From obesity surgery without knives to stem cells regrowing a whole fingertip, medicine has gone a long way since Hippocrates.

New research hopes to replace using needles in blood tests with just spitting. Yes, from drawing blood with sharp pointy objects that hurt and give you nightmares to... just spitting. You'd think we'd have been able to think of this one a bit earlier.

Research is going into replacing blood with spit when being tested for diseases such as cancer, heart disease, or even diabetes. This is done by studying what scientists call the "salivary protoeme."

The salivary protoeme is a set of proteins in the human ductal saliva. The new emerging theory is that the proteins in saliva are of the same mix of proteins found in blood. By cataloging the proteins in saliva, scientists hope to be able to make it sub for blood in tests.