​I often ask my patients to check the side-effects of the medications they are taking because their symptoms can be caused by the side-effects. Common side-effects are headache, dizziness, nausea, stomachache, etc.

I want to share a side-effect of a medication that I heard and was very surprised at. 

Statins are known as medications to lower the level of LDL or so-called "bad" cholesterol. If your are diagnosed as high cholesterol, Statins are the most commonly prescribed medications. 

One of Statins' side-effects is muscle breaking down. If you need to stop walking and sit down for a while, that can be caused by the side effect.

When you have spinal stenosis, you also need to stop walking, but you can walk again after bending over and supplying blood to the nerve, no need to sit down because your legs have strength since there is no muscle breaking down.

If your urine is reddish, substance of melting muscle is in urine. That also can cause kidney failure.

If you are taking Statins and severe muscle related health issues, it is recommended to consider the side-effect and consult your doctor.

There are various kinds of milk, and it is difficult to choose one. Let’s think about which milk we should drink among cow milk, soy milk and almond milk when we have 6 specific health problems.
 
Q1. Which is the best milk for skin problems?
(A)  Cow milk
(B)  Soy milk
(C)  Almond milk
 
A1. (B) Soy Milk
 
Soy milk contains a lot of isoflavone that works for the skin. Isoflavone promotes the rebirth of collagen related to the elasticity and firmness of the skin, leading to the improvement and prevention of wrinkles. Isoflavone has the function to suppress the production of melanin that causes spots. Isoflavone is contained in neither cow milk nor almond milk.
 
Tofu is something that Nigari (concentrated solution of salts left over after the crystallization of seawater or brine) is added to Soy milk. Soy milk is easier to digest and absorb to the body than tofu because it is liquid.
 
It is recommended to take 40 mg of Isoflavone a day. If you drink 200 to 400 ml (7 to 14 fl oz.) of soy milk, you can take 40 mg of isoflavone.
 
Q2. When is the best time to drink soy milk to increase the absorption ratio of Isoflavone?
(A)  In the morning
(B)  At night
 
A2. (A) In the morning
Soy milk is liquid, so even if you don’t have appetite in the morning, it would be easier to take than solids.
 
Q3. What lowers the effect of Isoflavone to work for the skin when you use soy milk for cooking?
 
A3. Boiling soy milk
Isoflavone doesn’t decrease when soy milk is frozen.
 
Cow milk contains vitamin B2 that is also good for the skin.
Almond milk is rich in vitamin E that is called vitamin for rejuvenation and works for the skin.
 
Q4. Which is the best milk for the prevention of weight gain?
(A)  Cow milk
(B)  Soy milk
(C)  Almond milk
 
A4. (C) Almond milk
Almond milk contains less than half of calorie and sugar compared to Cow milk and Soy milk. Fat of Almond milk is less than Cow milk and Soy milk.
 
Why is Almond milk white?
Because more than 50 % of almond is fat and when the fat of almond and water are mixed, they are emulsified, that means changing into a milky white liquid.
 
Oleic acid contained in almond discharges excess fat stored in our body.
Oleic acid stimulates satiety center in the brain before you feel full and decreases the amount of your meal. So it is good to drink Almond milk 1 hour before your meal or between your meals.
 
Soy protein and saponin contained in Soy milk decrease excess fat in our body.
 
Q5. Which is the best milk to increase the quantity of the muscle?
(A)  Cow milk
(B)  Soy milk
(C)  Almond milk
 
A5. (A) Cow milk
The important substance to build and repair the muscle is protein. The quantity of protein contained in Soy milk is more than Cow milk, but the quality of the protein contained in cow milk is different from Soy milk. Cow milk contains 2 kinds of proteins that are Whey and Casein.
 
Whey is fast to be absorbed into the body.
Casein reacts to acid in the stomach and becomes solids and stays in the stomach for a long time. By that, protein is absorbed slowly and completely and building of the muscle lasts long.
 
Drinking cow milk helps maintaining the muscle even not after exercises.
 
Q6. When is the best timing to drink cow milk after exercises?
 
A6. It is recommended to drink cow milk within 30 minutes after exercises because essential amino acid to strengthen the muscle is efficiently absorbed into the muscle.
 
There is research that drinking more than a glass of cow milk almost every day decreases the fat ratio compared to not drinking cow milk. It is considered that drinking cow milk increases the muscle, leading to the increase of metabolism.
 
Q7.
People who complain headaches due to wearing a mask are increasing. When you wear a mask, you breathe CO2 filled inside the mask. CO2 expands the blood vessel in the brain and stimulates nerves, causing headaches.
 
Which is the best milk to prevent headaches?
(A)  Cow milk
(B)  Soy milk
(C)  Almond milk
 
A7. (B) Soy milk
 
Soy milk is rich in magnesium and iron.
Magnesium suppresses the function of the substance causing headaches. It is said that about 30 % of migraine headache is caused by lack of magnesium. It is recommended to drink 400 ml (14 fl oz.) of Soy milk a day to prevent headaches.
 
Iron causes anemia and hemoglobin that delivers oxygen to the brain doesn’t work, causing headaches.
 
Q8. Which increases the absorption ratio of iron by taking with Soy milk?
(A)  Tomato that has the effect of anti-oxidization
(B)  Kiwi that contains vitamin C
 
A8. (B) Kiwi.
The iron contained in Soy milk is not absorbed in the body very well, so taking Kiwi rich in vitamin C with Soy milk increases the absorption ratio of Iron.
 
Q9. Which is the best milk to prevent common cold?
(A)  Cow milk
(B)  Soy milk
(C)  Almond milk
 
A9. (C) Almond milk
Almond milk is rich in vitamin E expected to strengthen immune system. Almond milk contains more than 30 times of vitamin E compared to Cow and Soy milk.
 
One of the causes of the decrease of immune system is active oxygen. Vitamin E removes active oxygen, strengthening the immune system.
 
It is expected that drinking 200 ml (7 fl oz.) of Almond milk a day prevents common cold.
 
Q10. Which recovers the tiredness of the stomach and intestines by drinking continuously for 2 weeks and increasing good bacteria?
(A)  Cow milk
(B)  Soy milk
(C)  Almond milk
 
A10. (B) Soy milk
Normal foods are broken down and absorbed by the function of digestive enzyme, but Soy oligosaccharide is neither digested nor absorbed and reaches the large intestine and becomes bait of good bacteria (Bifidobacterium). The increase of good bacteria suppresses the activity of bad bacteria and improves the tiredness of the intestines.
 
Soy protein protects the membrane of the stomach.
 
Lactose contained in cow milk also becomes the bait of intestinal bacteria and increases good bacteria.

A survey to check what people with health and longevity eat in a town where was famous for longevity was conducted.
 
Muscle
 
101 years old male who actively does farm work walks a 3-mile round-trip. He eats 3 eggs that is good for the muscle for breakfast.
 
91 years old female who actively makes salt eats a lot of pork and eggs which is good for the muscle for breakfast.
 
95 years old male who actively takes care of horses and does farm work eats a lot of pork for breakfast.
 
Why does eating eggs and pork for breakfast lead to longevity?
 
Eggs and pork are rich in protein. A lot of people tend not to take sufficient protein for breakfast. That weakens muscles. That is why it is important to take sufficient protein for breakfast.
 
If you take protein, you can build muscles without exercise. That means, if you don’t take protein for breakfast, there is a risk of weakening muscles.
 
Recommended daily intake is 1 gram/1 kilogram. If your weight is 60 kilograms, you need 60 grams of protein per day.
 
1 egg contains about 7 grams of protein.
 
Bone
 
92 years old male who is an active dairy farmer has never had a fracture. His bone age is about 30s-40s years old which is -50 years old. He drinks a glass of milk 3 times a day.
 
91 years old female who makes salt also drinks a glass of milk 3 times a day.
 
101 years old male who does farm work also drinks milk every day.
 
A lot of people in this town often eat pork.
 
Collagen contained in pork strengthens the bone.
 
Two third of the bone is calcium and one third of the bone is collagen. Collagen makes the bone elastic and prevents fracture.
 
People with health and longevity in this town go outside after breakfast.
 
Why does going outside after breakfast makes the bone stronger?
 
By being exposed to sunlight, vitamin D3 that promotes the absorption of calcium is produced.
 
It is recommended to be exposed to sunlight about 15 minutes a day. If you are worried about sun burn, you can produce vitamin D3 by exposing only your palms.
 
Blood Vessel
 
Prevent high blood pressure. Stop the aging of blood vessels.
 
101 years old male who is an active farmer eats salty food without any worry, but his blood pressure is within the proper range. He eats some blocks of brown sugar (Fig. 1) as a snack.
 
Brown sugar containing a lot of potassium has the effect to discharge salt from the body.
 
Brown sugar contains 1100 mg of potassium within 100 grams, while white sugar contains only 2 mg.
 
Potassium is rich in banana, yam, natto, seaweed, etc.
 
91 years old female who makes natural salt takes a 30 minutes nap after lunch.
 
According to a research in the University of Athene, Greece (2007), people who took 30-minute nap more than 3 times a week have 37 % lower death ratio of heart diseases due to abnormal activity of the artery.
 
Why does taking a nap stop the aging of blood vessels?
 
The cause of all the cell damage including blood vessels is active oxygen.
 
Active oxygen decreases by sleeping.
 
Unexpected habit?
 
People with health and longevity in this town drink alcohol every day.
 
Alcohol makes the blood flow better.
 
It is recommended to drink a bottle of beer (500 ml) a day.

​Fig. 1 shows MRI images of thighs. The left image belongs to 20s female and the right image belongs to 60s female. In the image of 60s female, the muscle decreases and fat increases.
 
There are a lot of older people who exercise, but if they don’t take “a nutrition” that increases and strengthens the muscle, the exercises go down the drain.
 
A 90 years old person who had to use a wheel chair took the nutrition for 2 months. The weight of his muscles gained by 2 kg (4.4 lbs.) and he became able to walk with a cane.
 
How much exercise goes down the drain if the nutrition is not taken?
 
Experiment
 
3 people whose age is more than 65 and who always do some exercises attended the experiment to check the amount of the nutrition and their muscle ages.
 
1. 69 years old male who didn’t take the nutrition sufficiently: his muscle age was 97 years old
2. 73 years old female who took the nutrition sufficiently: his muscle age was 29 years old
3. 79 years old male who took the nutrition sufficiently: his muscle age was 77 years old.
 
The 69 years old male was doing more intensive exercise than other 2 people, but he was not taking the nutrition sufficiently and his muscles was declining.
 
The nutrition that strengthens and increases the muscle is Leucine.
 
Leucine is a type of amino acid contained in protein. However, there are proteins containing a lot of leucine and not containing a lot.
 
Various ingredients such as meat, fish, soy products, cheese, milk contain Leucine, but meats are especially rich in Leucine.
 
But there is a problem about taking Leucine. Elderly people’s bodies are difficult to produce muscles even if they take proteins.
 
According to the research in Toronto University in Canada, to produce the same amount of muscles, people with average age of 71 needed 2 times as much protein as people with average age of 22.
 
The important thing is the timing to take Leucine. The muscle is not strengthened and doesn’t increase unless Leucine is taken at a proper timing.
 
A lot of people tend to take proteins in the evening, but Leucine should be taken for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our muscles repeat synthesis and decomposition. When you take Leucine in the evening, the synthesis of the muscle is progressed during the night and the decomposition of the muscle starts early in the morning. If you don’t take enough Leucine for breakfast, synthesis of the muscle is not progressed and the decomposition starts again.
 
To strengthen and increase muscles, 2 grams of Leucine should be taken for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
 
The 69 years old male whose muscle age is much older than his age had enough Leucine (more than 2 grams) for lunch and dinner, but Leucine for breakfast was not enough. His muscle declined because he had continued dietary life that Leucine was not taken enough in the morning for years.
 
How to supplement the shortage of Leucine
 
Add a glass of milk for your meal!
 
A glass of milk contains 0.6 grams of Leucine.
 
If you think your breakfast doesn’t have enough Leucine, add a glass of milk.
 
To strengthen your legs, take enough Leucine for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and do moderate amount of exercises.
 

Edamame (Green Soybeans)
 
Edamame which is rich in protein among vegetables is good to increase muscles and prevent summer heat fatigue.
 
Edamame is rich in vitamin B1 which is good to recover from fatigue.
100 grams of edamame contains vitamin B1 of 2.5 pieces of garlic (Fig. 5).
 
Since edamame is young beans, they store a lot of nutrition necessary to grow.
 
Q6. Which cooking method can enrich the nutrition of edamame most? (Fig. 6)
(A) Rice cooked with edamame (B) Fried edamame with other vegetables
 
A6. (A) Rice cooked with edamame
In the case of rice cooked with edamame, rice absorbs the nutrition of edamame dissolved in water without the nutrition flowing out. Also because it is heated slowly, both rice and edamame will be much sweeter by the action of an enzyme.
 
Q7. Which ingredient can enrich the nutrition of edamame most?
(A) Salmon (B) Cheese
 
A7. (A) Salmon
Salmon is rich in astaxanthin. Salmon is originally fish with white flesh, but salmon eats a kind of shrimp to overcome the stress of swimming upstream and produces astaxanthin, becoming fish with red flesh.
 
Antioxidant effect of astaxanthin is 6000 times stronger than vitamin C.
 
Salmon can supply vitamin D which edamame doesn’t have. Rice cooked with salmon and edamame is recommended.
 
Vitamin D deficiency rickets is caused by lack of vitamin D, having symptoms like weak and soft bones, in the severe cases, skeletal deformities. The causes of deficient vitamin D is too much UV protection, lack of playing outside and not taking ingredients containing vitamin D such as eggs, fish or mushrooms.
​

​Hormone is a substance that various organs in our body produce. Normal secretion of hormone regulates our body.
 
There are more than 100 kinds of hormone as far as being known. For example, estrogen, female hormone, plays an important role in the turning point in life of women such as menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and menopause. In fact, the amount of female hormone secreted during a woman’s lifetime is only a spoonful. This spoonful female hormone controls the health of a woman throughout her lifetime. Of course, there are other hormones such as adrenaline that elevates blood pressure when you exercise, melatonin that leads to good sleep, dopamine that makes you enjoy.
 
What a lot of people are worried about is bedridden that is caused by muscle weakness of the lower body. So what is discussed below is Muscle Rejuvenation Hormone that rejuvenates your weakened muscles.
 
Muscle rejuvenation Hormone is IGF-1 that is secreted from the liver and is a type of growth hormone to build up the muscles effectively. When IGF-1 secreted from the liver attaches the muscles, it promotes the growth of the muscles effectively.
 
But there are people who can’t secrete Muscle Rejuvenation Hormone efficiently. They can’t build up the muscles effectively even if they exercise.
 
6 women who were their 60’s and exercised daily checked the age of their muscles and the amount of IGF-1, and only one of 6 women has muscles younger than her age (30’s muscles) and also has more than required IGF-1. Other 5 women has small amount of IGF-1 and their muscle age is more than 70’s. The difference is the meal time that the woman who has more than required IGF-1 is much longer than other people.
 
The reason that eating slower increases the amount of IGF-1 is because it is related to blood sugar. When we eat food, the food is digested and sugar in the blood increases. This is elevation of blood sugar. If the sugar in the blood is too much, that prevents the secretion of IGF-1. As a result, IGF-1 is not secreted sufficiently.
 
Fig. 1 shows blood sugars after eating of a woman with a lot of IGF-1 (she eats slowly) and a woman with small IGF-1 (she eats fast). The blood sugar of the woman who has a lot of IGF-1 doesn’t go up even after eating. As a result, sufficient IGF-1 is secreted without the obstruction of sugar. On the contrary, the blood sugar of the woman whose IGF-1 is not enough goes up and this elevation of blood sugar is considered as preventing the secretion of IGF-1.
 
Nutrition that promotes to secrete Muscle Rejuvenation Hormone
 
The nutrition that increases the secretion of Muscle Rejuvenation Hormone (IGF-1) is arginine. Arginine is a kind of amino acid containing in protein. When arginine is absorbed in the intestines, it stimulates the brain and the brain instructs the liver to secrete IGF-1. That allows the muscles to grow easily. To secrete Muscle Rejuvenation Hormone (IGF-1) effectively, it is necessary to take 5 grams of arginine a day. In the above experiment, the woman whose muscles are 30’s was eating 9 grams of arginine, while the woman whose muscles are 80’s was eating only 3 grams of arginine.
 
It is necessary to eat protein products such as meats or soy products daily. In addition to that, the following ingredients are recommended to add to your usual meals to increase the amount of arginine to increase the secretion of Muscle Rejuvenation Hormone (IGF-1).
 
Abura-age (deep-fried bean curd): 0.3 grams per piece
Egg: 0.5 grams per piece
Tofu: 1.3 grams per piece
Katsuobushi (dried bonito): 0.5 grams per 2 small packs
Nori (seaweed): 0.5 grams per 4 pieces
Sesame: 0.26 grams per table spoon
 
To increase the secretion of Muscle Rejuvenation Hormone (IGF-1) and prevent bedridden, it is important to eat food containing protein slowly.
​