier.

Here’s some of what I’ve seen: Using at-home hormone testing kits Urine and Saliva; tasty Menstrual pads And panty liners. In-toilet hydration tracker; Mirror it Analyzes blood flow in your face To estimate how old you are; Sperm microscope. and Smart scale Which analyzes metabolic health through foot sweat.

It’s not just small startups either. The biggest names in the space are also opening up their platforms to accommodate data sources beyond heart rate. In the show, Withings Announce It has been partnering with Abbott to integrate the latter’s continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). Oura has a similar partnership with Dexcom Announced in 2025. Whoop also added the ability to get Blood panel data is integrated into its app Last year, followed soon By oraAnd now Ultrahuman is Do the same.

In essence, this focus on bodily fluids is evidence that the entire industry is doubling down on metabolic health as the next frontier. Where digital health started with cardiovascular health, the next stage hinges on your metabolism. So after logging tens of thousands of steps on the show floor, I sat down with Oura CEO Tom Hill and Dexcom CEO Jake Leach to talk about where metabolic technology is headed, the challenges ahead, and what we’re likely to see as consumers.

Both said the real balance is between finding useful data from additional measures and the potential to confuse people with health anxiety. While people may be fine with step and heart rate data, delving into deeper insights into metabolism comes with much more sensitive data. Offering more advanced detection features — such as high blood pressure or glucose alerts — increases the risk.

“In reality, we don’t need more sensors,” says Hill, who argues that metabolic insights from blood or urine tests are more likely to be episodic rather than continuous. “We need more sensation.” For Hill, the important point is to combine episodic, use-case-based data with long-term fundamental data.

“You’re trying to solve a particular problem. Maybe you’re going through a very stressful time, and you’re trying to manage your stress because you have high blood pressure. Well, maybe a cortisol sweat test is really helpful, but when you find out, are you going to constantly measure your cortisol? Maybe not.”

“Having data together in one place is really helpful,” Leach says. “Having it in disparate places on disparate devices is an issue, but you have to have technology and software that actually shows insights, not just saying, ‘Here are all these blood markers, and this is where they should be.’”

This is a story as old as health technology, and many companies are trying to solve it using artificial intelligence. That’s why you’re starting to see many companies adding AI-powered nutrition tracking, chatbots, and insights into their apps. Discom added Stelo CGM AI Insights. Ora I did that too. Meanwhile, at CES 2026, Garmin also announced this Added AI nutrition logging to its app For subscribers.

On paper, it’s a trend that makes a lot of sense. The truth is that Artificial intelligence isn’t there yet. When I press Leach about it, he agrees.

“We have to get past that and that He is That’s where things kind of get stuck. “Technology like continuous glucose monitors that have such clear results is a great technology to be pioneering,” Leach says, noting that there are direct correlations between the lifestyle changes a person makes and how they are reflected in their glucose readings.

But the other problem is data privacy. Getting blood tests is invasive, and many people currently live in a state of extreme anxiety. It’s a tough time for health tech to ask more Data from its users.

Case in point, Ora — and by extension Hill — received backlash earlier this summer when it was revealed that Ora had a partnership with Palantir and the Department of Defense. Users accused the company of selling and sharing user data, forcing Hill to appear on social media to refute the accusation. in Public statements on social mediaHill stated that Oura never sells or shares user data; The Palantir partnership in question refers to a separate enterprise program. When I press the issue, Hill reiterates the point, adding that users’ menstrual data in particular is off limits.

Months later, Hill says Palantir’s “portal” didn’t hurt the company much overall, but it was a compelling experiment. “We weren’t selling anyone’s data, but we learned how afraid people are of that and how dangerous it is.”

Otherwise, Leach and Hill point to nutrition, blood pressure and wearable ecosystems as potential trends in this space. Dexcom plans to add macro tracking and a redesigned app later this year. Meanwhile, Hill noted that we may soon start to see greater integration between smart glasses and food tracking. For example, you can take a photo of your meal, get calorie estimates, and then cross-reference all that data with the tracker of your choice. Hill also identified chronic condition management as another potential avenue that wearables and health technology are beginning to explore.

“The wearable space in general is seeing a big boom right now, and I think that’s driven by people’s actual desire to live healthier and healthcare systems’ desire to improve their outcomes,” Leach agrees. “Wearable technology is how we do this at scale, because not every doctor can see every patient all the time.”

With all this in mind, I don’t think the average Joe will suddenly install urine collection devices in the toilet, go for monthly blood draws, or step on a $600 scale that tells you how long you’ll live based on the sweat in your feet. This is truly going to be a miserable 2026. But based on what I saw and what I heard from Hill and Leach, He does I think you’ll start to see a bigger shift away from basic fitness and more toward the idea of ​​promoting longevity through preventative measures. It won’t just be about closing your rings every day, it will be more about doing small lifestyle experiments over a few months and tracking any changes. It is optimistic that these changes may help prevent or improve common diseases that accumulate over time, such as diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Maybe those experiments will involve bodily fluids, maybe they won’t. But the industry clearly believes that metabolism is the key to better health.

Unfortunately, I think that means more bodily fluids.