Changes in taste and odor sensitivities during repeated bicycle ergometer exercises.

Background: Effective nutritional support is essential for maintaining good performance during exercise. Taste and olfaction are key senses for food intake, and understanding how their sensitivities change during exercise is important for effective nutritional support. However, the effects of exercise on taste and odor sensitivities remain unclear.

Quantile outcome adaptive lasso: Covariate selection for inverse probability weighting estimator of quantile treatment effects.

When using the propensity score method to estimate the treatment effects, it is important to select the covariates to be included in the propensity score model. The inclusion of covariates unrelated to the outcome in the propensity score model led to bias and large variance in the estimator of treatment effects. Many data-driven covariate selection methods have been proposed for selecting covariates related to outcomes.

Efficacy and safety of adrenomedullin for acute ischemic stroke (AMFIS): a phase 2, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, clinical trial.

Background: Adrenomedullin has angiogenic and vasoprotective effects in acute ischemic stroke (AIS). This investigator-initiated trial aimed to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and optimal administration of adrenomedullin in treating AIS.

Methods: In this single-center, multi-cohort, double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled, Phase II trial, patients with AIS received pulsed adrenomedullin (9 ng/kg/min for 8 h daily over 7 days) or placebo in the first-half cohort, and continuous-pulsed adrenomedullin (9 ng/kg/min for 72 h during the first 3 days and 8 h daily between Day 4-7) or placebo in the second-half cohort.

Dietary Habits, Nutrition Intake, and Alcohol Consumption Based on Types of Smoking and Smoking Status: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background/objectives: Smoking increases the risk for multiple lifestyle-related diseases. In Japan, consumption of heated tobacco products (HTPs), a novel cigarette type, is rising. However, no studies have yet compared dietary habits among HTP smokers.

Vicious cycle of vitamin B insufficiency and heart failure in cardiology outpatients.

Heart failure is a major manifestation of vitamin B deficiency; beriberi. We have previously reported that even vitamin B insufficiency, milder than deficiency, is a risk for heart failure in the institutionalized elderly. Then in this cross-sectional study, sixty-eight cardiology outpatients were evaluated for their whole blood vitamin B and plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) concentrations, a sensitive marker of heart failure, as well as their dietary intake.

Monoclonal antibodies against jellyfish collagen.

Collagens are abundant structural proteins found in both mammalian and marine species, and attractive biomaterials used in various fields. Jellyfish collagen-based products have become increasingly popular because of their clinically proven health benefits such as the effects of skin wound healing and immune stimulation. To develop detection tools for jellyfish collagen, we generated four monoclonal antibodies, MCOL1, 2, 3, and 4, by immunizing mice with moon jellyfish collagen.

The association of schooling, sibling life situation, and dietary habits with the estimated 24-h urinary salt excretion and sodium-to-potassium ratio in 3-year-old children.

Objectives: We examined the association of schooling, sibling life situation, and dietary habits with the estimated 24-h urinary salt excretion and the urinary sodium-to-potassium (Na/K) ratio in 3-year-old children.

Methods: The subjects were 639 children who underwent a health checkup in four cities and towns in Kyoto Prefecture from January to November 2019. The children's parents answered questionnaires about weekday childcare places, the birth order, and the awareness of reducing the salt intake.

Associations between leisure time, non-leisure time physical activity, and kidney function in Japanese adults: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) contributes to decreased life expectancy. We examined the association between leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), non-leisure-time physical activity (non-LTPA) and kidney function.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study including 32 162 community-dwelling adults aged ≥ 20 years from the Tohoku Medical MegaBank community-based cohort study.

The complexities of salt taste reception: insights into the role of TMC4 in chloride taste detection.

Although salt is an essential substance vital to life, excessive salt intake could cause various health issues. Therefore, new technologies and strategies should be developed to reduce salt intake without compromising taste. However, the underlying physiological mechanisms of salt taste reception is complex and not completely understood.

Anti-epileptic drug use and subsequent degenerative dementia occurrence.

Introduction: The use of anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) in degenerative dementia (DD) remains uncertain. We aimed to evaluate the association of early AED administration with subsequent DD occurrence.

Methods: Using a large nationwide database, we enrolled patients newly diagnosed with epilepsy from 2014 to 2019 ( = 104,225), and using propensity score matching, we divided them into treatment (those prescribed AEDs in 2014) and control groups.

Association of oral hypofunction with aspiration pneumonia, fractures, and mortality in older Japanese adults.

Aim: In Japan's public health system, dentists can assess and intervene in oral hypofunction cases. However, the associations between oral hypofunction and health outcomes and costs remain unclear. This study aimed to identify these associations.

Familiarity with non-famous faces increases "person misidentification".

People sometimes mistakenly identify an unknown person they encounter as a known person. Previous studies have elucidated this phenomenon and revealed that it is a common experience. However, no experimental study has identified factors associated with its occurrence.

Changes in gene expression due to aging in the hypothalamus of mice.

Aging generally affects food consumption and energy metabolism. Since the feeding center is located in the hypothalamus, it is a major target for understanding the mechanism of age-related changes in eating behavior and metabolism. To obtain insight into the age-related changes in gene expression in the hypothalamus, we investigated genes whose expression changes with age in the hypothalamus.

Oral Breathing Facilitates Endoscopic Operability Compared With Nasal Breathing in Peroral Endoscopy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Introduction: Unsedated peroral endoscopy, including ultrathin endoscopy (UE) and conventional endoscopy (CE), is feasible in clinical practice but requires improved endoscopic operability and patient tolerance. Currently, the impact of the breathing method on these factors remains unclear. We conducted the first randomized controlled trial comparing oral breathing (OB) and nasal breathing (NB) during both UE and CE to assess their influence.

The association of birth weight and current BMI on the risk of hypertension: the Tohoku medical megabank community-based cohort study.

This study aimed to investigate the association of combination of birth weight and current body mass index (BMI) with the risk of hypertension in adulthood. This cross-sectional study used data from the Tohoku Medical Megabank Community-based Cohort Study conducted in Japan. A total of 10,688 subjects aged ≥20 years were eligible.

How Healthy Lifestyle Habits Have Interacted with SARS-CoV-2 Infection and the Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccinations: Tohoku Medical Megabank Project Birth and Three-Generation Cohort Study.

Introduction: To examine the interaction between lifestyle habits and the COVID-19 vaccinations for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection, we analyzed 11,016 adult participants registered in the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project Birth and Three-Generation Cohort Study.

Methods: Lifestyle variables, including regular exercise, smoking and drinking habits, sleep status, body mass index, and daily breakfast consumption, were assessed from 2014 to 2019 using baseline questionnaires. Information on SARS-CoV-2 infection and the COVID-19 vaccination were also collected from March 2020 to May 2023.

Urgent Notification Intervention of Home Blood Pressure in Cohort Studies of the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project.

Introduction: The Tohoku Medical Megabank (TMM) was established for creative reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Two prospective genome cohort studies in Miyagi prefecture have successfully recruited approximately 127,000 participants. The health status of these individuals was evaluated at the initial recruitment, and follow-up health checkups have been conducted every 5 years.

Objective and self-reported assessment of sleep quality during each trimester of pregnancy: A prospective observational study.

Objectives: Studies on actual circumstances of sleep in pregnant women are limited to surveys of self-reported symptoms, and objective assessments are missing. Sleep disturbances due to hormonal imbalances are common during pregnancy. This study aimed to assess sleep quality by objective assessment using an actigraph and by self-reported assessment using a questionnaire for sleep during each trimester of pregnancy and to elucidate how sleep quality changed from the first to the third trimester of pregnancy.

Depressive symptoms as risk factors for the onset of home hypertension: a prospective cohort study.

Depression is comorbid with somatic diseases; however, the relationship between depressive symptoms and hypertension (HT), a risk factor for cardiovascular events, remains unclear. Home blood pressure (BP) is more reproducible and accurately predictive of cardiovascular diseases than office BP. Therefore, we focused on home BP and investigated whether depressive symptoms contributed to the future onset of home HT.

Associations of combined genetic and lifestyle risks with hypertension and home hypertension.

No study, to our knowledge, has constructed a polygenic risk score based on clinical blood pressure and investigated the association of genetic and lifestyle risks with home hypertension. We examined the associations of combined genetic and lifestyle risks with hypertension and home hypertension. In a cross-sectional study of 7027 Japanese individuals aged ≥20 years, we developed a lifestyle score based on body mass index, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and sodium-to-potassium ratio, categorized into ideal, intermediate, and poor lifestyles.

[I]CLINDE SPECT as a neuroinflammation imaging approach in a rat model of stroke.

Poststroke neuroinflammation exacerbates disease progression. [C]PK11195-positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has been used to visualize neuroinflammation; however, its short half-life of 20 min limits its clinical use. [I]CLINDE has a longer half-life (13h); therefore, [I]CLINDE-single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging is potentially more practical than [C]PK11195-PET imaging in clinical settings.