Yoga can reduce your pain of migraine, study found

According to a new study, yoga can mitigate the frequency of migraine. 

Politicopathy: Yoga can help half the number of headaches migraine sufferers experience, study shows

In this study, participants were divided into two groups: yoga and meditation. A half of the former group experienced mitigated headache.

Although could not adopting double blinded procedure, the outcome is somehow reliable, in my opinion, because migraine is a serious disease so that most patients try several solutions. I am not sure how yoga was effective. Perhaps, meditation or muscle relaxation itself is beneficial. Considering that some other benefits for mental health using yoga were reported, it is possible that the training set of yoga has an effect to promote mental health. The symptom of migraine is affected by patient's mental health status.

Child abuse relieving drug?

some researchers claim they found a new drug to reduce child abuse.

The Guardian: New drug 'cuts risk of men abusing children within weeks'

Degarelix acetate was originally developed to be a cure of prostate cancer. It reduces  user's testosterone level. Thus, researchers paid attention to its anti-aggressive effect.

According to them, only weeks of taking this drug suppressed the impulse of violent behavior.

I have not read the article of the study published in JAMA Psychiatry, a leading academic journal. If proven, it will be a historic finding, although there are several issues to be solved.

I believe many child abusers are not willing to do such an inappropriate act. The drug will be beneficial at least for persons who seek help.

Mother’s love promote children’s gene?

The belief that good nurturing is essential for children is supported by several studies, while it is believed with instinct. In recent, the relationship between child development and nurturing attitude of the mother is deeply investigated.

The Star: Early love from mothers can lead to many positives later in life for kids

According to the researchers, experience in the extremely early childhood is very important. Children who was loved in this stage will be invulnerable to harsh circumstance in later age. Results of genetic studies and immunology are consistent with this idea shared by many people.

To be honest, I do not like this idea. Rather, I have to help patients who were abused in their childhood. They have failed to gain good immune systems, according to the latest studies. It is relieving that researchers suggest insufficient love can be compensated in later life. I will commit the recovery of mental health, as well as gene.

Not water but fruits and roots can mitigate hungover

Alcohol hungover is one of the most serious conditions at least subjectively. Therefore, there are several methods developed to prevent or mitigate the symptoms of hungover.

Many people believe dehydration is a cause of hungover. But a latest study denied this hypothesis.

Independent: Ultimate hangover cure can be made from ‘fruits, roots and leaves’, scientists claim

According to the researchers who wrote the article published in British Medical Journal, levels of water content in the body were not associated with the amount of alcohol consumption.

Instead, they prove that participants who took acerola, prickly pear, ginkgo biloba, willow and ginger root, as well as some minerals experienced mitigated symptoms of hungover such as headache. Thus, some fruit, roots, and leaves may be beneficial to counter hungover.

This conclusion is rational, or rather consistent with our daily experience. Therefore, I was not impressed to this result. Further studies are needed to develop a remedy for complete prevention of hungover.

White roof is better for the environment?

White roof is environment friendly, according to some scientists.

Inverse: THE SCIENTIFIC REASON WHY A WHITE ROOF IS BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

The reason is that white is reflecting color. Some studies suggest that cities composed of many white-roofed houses are less likely to be hit by the heat island phenomenon.

This result is a little surprising. But we often experience that wearing a black jacket makes us feeling warm. It is for the heat keeping effect of black color, not only for the clothes itself. Considering that, a white city may be cool.

In real, some city governments regulate the color of roof and wall of the houses mainly to maintain the harmonious landscape. In Japan, there are few cities with such legislation. But at some areas in Kyoto, some colors destroying the atmosphere of the town are prohibited. Convenience stores in such regions decorate their wall with specific color, different from usual ones of the franchise.

In the near future, white color painting will be mandated for new housing, perhaps for mitigating global warming.

IT as a solution for lockdown loneliness?

In the state of lockdown, we are forced to stay home. It causes us several problems not only physically but also mentally.

Sense of loneliness has been proven as a factor of shortening life expectancy. And social isolation is no other than loneliness. Thus, we have to manage our solitude somehow to maintain our health.

Latest neuroscience has clarified the characteristics of loneliness as well as the solution for it. Cognitive therapy is beneficial to modify our sense of solitude. As well, behavioral experiment will be effective to actually decrease desperate feeling.

However, several ways of treatment are unavailable now because of behavioral restriction. We cannot talk each other directly. Gyms are closed even if you want to take physical exercise.

Therefore, robotics and other information technologies have to be utilized properly. So far, online session was deemed as inferior to direct conversation in satisfactory level and degree of mutual understanding. It may be correct. But engineers are enthusiastic to overcome the gap.

The Conversation: The neuroscience of loneliness – and how technology is helping us

In my precision, the current situation will last for months, or even years. We have to adapt this status anyway.

Exercise will prevent liver cancer

Here, another benefit of exercise is suggested.

According to a newly published study, regular exercise will stop the development of liver cancer. It had been estimated that people exercise regularly are unlikely to have liver cancer. But its biological basis was unclear. The latest study used mice which were exposed to carcinogen. The group allowed to take exercise regularly grew less percentage of liver cancer.

Independent: Exercise may directly protect against liver cancer, study suggests

This experiment is interesting. But, a dominant cause of liver cancer Hepatitis viruses. Excessive alcohol consumption also leads to liver cancer. Especially in Japan, several people are suffering from hepatitis due to blood transfusion in the past. Also, obesity rate is not high in Japan. Therefore, even if the outcome of this study is correct, it will not have an impact in Japan, I guess.

Brain tumor can be erased by Vitamin B3?

A research team found a possibility that niacin (Vitamin B3) would be able to cure brain tumor.

Inverse: A “REMARKABLE” FINDING LINKS A COMMON VITAMIN TO FIGHTING BRAIN CANCER

According to V. Wee Yong, a professor at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine, niacin has a role of promoting immune systems. The result of studies with mice suggested extended survival time of subjects with glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma is one of the most difficult malignant neoplasms. I hardly believe such a simple component as Vitamin B3 will be a solution, to be honest. I hope their research will be successful.

Gloomy April Fool

Today, I write this entry on 1st, April.

Every year, I wrote some silly joke as an idea of April Fool. But this year, I would not like to write something.

The biggest reason is COVID-19 pandemic. More and more patients emerge everyday. We cannot see the termination of growing infectious storm. This situation is quite painful.

In addition, there are some false information, such as conspiracy theories, spread to the society following the tough situation. We have to be calm, neutral, and scientific. We have to avoid the risk of believing false facts.

Furthermore, my business as a researcher is unsuccessful. Therefore, I feel a little pessimistic.

More or less, everyone are inflicted damage by this situation. We have to maintain our daily life with least sacrifice.

AI image diagnosis is promised

Technology in medical science is very rapidly developing. Especially, AI solution is one of the most promised region.

Recently, some cases were reported in which an AI diagnosis was superior to doctor's. It is uncertain whether the machine will overwhelm human doctors completely. But, as far as limited to the issue of image diagnosis, we should properly rely on AI support.

Inverse: A NEW A.I. SYSTEM COULD MAKE SURE WE NEVER MISDIAGNOSE CANCER AGAIN

Because pattern recognition is a core element of image diagnosis. Radiologists are familiar to make a diagnosis with one snapshot. But they are not only trained to evaluate each image with a digital scale but also accustomed to distinguish some unnatural beings in a film. Their sense is similar to an instinct.

On the other hand, AI can learn something from massive number of films which were tagged as normal or abnormal. These tags are basically reliable because they had been investigated by physicians previously. Thus, AI can experience astronomical numbers of cases before facing a real patient.

Therefore, AI's sense is similar to those skilled radiologists have acquired. It does not matter whether it should be called a sense or not. It is certain that this learning process is quite rational.

Also in psychiatry, research for improving the quality of AI diagnosis is ongoing. But it will be much more tough, in my opinion. It is because each case are hardly tagged to "correct diagnosis."

Loss of smell is an early symptom of COVID-19 infection

A latest study suggests a way of quick diagnosis of COVID-19.

According to the researchers, loss of smell may be a fastest symptom after you are infected by corona virus newly developed. The abnormal sense of smell emerges before the you have dry cough and fatigue, main symptoms the virus inflicts. Loss of taste also can be a hint.

Time: Why Losing Your Sense of Smell Could Be a Symptom of COVID-19

Though I did not know, it is not rare a kind of viral infection cause anosmia. Also, there are several elements the change of smell can tell us about our health status, as I wrote in the past.

My past entry: AI smells your disease
My past entry: Smell diagnosis, is it no more fantasy?

At present, PCR method is used to diagnose COVID-19 infection. But its sensitivity is only 70%. Thus, a negative result hardly guarantees your safety. It is ironic that such a primitive sense of smell is superior to a latest technology.

After all, walking is good

There are several hypotheses to improve your health status. Thousands of methods have been developed. Most of them, however, are biased or unrealistic, unfortunately.

I have to say that walking is good practice to promote your health. It is highly trustworthy, at least compared to other numerous ways. In a recent study, the effect of walking is promised regardless of your exercise level.

The guardian: Higher step counts could lower risk of early death, study finds

As the author mentioned, this study is not free from the possibility of reverse causality. Thus, it is possible that only people can walk many steps will receive the benefit of walking. Walking harder will expand your life has not been proven, theoretically.

Nonetheless, I shall say, walking is not bad. Different from other type of exercises, walking is universal, and easy to be done for most people. The more you walk, the more you become healthy, with only little exceptions.

In recent days, many people are hesitating to walk out because of afraid of corona virus. It is no good in sense of primary health care. I recommend you to go out in fresh air.

Emoji will be an evidence?

I am a forensic psychiatrist. I am often summoned to a court as an expert witness. Making a presentation to explain the defendant's psychiatric diagnosis to the judges and lay judges is an important part of my work.

There are several kind of expert witnesses in court. Among them, forensic linguist has a role to interpret the document subjected of the conflict. According to the article below, the subjects of his or her investigation is now expanded to Japanese emoji.

The Conversation: Forensic linguists explore how emojis can be used as evidence in court

Emoji was Japan original culture, and now has been spread all over the world. Apple's latest iPhone has introduced a system to create emoji referring your face.

Many people send emojis with their smartphone. Their memorandum includes several emojis. Thus, it is possible that they are picked up in an evidence in court. Indeed, I sometimes see documents with emojis in court document. So I have to estimate how the author feels when using the emoji.

Utilizing smell to good sleep

Smelling is one of the oldest senses human developed. We are usually unaware of our smell. Rather, deodorant is a modern trend in developed countries. But, once in an issue of instinct, this primitive sensor has a great role.

A recent finding suggests a lover's smell leads us to good sleep.

Mic: The scent of your partner's shirt could make you sleep better and longer

Smell is an important factor to make a couple also in human. We may identify our partner unintentionally with smell.

Also, in medical region, some researchers are eager to utilize the smell of human's tissue, or even urine, to diagnose cancer or other diseases in the early stage. According to latest paper, some bacteria can distinguish the smell of tissues produced with abnormal process.

In the modern era, sense of smell tends to be regretted. But it is possible to make use of it in an innovative way.

Low-carb diet prevent dementia?

The standard of nutrition frequently changes. Until recently, it was not recommended to eat multiple eggs in a day. But latest studies suggest that taking eggs would not contribute to increasing blood cholesterol.

As well, there is broad controversy regarding proper strategy for healthy diet. Some people recommend to reduce total amount of calories. Others emphasize the balance of carb and fat. Most researchers agree with the importance of exercise. But the magnitude of its effect is still under argument.

In recent, low-carb diet is popular for years. Many practitioners share the opinion that taking excessive carbohydrate, especially in a short time, is harmful. But why?

A recent study suggests the possibility that low-card diet reverses the aging of the brain, surprisingly.

The Guardian: Low-carb diet may reverse age-related brain deterioration, study finds

This article is written based on an academic paper published in PNAS. In this paper, the researchers claim brain deconstruction begins in late 40s. And changing diet to low-carb style will prevent the deterioration and even reverse the brain damage.

PNAS: Diet modulates brain network stability, a biomarker for brain aging, in young adults

The researchers hypothesize that brain degeneration while aging is accelerated by metabolic stress. They believe that the balance between glucose and ketone has a crucial role in brain damage.

However, they have not proven the concrete effect of low-carb diet on aging. As they mention, our dietary activity is so complex that it is difficult to make an experimental evidence.

At present, I believe the hypothesis that highly carb-dependent diet will harmful for your brain. But it is not sure how reducing carbohydrate is beneficial for cognitive function.

Betelgeuse will vanish soon

In the vast universe, a star is going to end its life, perhaps.

Science Focus: Is the Betelgeuse star about to explode?
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/is-the-betelgeuse-star-about-to-explode/

Betelgeuse is a magnitude 1 star located in the constellation of Orion. It is the largest star whom we can see with naked eyes. It is one of the more popular stars in the sky I guess.

On the other hand, Betelgeuse is recognized as a very old star. A star dramatically expands when its mortality is coming. Recently, it was observed that Betelgeuse is changing its brightness for some months.

Nature: Mysterious faded star Betelgeuse has started to brighten again
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00561-z

What is happened at Betelgeuse is discussed among astrologists. Some researchers prospect Betelgeuse will explode soon. After that, it will become a black hole. If this expectation is correct, we will be able to see the historic phenomenon that a star is dying.

However, others are against this idea. It is so difficult to recognize the status of the space far away from the earth.

Anyway, what we see now is the figure of 700 years ago since Betelgeuse is distant from earth by 700 light year. The fate of Betelgeuse has been already determined. It looks strange.

Annoying SPSS

SPSS is a leading software of statistical analysis provided by IBM. Most researchers use SPSS for examining the data they gained. It is almost essential for scientists to utilize SPSS.

However, SPSS has some disadvantages. First, SPSS is very costly. It takes over 1,000 USD even for minimal use.

Second, SPSS is very hard to use. The interface of SPSS is not sophisticated. Its quality is far inferior to Microsoft Excel.

And third, SPSS has several bugs. Statisticians say they do not recommend us to use SPSS because of many bugs. When I heard it for the first time, I imagined that there were merely technical issues around the calculation. But actually, there are many apparent and critical bugs in SPSS. For example, when copying the data of Microsoft Excel to SPSS spreadsheet, a line of datasheet disappeared. I had to check hundreds of lines of the data manually.

After all, I consider abandoning SPSS. It is critical for me if the bug led to an incorrect conclusion of my research.

MMR vaccination does not cause autism

A newly developed evidenced denies the causal relationship between vaccination of measles, mumps and rubella and the onset of autism.

The Guardian: No link between autism and MMR, affirms major study

There have been debates about the adverse effects of vaccination. Most of the claims suggesting the health risk of vaccination lack evidence, in my sense. Therefore, this result published recently is not surprising at all. But, it is essential to prove scientifically a fact that has been consistent with clinician's common sense.

On the other hand, autism is a heterogeneous illness. There is no decisive etiology to explain the onset of autism. It means several hypotheses are still allowed to be considered. Thus, it is theoretically possible that exposure to some kind of chemical substance would raise the risk of the onset of autism.

In general, autism is deemed as a congenital disease. Therefore, it is unlikely that a particular treatment such as vaccination in their childhood is a cause of autism. On the other hand, autism becomes apparent in early childhood. Parents often think their early nurturing is so bad to make their child autistic. More complicated, there are some other illnesses caused by environmental issues which are often misidentified as autism.

Anyway, scientific consideration and critical thinking are important for better support to children at risks. At present, MMR vaccination is beneficial for a child's health far more than the risk.

Collective intelligence in medical science

Crowd working seems to be beneficial for physicians.

Reuters: When diagnosing a patient's ills, there's strength in numbers

An international online project was conducted to prove the correctness of collaborative diagnosing. Over a thousand of medical doctors participated in the test for correct diagnosis. The correct rate was only 62.5% in physicians and doctors-in-training. However, after consulting with other residents, the rate was raised to 85.6%, according to the report.

It looks quite natural that collaboration among specialists results in better outcome, for ordinary people. But, physicians are usually proud of their ability of diagnosing patient. They often hesitate to consult with other doctor. Furthermore, there are some paradoxical etiologies in many regions in medical science. Therefore, it seems a little surprising result, in my sense.

Especially, psychiatry is one of the specialties in which medical diagnosis is controversial. The previous year, WHO released ICD-11, revised from ICD-10. There are many points of argument in ICD-11. So far, consensus in diagnosis itself is still yet to be developed.

Oxytocin level decides your marriage?

A new study found that marital stability is partially affected by genotypes.

The Telegraph: Key to a happy marriage? It's in your genes, scientists discover

According to the researchers, there is some variation regarding oxytocin, a hormone recently attracting specialists' attention, in genes. People with GG genotype are likely to be satisfied with their social relationship due to a stabilized release of oxytocin.

Indeed, oxytocin is said to be associated with social bonding, and even love. Oxytocin is expected to be a remedy to cure social disturbance in patients with autism, though the outcome is yet to be critically examined.

However, it is hardly credible that a single hormone influences the success rate of a couple's life.

Researchers calculated that the intensity of influence by oxytocin was 4%. It seems reasonable rate, I sense.

Nowadays, the divorce rate is increasing in many developed countries. It is for several societal reasons. I am doubtful that the oxytocin level is inferior in modern humans to ancestors.