News

A compelling documentary featuring an artist’s journey to “co-live” with distressing voices has sparked renewed interest in non-pathologizing approaches to auditory experiences. Rather than focusing solely on symptom elimination, this powerful narrative emphasizes acceptance, creative expression, and practical coping strategies — approaches increasingly supported by clinical research.

The artist’s story resonates with a growing body of evidence suggesting many individuals who hear voices thrive without inpatient care. Studies demonstrate that interventions emphasizing coexistence rather than eradication can significantly reduce psychological distress while improving overall quality of life. This paradigm shift holds particular relevance for Thailand, where rising mental health service demands meet limited urban access and where traditional Buddhist practices already embrace mindful acceptance.

Mounting scientific evidence reveals that the most accessible route to enhanced cognitive performance may be one already available to everyone: quality sleep. Leading neuroscientists demonstrate that sleep transcends simple energy restoration—it actively consolidates memories, eliminates metabolic brain waste, and strengthens neural pathways underlying problem-solving and creativity. This means improving sleep habits could boost academic performance and workplace productivity in ways that brief “brain training” applications cannot match, according to specialized neuroscience research interviews and comprehensive sleep studies.

In Buddhist temples across Thailand, many seek forgiveness for past mistakes. But groundbreaking psychological research reveals that some people remain imprisoned by self-blame due to a profound internal conflict — and understanding this struggle could transform how Thai families, clinicians, and communities support healing.

A comprehensive qualitative study published in Self & Identity has uncovered the psychological mechanics behind why certain individuals cannot forgive themselves, while others successfully move forward from guilt and shame. The research reveals that people trapped in self-condemnation face a deep conflict between two fundamental psychological needs: personal agency and moral identity.

A federal jury in Northern California has found Meta liable for illegally collecting and using highly sensitive reproductive health data from users of the Flo Health period‑tracking app to run targeted advertising, a decision that legal experts say could reshape how consumer health apps handle data worldwide. The verdict held Meta responsible under the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act for receiving reproductive and menstrual information sent by the Flo app between 2016 and 2019, and comes after settlements with other defendants and a 2021 Federal Trade Commission action against Flo Health (Fierce Healthcare).

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has expanded its Global Polio Alert, issuing Level 2 “Practice Enhanced Precautions” travel notices for five widely visited European countries after environmental surveillance found poliovirus in wastewater. The move does not close borders but urges travellers and health systems to check and update polio vaccination before travel, and highlights how wastewater surveillance is revealing silent spread of vaccine-derived polioviruses in places previously thought low-risk (CDC Travel Health Notices).

Ora Beach on Seram Island offers turquoise lagoons, dramatic cliffs and near-empty sands that feel like a Maldives getaway for a fraction of the price, yet travel to such places remains slow, costly and logistically tricky — a problem that is keeping many visitors clustered in Bali while smaller islands plead for better connections and investment. ( Want a cheap Maldives-like holiday in Indonesia? The problem is getting there — SCMP )

China has reported a rapidly growing outbreak of chikungunya in southern Guangdong province that authorities say has now passed the 10,000-case mark, prompting aggressive mosquito-control measures and renewed international attention to a virus that causes fever and crippling joint pain. The spike, centred on the manufacturing hub of Foshan and already linked to cases in Hong Kong and Taiwan, has exposed vulnerabilities in urban areas where Aedes mosquitoes thrive and where population movement can seed new clusters of infection (Express: Pandemic fears erupt as China’s agonising virus hits horrifying milestone). This developing situation matters to Thailand because of frequent travel links, shared mosquito species, recent local history with chikungunya and the seasonal conditions that favour Aedes breeding across Southeast Asia (BBC: What to know about chikungunya virus as cases rise in China).

A growing body of research and firsthand reports suggests an unsettling pattern: students who leave high school with solid grades are arriving at university underprepared for the academic demands of college. A Slate parenting column that opened with a family’s struggle — where a daughter with strong high‑school marks lost her scholarship after a difficult first semester and a sibling now faces uncertainty — reflects a wider trend educators and researchers are sounding the alarm about (Slate advice column). ( There’s an Alarming Trend Happening at Our Kids’ High School. I Need to Stop It. )

For decades, the straightforward public health message has been unequivocal: milk builds strong bones. However, the latest comprehensive reviews and clinical trials paint a far more nuanced picture that challenges this conventional wisdom. While milk remains a convenient source of calcium and protein for many individuals, emerging evidence suggests fermented dairy may offer superior fracture protection, and overall dietary patterns combined with exercise appear more crucial for long-term bone strength than simply increasing milk consumption.

Groundbreaking international research reveals that dopamine, the brain’s key neurotransmitter, orchestrates learning through two sophisticated pathways: rapidly enhancing effortful working-memory strategies while simultaneously boosting slower, trial-and-error reinforcement learning when pharmacologically increased. This comprehensive study, combining advanced brain imaging with medications commonly prescribed for ADHD treatment and sophisticated computational models, demonstrates that individual dopamine production levels predict learning strategy preferences, while methylphenidate (Ritalin) amplifies incremental learning processes and antipsychotic medications reduce working-memory dependence, according to Nature Communications research findings and specialized psychological research publications.

A growing body of research suggests that the simplest route to sharper thinking and better learning may be the one most people already have access to: sleep. Neuroscientists say sleep does more than restore energy — it actively consolidates memories, clears metabolic waste from the brain and strengthens the neural pathways that underpin problem-solving and creativity. That means improving sleep habits could boost academic performance and work productivity in ways that short bursts of “brain training” apps cannot match (Tom’s Guide interview with a neuroscientist).

Across Thailand’s bustling cities and quiet provinces alike, a silent health crisis unfolds every day. Office workers in Bangkok’s glass towers hunch over keyboards. Students in Chiang Mai dormitories scroll endlessly through social media. Street food vendors check orders on their phones between customers. All share a common enemy: the persistent ache that radiates from neck to shoulders, the stiffness that follows them home each evening.

This phenomenon, dubbed “tech neck” by health professionals, affects millions of Thais who spend countless hours gazing downward at digital screens. But emerging research suggests a surprisingly simple solution lies within reach—just four targeted exercises that can be performed anywhere, anytime.

A short, regular programme of targeted neck and shoulder strengthening exercises can reduce the stiffness, pain and postural strain commonly called “tech neck,” according to rehabilitation experts and recent scientific reviews. Practical moves such as prone Y–T–W raises, assisted wall angels, raised neck repetitions and loaded shoulder shrugs aim to rebuild the local muscle support that holds the head over the spine, providing longer-lasting relief than stretching or intermittent breaks alone (These four neck and shoulder strengthening exercises are the answer to alleviating tech neck).

How the world’s most-visited country avoids resident backlash while breaking tourism records

While Spanish cities erupted in anti-tourist protests and Italian destinations buckled under visitor pressure in 2024, France quietly welcomed a record-breaking 100 million international visitors without triggering widespread social unrest. This remarkable achievement offers crucial insights for Thailand’s tourism industry as the kingdom seeks to balance economic growth with community well-being and environmental protection.

The French Formula: Dispersion, Domestic Travel, and Smart Management

France’s success stems from a carefully orchestrated strategy that prevents tourist saturation from reaching what researchers call the social “tipping point” — the moment when local tolerance collapses into active resistance. According to tourism analysts at Euronews and industry data from Atout France, this approach has three pillars that Thailand can adapt to its own unique context.

A new animal study suggests the hormone oxytocin does more than make us feel warm and trusting: it helps friendships form quickly and helps animals favor familiar companions while avoiding strangers. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that prairie voles genetically engineered to lack oxytocin receptors took far longer to prefer peers and were less selective in group settings, pointing to a dual role for oxytocin in promoting in-group affiliation and out-group avoidance (Neuroscience News summary of the study). The findings offer a clearer picture of the neurobiology behind friendship and raise cautious questions about how this knowledge might inform understanding of human social disorders and community wellbeing in Thailand and beyond (UC Berkeley news release).

Doctors and researchers warn that lung cancer is being grossly undercounted across sub‑Saharan Africa — a “hidden epidemic” masked by weak death registration, frequent misdiagnosis as tuberculosis, and late presentation — and the lessons have direct relevance for Thailand as tobacco companies pivot to low‑ and middle‑income markets and non‑communicable diseases rise in importance (NPR report on hidden epidemic). The global toll of lung cancer remains enormous: roughly 1.8 million deaths a year, making it the single deadliest cancer worldwide (IARC/GLOBOCAN global lung cancer data). The mismatch between apparent low lung‑cancer rates in much of Africa and what clinicians are seeing on the ground highlights how gaps in diagnosis, data and health systems can hide a growing threat that also matters for Thailand’s health planners and communities.

A new study finds the human imagination can reliably simulate the path of a single invisible moving object but struggles to keep track of two at the same time, a result that surprises researchers and has practical implications for teaching, safety and design in Thailand. The experiments, described in Nature Communications, used short animations of bouncing balls that vanished from view and asked participants to predict where and when those objects would hit; people performed well with one disappeared ball but fell to near chance with two, supporting a serial “one-at-a-time” model of mental simulation rather than a parallel one (Nature Communications PDF). The finding suggests that while our eyes and attention can monitor a handful of visible moving objects, the mind’s eye has a much narrower working capacity when it must continue motion after objects drop out of view (Harvard Gazette report).

Why spectacular beaches remain out of reach for most travelers — and what Thailand can learn

Crystal-clear lagoons stretch toward dramatic limestone cliffs at Ora Beach on Seram Island, creating postcard-perfect scenes that rival the Maldives at a fraction of the cost. Yet this Indonesian paradise, like countless similar destinations across the archipelago, remains largely unknown to international travelers due to a fundamental challenge: getting there requires multiple time-consuming transfers that can transform a relaxing beach holiday into a logistical marathon.

A new systematic review and meta-analysis of 33 randomized trials finds that structured laughter interventions — from laughter yoga to therapeutic clowns and comedy sessions — produce measurable reductions in anxiety and meaningful increases in life satisfaction across diverse adult populations. The global analysis pooled data from 2,159 participants and reported a large overall effect on anxiety and a similarly large effect on life satisfaction, with consistent benefits in clinical and community settings. The findings add weight to calls for low‑cost, low‑risk mental health tools that can be scaled into hospitals, schools and workplaces in Thailand and beyond (The Role of Laughter Therapy in Adults: Life Satisfaction and Anxiety Control — Journal of Happiness Studies).

A new study of more than 800 U.S. adults finds that people who feel lonely do not only view others and their social world more negatively — they also tend to judge themselves as giving less and being more of a strain on close relationships, especially with family. The paper reports that a physiological marker of emotional flexibility, high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), showed a modest buffering effect: people with higher resting HF-HRV were somewhat less likely to link their loneliness with feeling burdensome to family members (Psychophysiology article). The findings highlight how loneliness can reshape self-perception and suggest practical pathways — from breathing-based exercises to community outreach — that could help break cycles of withdrawal and isolation.

In a groundbreaking verdict that sends shockwaves across Asia’s digital health landscape, a California federal jury has held Meta liable for secretly harvesting intimate reproductive health data from millions of women worldwide—including thousands of Thai users of the popular Flo Health period-tracking app.

The Billion-Dollar Privacy Breach That Changed Everything

The landmark ruling emerged from what began as a quiet class action filed by eight women but exploded into a massive legal reckoning involving millions of users across 190 countries, including Thailand. Between 2016 and 2019, Meta systematically collected and exploited the most intimate details of women’s lives: menstrual cycles, pregnancy status, sexual activity, contraceptive choices, and fertility struggles.

A viral BuzzFeed thread of millennials comparing notes on whether they enjoyed “free‑range” childhoods has reignited a wider conversation among researchers, parents and educators about how much independence children are allowed to have, what has changed since the 1980s–2000s, and the health and social consequences of more restricted childhoods. The Reddit‑sourced BuzzFeed piece captures millennial reminiscences of roaming neighbourhoods, unsupervised bike rides and long summer days outdoors, and it sits alongside a growing body of academic evidence that children’s independent mobility and outdoor play have fallen sharply in many countries — with measurable effects on physical activity, mental wellbeing and social skills (BuzzFeed roundup of r/Millennials responses).

Researchers report a potential new class of weight‑loss compounds that hit a different brain target and produced strong slimming and improved blood‑sugar control in animals — without the nausea and vomiting that force many people off current drugs. The team discovered that hindbrain support cells (astrocytes and glia) make a peptide called octadecaneuropeptide (ODN), then designed a drug‑like derivative, tridecaneuropeptide (TDN), that reduced food intake and improved insulin responses in obese mice and emesis‑capable musk shrews without causing sickness. The finding could unlock obesity and diabetes treatments that are easier for patients to tolerate and easier for health systems to deliver (Science Translational Medicine paper).

A new study using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and a frequency-focused algorithm called FREQ-NESS shows that even a simple, steady beat can reshape large-scale brain networks in seconds, shifting the balance from inward-focused circuits to sensory and memory systems and linking slow rhythms to fast gamma bursts that knit perception into memory. The finding, published in Advanced Science and highlighted by researchers at Aarhus University and the University of Oxford, offers a clearer picture of how rhythm drives brain dynamics and points to practical applications ranging from music therapy to smarter brain–computer interfaces in Thailand and beyond (Advanced Science paper).