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Fitness trackers find new symptom of depression: body temperature

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Re: Fitness trackers find new symptom of depression: body temperature

#11
post #6
post #2

Feels like we're living in the dark ages of correlations. Given today's compute power and availability of medical data, why wasn't this already a well known fact?

It's easy to find correlations, having enough evidence to rule out mere coincidence is harder. http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

That's why you need more than two handfuls of datapoints ...

Re: Fitness trackers find new symptom of depression: body temperature

#12
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have the slightest idea how many variables to check for correlations there are in a biological system as complex as the human body? And how few of those variables can be reliably measured and analyzed at the same time in most of these studies?

Actually, a lot is being recorded ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiomics

Yeah I know, I used to work for a single-cell molecular neurobiology group. But you're citing a development that mostly took of in the last decade, and your question was "why wasn't this already a well known fact?"

That implies disdain that this wasn't discovered ages ago, to the point where it is widely a known truth among regular people. A fact discovered relatively recently as part of very exciting new things that are taking place in biology and medicine would not qualify for that.

Re: Fitness trackers find new symptom of depression: body temperature

#13

I have a hard time making sense of parts of this article. RE: Treatment: "“What is we can track the body temperature of people with depression to time heat-based treatments well?” "If thermoregulation is a symptom of depression, as the Oura Ring study suggests, temperature treatment could be an effective way to treat depression." Thermoregulation is a symptom of depression? How do they reach the conclusion that "temp…

It looks like a medical anti pattern, deal with the symptom that the base disease will cure itself, somewhat, maybe magically.

I know that forcing a happy face could lighten up a bit your mood, but this is going too far, and maybe is too simplistic in its view of depression.

Re: Fitness trackers find new symptom of depression: body temperature

#14
post #9
post #4

Maybe AC ownership correlated with depression during summer. Being hot sucks.

Many parts of the world don't have AC, and many people in those parts are not depressed. Source: it's 22h00 here and its probably about 28C in my bedroom now. The walls are radiating heat into the room after baking in the sun the whole day. All my windows are open and ceiling fan is on. I'll be sleeping on top of a towel tonight as to not destroy my mattress. I'm definitely not depressed... I think.

That's HOT!

Re: Fitness trackers find new symptom of depression: body temperature

#15

I have a hard time making sense of parts of this article. RE: Treatment: "“What is we can track the body temperature of people with depression to time heat-based treatments well?” "If thermoregulation is a symptom of depression, as the Oura Ring study suggests, temperature treatment could be an effective way to treat depression." Thermoregulation is a symptom of depression? How do they reach the conclusion that "temp…

There’s research that getting really hot (ie with hot saunas) can affect depression. One interesting supporting finding is that if you run around but don’t get hot (ie don’t sweat) then the exercise doesn’t do much for depression

Re: Fitness trackers find new symptom of depression: body temperature

#17
post #9
post #4

Maybe AC ownership correlated with depression during summer. Being hot sucks.

Many parts of the world don't have AC, and many people in those parts are not depressed. Source: it's 22h00 here and its probably about 28C in my bedroom now. The walls are radiating heat into the room after baking in the sun the whole day. All my windows are open and ceiling fan is on. I'll be sleeping on top of a towel tonight as to not destroy my mattress. I'm definitely not depressed... I think.

Dry or humid heat?
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