Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Dr. Fish

　　There are fishes which are called Dr. Fish in Japan. I don't know their real name, but my daughter, A, had tried to put her feet into the aquarium. In the picture, her feet and Dr. Fishes show up. They gather around her feet. Do you know what they are doing? They are eating dead skin cells, and it seems to be good for her skin. Annlie told me that it tickled, but was comfortable. I replied that I'd never be such a fish that had to eat her dead skin if I could live another life again. And one more funny story. She had a scab on her foot at that time, and the fishes ate it. The abrasion was almost cured, but it started to bleed again.

 

(Vocabulary)

aquarium [C] (複 aquariums, aquaria /-riə/) (養魚用の) 水槽; 水族館

show up（写真などに）写っている 

dead skin cells / cuticle / horn 角質

tickling / titillative  くすぐったい 

crust / scab （治りかけた傷口の）かさぶた

 

Aging Population

My hospital plays a part in the emergency medical service in my city. It's open to the public for 24 hours on one of eight days. Lots of people come and see doctors on this day, and some of them are hospitalized.
Now, there is an issue on accommodation. We have to have some stable or chronic state patients leave hospital in order to newly undertake emergency cases under the limitation of the number of beds. For instance, most CVA (Cerebral Vascular Accident; infarction, bleeding etc) patients are likely to become feeble and are sometimes in a vegetative state. Though these patients should be transferred to nursing homes to keep the function of emergency hospitals normal, troublingly there aren't enough facilities. This problem is getting more and more serious day by day.

(Vocabulary)
an aging population  人口の高齢化
play a part in the international effort led by the United States
アメリカ主導のその国際的努力の一端を担う
vegetative  (人の) 植物状態の
a vegetative state  植物状態
instance [C] (出来事の) 例, 事例, 実例
instances of discrimination  人種差別の実例
for instance  例えば
troubling  心配な, 悩ましい
troublingly  困ったことに

Electrically-Assisted Bicycle

     I went to the municipal library after lunch today. This public library accepts orders by e-mail too, so I sent an e-mail and asked for some books a few days ago, and I got an e-mail from the library today, saying that all were ready.

     It was about three or four kilometers from my office, and I could walk there, but it was in the lunch break and I didn't have enough time, so I used a bicycle, which was electrically-assisted and which any one of the staff members could use. This was my first experience of this type of bicycle.

     There were no hills between my office and the library. The effect of assistance seemed to remarkably appear on the hills, but I felt it sufficiently even on the flat course. The first pedalling was incredibly light. The bicycle accelerated easily and smoothly.

     Looking for information on the internet, a considerable number of people seemed to use this kind of bicycle for commuting in big cities like Tokyo. They don't need to have parking lots in the center of the city. They can elude the heavy trafic jams. Riding bicycles is good for their health. My commuting distance is only 6 km, but I usually use my scooter. I'm thinking of changing my means of transportation.

(Vocabulary)

a considerable amount/number of sth   かなりの量［数］の＜…＞

  

Japanese Herbal Medicine, Boohuutuusyoosan

     Generally speaking, there are two types of medicine in Japan, though they were categorized into various groups by lots of viewpoints, in short western medicines and oriental medicines. I didn't learn any remedies by oriental medicines in my college days, because they were not acknowledged to be sufficiently effective. Only a few physicians used to believe in the effectiveness of them at that time.

     Originally, these medicines were developed in ancient China. Numerous plants, trees, stones, soils and animals were used as medicines, and those materials had been mixed or thrown away for a few thousands years. They were imported into Japan long ago and were developed individually by the efforts of Japanese researchers.

     You might be wondering why they hadn't been used in modern medicine. It's because they haven't any scientific evidence. They had been created through a trial and error process. I imagine that a huge number of people would have been killed in this process. In western countries, evidence is the key to medicine, and so this type of medicine hadn't been used. However, a famous medical journal, "Surgery", adopted a research paper about one of the Japanese herbal medicines several months ago and it was epoch-making.

     Boohuutuusyoosan in the title of this entry is well known and one of this kind. It is said to be able to remove excessive adipose tissue. I started a human experiment on me. Japanese herbal medicine is really mysterious.

(Vocabulary)

through a trial and error process  試行錯誤して

(KW: 防風通聖散)

Metabolic Syndrome

     First of all, look at the picture. It's the CT scan of my abdomen, just the navel level.
     Nowadays "metabolic syndrome" gets a lot of publicity in the media in Japan. Many people have a certain interest in the metabolic syndrome.
     If you don't know this unhealthy status, see the following url.
    http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4756

     The criteria for diagnosing this is:

1.  Abdominal circumference (in Japanese):
        Men          Equal to or greater than 85 cm
        Women    Equal to or greater than 90 cm
        As you know, it is different from the criteria of the American Heart Association.

2.  Elevated blood pressure

3.  Elevated triglycerides

4.  Elevated fasting glucose

     If you meet condition 1 and also 2 or 3 or 4, you are going to be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. Much evidence has proved this unhealthy status develops serious illnesses. It's important to prevent such a development.
     My hospital is going to provide the screening of the metabolic syndrome for citizens. Prior to the public announcement, about 20 staff members of my hospital became human guinea pigs. I was one of them. X-ray technicians calculate the portion of subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue on the CT scan. They are debating which color they will use for standing for the adipose tissue. In my scan film, the fat is displayed in red, and the muscle is in green. The red is frequently used as a warning color in general. It proved that I am a visceral-dominant type, and it's not good. Fortunately, the condition that I met is No.1 only, so I wasn't sentenced to a consultation with nutricians. It's true that I'm out of the criteria of the metabolic syndrome, but I'm sure to be on the border.
     One more thing. I was surprised and sad to examine the rectus muscle of my abdomen on the CT scan film. My muscle was very thin. It looked very weak. I had been thinking I'm active and powerful for my age. I found it was a vain illusion.
It seems that I need some action.

(Vocabulary)
publicity　宣伝、広告、評判、パブリシティー、広く一般に知られていること
fasting glucose　空腹時血糖
meet needs/ conditions/ standards  ニーズ［条件，基準］を満たす

 

Technical School

     I have one more job once a week. It's a teacher of general medicine in a technical college. The new school term in Japan starts in April and ends in March. This term has almost ended. Today I gave the last lecture to the students of the nursery course. Because I had already done the whole year's course, I gave the students the choice of today's topic. They wanted to know more details about influenza. Influenza is out of my majors, but it is a good opportunity for me. Giving the lecture to others means I need to study a lot. By that, I could reconfirm my knowledge about influenza and get more insight. I studied the history of influenza this time. The bodies who died of spanish influenza in 1918 were found in the permanently-frozen ground of Alaska and Finland in this decade. These bodies proved that the cause of spanish influenza was avian influenza. Besides, the virus of spanish influenza was from the south of China. It's just the same as present. It is so scary.
     Anyway, science improves a lot in a short time. I'd like to be always at the cutting edge of medical science. I really think so.
     The photo shows my students and me. They will spend one more year in this college and be nursery staff in kindergartens or some facilities dealing with physically or socially handicapped children.

Yoga

     In recent years yoga has really boomed in Japan. Besides, the number of TV programs that handle the issues of health are increasing. In every program, they say that some foods, some exercise, some ways of life, and some habits are good for health. Some of them often show how to do yoga. They say doing yoga has the effect of reducing weight and keeping fit.
     By the way, watching such TV programs, my daughter started doing yoga. She is doing yoga every morning and night for 5 minutes. It seems like kind of warm-up exercises. People who do yoga display flexibility in their body. I sometimes thought that their flexibility might be a kind of disease as their bodies were unbelievablely flexible. I've been thinking yoga was a kind of religion because I saw some religious Indians doing crazy yoga. I don't like yoga because my body is like a lead pipe, or barrel. However, because my daughter strongly advised me to do yoga, now I'm doing yoga to reduce my weight for skiing in Canada. You can never tell what might happen or might not happen.