​A miniature of a Buddhist statue of Miroku Bosatsu (Maitreya) made in 7th century

​Miroku Bosatsu will come down into the world of 5.6 billion and 70 million years after the death of Buddha. His posture represents the fact that he is pondering the way of saving the people when the time comes.
Miroku Bosatsu’s beautiful smile is said to have a therapeutic effect on our mental state.

This miniature is exquisitely crafted from the color to the cracks of the actual statue.
When you come to the office, please take a look. 

​Atonic Constipation (Fig. 1)
 
Enteric Nervous System (ENS) contracts the large intestine and stools are transported to the anus. But if ENS is disturbed by some reasons and doesn’t work, the muscles become loose and can’t contract, stools can’t be transported to the anus.
 
Stools accumulate, the intestinal tract stretches more and more because it is loose, and the large intestine prolapses since it can’t resist the weight.
 
Irritant laxatives stimulate ENS directly and contract the intestines. This type of laxative is effective, but must not be used for a long period of time continuously.
 
A 63 years old woman suffering from constipation not only continued to use the irritant laxatives for 2 and a half years but also increased the dosage without consulting her doctor. The ENS was exhausted by daily stimulation with large amount of the irritant laxative and the muscles of the intestines became too loose to push stools forward, and stools accumulate, making the intestinal tract an abnormal form. As a result, she didn’t have a bowel movement for 10 days and fainted due to stress and anxiety about constipation. Her constipation was atonic constipation.

 
New Common Sense in Constipation
 
1. If you have bowel movements 3 times a week, you are not considered as constipation
 
Some people only have bowel movements in the weekend when they can be relaxed and don’t have bowel movements weekday when they are busy.
 
2. Don’t use irritant laxatives more than 2 times a week
 
It has turned out recently that 1-2 times use of irritant laxatives a week has no problems for the large intestine.
 
3. There is a laxative gentle to the intestines
 
Nonirritant laxatives collect water in the intestine and soften stools to make them easy to be eliminated. This type of laxatives doesn’t burden the intestine, so you can use every day as long as you are careful about the amount.

​You might think stumbling is nothing serious.
But if elderly people whose bones are weak stumble and fall, it can result in fracture.
If the fracture happens in the hip joint, you may have to have a surgery and can become bedridden.
 
The cause of stumbling considered so far was weakness of muscles in the lower body.
It is said that 1 % of the muscle is lost every year from the age of 30s.That makes easy to stumble.
 
But a new cause of stumbling was discovered this year.
 
People who easily stumble can’t stand long with their one leg even if they do exercises regularly. What they have in common is that their height is shorter than when they were young. (Fig. 1)
 
If your height is shorter by 2 cm (about 1 inch) compared to when you were young, you have more risk to stumble and fall.
 
Our height is gradually shorter with age.
The major causes of shortening of height are
(1) Compression fracture of the spines
(2) Thinning of intervertebral disks
 
Shortening of height causes a bad posture with rounded back and that makes you easy to lose their balance, leading to stumbling.
 
But there is another major cause to promote shortening of height.
That is weakening of muscles in the back.
 
When you have firm muscles in your back, you can keep a good posture by pulling the spine backward. When your back muscles become weak with age, your body is pulled forward by gravity, but you can’t pull the spine backward. Rounded back also promotes the weakening of the back muscles. Weakening of the back muscles applies burden to the spine and disks, rounding and tightening the back more.
 
Rounded back caused by weakening of back muscles causes shortening of height.
 
There is a supporter to experience rounded back. If you wear this supporter, you have to walk with a stoop and your stride becomes short and it becomes difficult to lift up your legs, making easy to stumble.
 
How to check the strength of your back muscles
 
1. Stand in front of a wall and touch your heel on the wall.
2. Touch your back and buttocks on the wall and look forward.
3. At this point, if the back of your head touches the wall, it is good, but if the back of your head doesn’t touch the wall, you have slouching posture due to weakening of the back muscles and there is a possibility that your height is shorter by more than 2 cm (1 inch). (Fig. 2)
 
How to strengthen your back muscles and prevent stumbles
 
1. Upper body raising exercise (Fig. 3 & 4)
 
(1) Lie face down.
(2) Extend your elbows slowly raising your upper body.
(3) Keep the posture for 5 seconds (if possible 10 seconds).
(4) Repeat this exercise 3 times.
This exercise stretches tightened back muscles.
 
2. Back muscle exercise (Fig. 5 &6)
 
(1) Prepare a pillow or a cushion.
(2) Lie face down placing a pillow under your navel with your hands clasped around your low back.
(3) Raise your upper back as you are. It is okay if you can raise your chest a little bit.
(4) Keep the posture for 5 seconds (if possible 10 seconds).
(5) Repeat this exercise 5 times.
 
It is effective to do the above 2 exercises twice a day in the morning and at night every day.
 
Experiment
How much balance ability can be improved by doing the stumble prevention exercises for a week?
 
67 years old woman whose height was shortened by 3 cm (150 cm to 146.9 cm) and whose one leg standing test was 24 seconds attended the experiment. She often stumbled on a small bump and felt difficult to climb up and down stairs.
 
After 1 week stumble prevention exercises, one leg standing test became 1 minutes 23 seconds from 24 seconds. That means that her balance ability was improved. Also she became able to climb up stairs more smoothly because she could lift her legs more easily.
 

The eyes are exposed organs and not protected by anything, so they are easily affected by external factors.
 
Eyes’ healthy life expectancy is about 70 years which are shorter than our life expectancy.
 
Q1. Which is not good for eyes when your eyes feel tired?
(A) Exercise to move your eyes up and down and sideways
(B) Massage between the eyes
 
A1. (A) Exercise to move your eyes up and down and sideways
There is no benefit to move your eyes voluntary because eyes are moving involuntary anyway. There are a lot of people who had retinal detachment caused by the exercise.
 
Massaging between the eyes is good when your eyes are tired, but massage the bones around the eyes and don’t massage the eye ball because massage eye ball can also cause retinal detachment if it is repeated many times.
 
Rubbing the eye balls because of the itchiness caused by seasonal allergies can cause retinal detachment as well.
 
Cataract
 
If you can’t see blue color very well, it can be considered as the early stage of cataract. People with cataract have to see things through yellow filter which makes difficult to see blue color.
 
Q2. One of the causes of cataract is UV. Which sunglasses shouldn’t you wear to prevent cataract?
(A) Sunglasses with dark colors
(B) Sunglasses with pale colors
 
A2. (A) Sunglasses with dark colors
The pupil becomes larger and smaller to adjust the amount of the light going into the eye. When it is bright around, the eye decreases the amount of light by contracting the pupil. When it is dark around, the eye increases the amount of light by dilating the pupil.
 
When you wear sunglasses with dark colors, the eye tries to get more light by dilating the pupil. At that time, even if you are wearing sunglasses, reflected light goes into your eyes with dilated pupils from gaps around sunglasses and the eyes are affected by harmful UV. That is why sunglasses with dark colors are not good for your eyes.
 
Glaucoma
 
Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness.
Even if vision of one eye becomes narrow, if another eye is normal, the brain synthesizes the vision, so it is difficult to notice by oneself until it becomes severe.
 
Q3. Which should not you do because the risk of glaucoma becomes higher?
(A) Drinking a lot of water after exercises
(B) 30 minutes walking every morning
 
A3. (A) Drinking a lot of water after exercises
Drinking a lot of water increases water in the body and also increases water in the eye suddenly. Increase of water in the eye pressurizes the inside of the eye and compresses and damages the optic nerve, narrowing the vision.
 
The amount of water depends on people’s condition, but it is not good to drink water rapidly.