This is a self-care method to relieve your stress or anxiety by reducing stress in your brain. You can do this on your family, too. Please try once a day or whenever you feel stressful or anxious. Please watch this video by clicking SELF-CARE 2.

Please try the following as well.
Let's Relieve Broken Heart Syndrome caused by Stress due to COVID-19

​This self-care method is especially good for headaches because headaches are related blood flow. But when you have edema, easily get tired, this is also good because both symptoms are related to the kidney. Please try this once a day for about 1 minute and try this when you have headache to relieve the headache. 

​I teach this exercise to my patients when I have found the tightness in the lower back muscles. The exercise is very easy and takes only 10 seconds and you don't need to do it multiple times. Once a day is enough. Please try this exercise after checking how tight your lower back muscles are according to the instruction. Please watch the following video for this exercise.

This exercise loosens the costovertebral joints, which are the joints between the spine and ribs.

The tightness of these joints causes stiff neck and shoulders when the upper part gets tight, pain between shoulder blades when mid part gets tight and low back pain when the lower part gets tight.

​These.joints tend to get tight by doing deskwork for a long time or from rounded shoulders.

Please try this exercise when you feel your back tight. It is easy and effective and takes only 10 seconds.

This exercise loosens the joints between the ribs and the sternum (Fig below).

​If you have tightness in your shoulders and neck, breathing problems like shallow breathing or difficult breathing, depression related to autonomic nervous system, this exercise can improve those symptoms by loosening the chest. Low back pain is sometimes caused by the tightness of the chest because when the chest is tight, it is hard to bend your back backward.

This exercise is very easy and you can see the good result instantly, so please try.

When the intestines don’t work well, wastes and toxins are not discharged properly, and necessary nutrition is not absorbed. 70% of lymphocytes that control the immune system exist in the intestines. Having a trouble with the intestines lowers the immunity and causes various diseases.
 
To reduce the burden on the intestines, the most important thing is chewing well. Additionally, secreting saliva is also important. Secreting saliva helps the digestion and reduces the burden on the stomach and intestines. Saliva also contains immune substance harmonizing the hormone balance and has bactericidal action.
 
Saliva is secreted by chewing well, but to secrete more saliva, it is good to massage the following salivary glands.
 
(1)   Subaural glands located below the ear lobe
(2)   Submandibular gland located below the jaw
(3)   Sublingual gland located below the tongue
(4)   Between Submandibular gland and Sublingual gland
 
(4) is not a gland but it is the most effective and saliva spouts out like a shower.
 
You can massage these areas as often as you like.

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.

I want to share my experience of shingles and how I treated it.
 
Right before the Christmas of 2 years ago, below my right shoulder blade started to feel itchy with some rash. I thought I got a bug bite even though it was winter. When a few days passed, pain was added to the itchiness. I thought it was because I scratched the area. After that, the itchiness went away and the pain increased, and I also started to feel pain in my right chest with deep breathing or small movement. At this point, I was convinced that  I got shingles even though it was not diagnosed.
 
I was wondering how to heal this shingles. If it had not been mine, I would have burn moxa on the shingles, but of course I couldn’t and I didn’t want to take antiviral drugs.
 
So I decided to go on fast for 3 days.
For 3 days, I just drank water and ate one Umeboshi plum a day.
I got hangry and lost some strength sometimes, but it was very simple and effective.
3 days later the pain in my back and chest decreased by half, and in 7 days the pain and discomfort in my back disappeared.
Since then, I haven’t had the same symptoms.
 
I can’t say this in a loud voice and I recommend you to go to the doctor but I have to admit that fasting could be the best medicine sometimes.