Posts published in “Health”

Let’s All Get 7 Hours of Sleep!

February 28, 2024

By Hanon Mitsumasa

What time do you sleep? Sleeping too long or too short has a negative effects on the body. I think sleep is important in people lives. Many doctors agree we should sleep 7 hours. But some people might feel 7 hours of sleep is to long or too short. And people may say long sleep is a waste of time. In this essay, I will explain the effects of sleeping too long, too short or having the recommended 7 hours of sleep.
There are a number of serious negative effects of sleeping too long. Sleeping too long increases the risk of death about 1,5 times. For example, it increases the risk of cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure, according to doctor Utiyama Makoto from Tokyo Adachi hospital (2014). In addition sleeping for too long can also lead to brain aging. Sleep is improved to be good your health, however instead it makes your body tired. Sleeping too much can cause jet lag feeling. Your body clock is going crazy. Too much sleep has negative effects on both the body and the brain.
There are a number of serious negative effects of sleeping too short. If you sleep for too short a time stress will accumulate without you even realizing it. Only by sleeping can your brain and body recover. When sleep shortage continues, concentration and attention decline, according to doctor Mishima Kazuo from National center for Psychiatry and Neurology (2023). Lack of sleep increases the risk of dementia in the long term. According to doctor Uchimi Tomohiro from NCNP hospital (2022), the risk is about twice as much as that of people who sleep for 7 hours. When stress builds up due to lack of sleep, it can cause headaches, stiff shoulders, dizziness, depression, and loss of appetite. If you lack sleep, stress will build up without you even realizing it, so you should get enough sleep.
There are number of positive effects of having 7 hours of sleep. 7 hours of sleep protects you from illness and stress, improving your immunity and concentration. We fight against pathogens by adjusting the body’s rhythm and increasing immunity when we sleep. Resting your brain through sleep will help you concentrate on your studies and work. And the risk of illness decreases, moreover resting the brain also improves memory. Resting the brain also improves concentration and suppresses emotions. 7 hours of sleep is good for both your body and your brain. If you study while resting your body and brain well, your grades may improve.
Sleeping too long or too short can have negative effects on us. Sleep is essential to people’s lives. 7 hours of good sleep has a positive effect on your body and mind. Make the most of your sleep time, which takes up a large portion of your 24 hours a day. Let’s all sleep for 7 hours every day.

Child Should be Protected from Technology

Child Should be Protected from Technology

August 9, 2023

By Yui Naoi
Have you heard a child crying, “Lend me smartphone! Lend me tablets!” Parents hand over their smartphones to their demanding children. It is unfortunate, because the period up to the age of five is an important period for children’s healthy growth. How they spend this critical period will greatly affect their development and personality in the future. There are several reasons why children under the age of five should should be protected from harmful communication technologies.

Smartphones and tablets negatively affect the healthy growth of children. Looking at the same screen for a long time can cause eyestrain and poor eyesight for children who are still immature. Also listening to electronic sounds for a long time will also weaken their hearing. Electronic media creates a world of light and sound, and there is no light, sound, smell, taste or touch that nature creates. Therefore, only sight and hearing are working, and the five senses cannot be developed in a well-balanced manner.
In addition, children will stop playing outside if they are entertained at home with games on smartphones and tablets. If children only play indoors and stop playing outdoors, they will not get enough exercise. Lack of exercise can lead to obesity and stress. Also, since children play only on the screen by themselves, they will not be able to communicate with many friends and build social relationships. I think that small children should learn to develop social skills by talking, quarreling and laughing together with their peers.
Using smartphones and tablets will limit the interaction with their family members. First of all, spending time with their family members is the most important thing to do for young children. If children cannot communicate well with their family members, parent-child and sibling relationships will deteriorate. In addition, children use electronic media, and blue light prevents them from developing their imagination and concentration by eliminating the time for reading, which is important for their healthy growth. In conclusion, disadvantages of using modern media is serious for children under the age of five. They include mental, physical, and social problems. Children under the age of five should stay away from modern communication technologies.

Medically-Assisted Suicide for Terminal Illness

February 21, 2023

By Mai Takeshita

Today, the medical technique is getting better and more sophisticated in the world. People can live healthier and longer thanks to the developed medical care, and it is called “The 100-year time period” today. However, there are many diseases that even the medical technique today cannot treat, especially “terminal illness”. There are some arguments in the world whether patients with a terminal illness should be able to request medically-assisted suicide or not. Actually, in Japan and many countries, assisted suicide is considered illegal, even if it is “medically-assisted”. Followings are the three reasons that medically-assisted suicide should be allowed in case of patients who are in terminal-illness: physical suffering, mental and social distress, and respecting the patients’ intention.
        The first reason that medically-assisted suicide should be allowed is physical suffering of patients. According to Hoshino (1996), an emeritus professor in Kyoto University, patients are suffering from mainly four pains physically: the symptom from the disease, therapeutic drugs, surgical operation and examination, and other sufferings that are different from pain. Here is an example of physical suffering in terminal cancer. For the symptom from the disease, in case of terminal cancer, patients are struggling from the pain at their internal organs which the cancer have spread. The patients feel severe pain. For therapeutic drugs in case of cancer, the anticancer drug treatment is common. But the drugs have side effects. Hosokawa (2016), a professor in Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, explained that some of the side effects of the drug are numbness and pain. The anticancer drug damages the peripheral nerve, and those numbness and pain appear. It is called “Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy.” Patients are struggling from something that is different from pain. According to Hoshino, patients are struggling from general malaise, sense of fullness in the abdomen, difficulty in breathing, etc. Patients are suffered from those unimageable pains, and patients in terminal-illness should not struggle with them anymore.
         Secondly, medically-assisted suicide should be allowed for the reason of mentally and social distress. According to Clinic C4 (Clinic for Comprehensive Convincing Cancer Care) (n.d,), there are many types of mental and social distress that patients face. For instance, economic distress, working distress, and family distress. In addition to physical sufferings, patients are strongly stressed by these distresses. For the patients who are in terminal illness, they no longer have to suffer from these stresses. They should be given a choice of medically-assisted suicide.
        Third reason that medically-assisted suicide should be allowed is respecting the patients’ intention. There was a Japanese who chose euthanasia in Swiss in 2021. SWI Swiss Info.ch closely covered him from him visiting Swiss to euthanized. He had suffered from motor neuron disease, which is very similar to ALS, from 2016. He decided to be euthanized three years ago, in 2018. He answers the doctor’s question why he chose to euthanize, “Since I cannot contribute to society anymore because of the disease, I’m now worthless. I will never depend on ventilator after I lose ability to move. I don’t want to be alive with losing human dignity.” His parents hoped to keep him alive whatever way he uses. However, he said that that idea ignores the patient’s suffering and dignity. Just before he took the drip by his own to die, he told his doctor and parents “Now, I’m going.” His mind to die was very determined. As the example shows, patients will choose medical-supported suicide with not temporary feeling, but very determined. Therefore, doctors and families should highly respect patient’s significant decision.
        Medically-supported suicide is now illegal in Japan, and families of patients who are in terminal-illness hope the patients will stay alive. However, medically-supported suicide should be allowed in case of patients who are in terminal-illness for these reasons above. Patients are suffered from physically pain, and mentally and socially stress that general people and even doctors will never experience and understand. Medically-supported suicide should be allowed as one of the choices for patients.

Drawnbacks of Free Health Care

February 21, 2023

By Natsumi Shirasaka

These days a lot of cities, towns and villages adopt free health care. Indeed, this enables people to go to hospital easily and live longer. However, this causes financial deterioration at the same time. So, I disagree that all people are entitled to free health care. There are three reasons to support my idea.
First, free health care causes higher medical costs. According to O (2015), through the launch of free healthcare for elderly, aging population has been advanced suddenly because of the increase of national standard of living, the development of medical technique, the decrease of birthrates, and so on. Including Tokyo, a lot of local governments started free health car, but when the national government also started it, a lot of elderly people started to use medical services, so national medical expenses have been increased. Medical cost for elderly have become three times higher than ever, so elderly outpatients means the increase of overall medical costs. Also, according to the Japan Medical Association (2015), through the development of the medical technology, of course it helps people’s health but on the other hand, it also costs a lot of money. For example, X-rays, which exist from before, is only 1,000 yen once, but MRI, which is used these days, costs 14,000 yen once, so the total cost is increasing. So, free health care increases the national medical expenses.
Second, free health care can cause too many consultations. According to Asahi Shinbun (2018), “Convini consultation” happens. It means that people have unnecessary medical tests and treatments at night and on holidays even when their pain is very small. Some people go to the hospital when they can treat their conditions or buy medicine at the drug store. This type of easy-going medical treatments is also paid as national tax or insurance by the nation. If the government considers people’s health, they should use money for prevention of diseases. For example, the newborn baby’s thorough examination, is preventive because it discovers diseases early. Thus, the government can cut the cost of medical treatment fundamentally.
Third, according to Asahi Shinbun (2018), free health care causes injustice. Of course, in order to keep free medical treatment, the nation must have pay and support the system. These needs increasing tax. However, the Ministry of Health, labor and Welfare’s survey on this Asahi Shinbun indicates that the working-age generations argue that it is injustice to pay tax. Many people who are more than 70 years old think that the working-age generations should pay, but many people who are 30-39 years old think that elderly people should pay more. So, free health care causes unfairness.
In conclusion, I’m not in favor of all people having free health care. It causes higher medical costs, wasting consultation, and injustice. The Japanese government has to consider what health care should be.

References
Japan Medical Association. (2015). DOCTORASE. https://jpn01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.med.or.jp%2F&data=05%7C01%7C%7C70a24f76fa9249b9400708dae7028e25%7Cf11434e8abcf41f48154a9b2608dcd42%7C0%7C0%7C638076296315836330%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=f8ykvz1oqS0NlaEkiJiBkATLaeM4HB%2FmPGQCVEMLgn4%3D&reserved=0
doctor-ase/vol2/2page_09.html
O, S. (2005). 老人医療無料化制度の形成と国民医療費. 佛教大学大学院紀要第33号. https://jpn01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farchives.bukkyo-u.ac.jp%2Frp-contents%2FDO%2F0033%2FDO00330L223.pdf&data=05%7C01%7C%7C70a24f76fa9249b9400708dae7028e25%7Cf11434e8abcf41f48154a9b2608dcd42%7C0%7C0%7C638076296315836330%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=MPMBhofjZFwENyWmAD6ABB3WnPf5T9NCJLZ%2BVCD7FYs%3D&reserved=0
Yoshikawa, K., Nichiura,T. 子ども医療費の無料化拡大、是か非か?. (2018). 朝日新聞DIGITAL. https://jpn01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.asahi.com%2Farticles%2FASL2P3QVKL2PUBQU006.html&data=05%7C01%7C%7C70a24f76fa9249b9400708dae7028e25%7Cf11434e8abcf41f48154a9b2608dcd42%7C0%7C0%7C638076296315836330%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=h4eLsbtp0ctkUeAR7Mq1CTp7ORPt%2BnelNc6eVDTTjD0%3D&reserved=0

THE HUMAN RIGHTS: FREE HEALTH CARE? <br>

THE HUMAN RIGHTS: FREE HEALTH CARE?

February 21, 2023

By Mikono Motomori

A HUMAN RIGHT: FREE HEALTH CARE? There are a lot of people who are suffering health disparities in the world. According to Spaceship Earth (2022), health disparities mean various gaps that arise when people get medical care services. And also, almost half of the world’s population can’t get a high-quality medical care even if they have some health and mental problems because of many reasons. They are example, poverty, lack of education and information about medical care and a vast distance to hospitals. This is something that should be addressed. All people are entitled to health care. That’s because living a life is guaranteed as a fundamental human right and it is important to provide the “free” health care for people who need it.

It is necessary for all people to get a medical care in daily life, because a good health is the basic of life. People can’t do anything if they have some trouble with their health. According to the Universal Declaration of Human rights, “everyone has the right to a standard living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” Thus, getting medical care is guaranteed as the one of the human rights for all people.
In addition, all people should be treated equally. According to Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” As indicated previously, there are a lot of people who are suffering from health disparities in the world. They can’t get medical care even if they have some trouble with their health, because of poverty, lack of education and so on. This situation brings on inequality. All people should have the same right to get a medical care regardless of whether which countries they live, what religions they believe and how poor they are.
The high-cost medical care brings on health disparities in the world. And surprisingly, this is a problem that is happening to people close to us. According to the BBC (2019), “[e]ighty-three percent of our patients are employed in some capacity. But for many, having a job does not guarantee access to health insurance or care- and government assistance programmers have strict income limits.” All people have the same right to get a medical care, but some people can’t get it because of the high-cost medical care. So, for all people, the “free” medical care is needed.
In conclusion, all people have the right to get a medical care for their happy daily life and they should be treated equally. In addition, “free” medical care is needed because there are people who can’t get a medical care because of poverty. Thus, all people are entitled to health care.

Are all People Entitled to Free Health Care?

February 21, 2023

By Sumire Sato

Are All People Entitled to Free Health Care? Medical expense and unavoidable, because everyone get sick, and it costs a lot. There are a few countries where medical expenses are free. For example, it is Denmark. However, is it a good idea to receive to free health care. I will mention that someone negative dimensions of free health care
The first point is the cost. If people can get treatment free, eventually, they would need to pay some money in other ways such as tax. Denmark is one of a county where people can receive medical treatment with no fee. But when we look at the terms of tax, it is not cheap. For instance, the consumption tax in Denmark is 25 % (in 2022). Japan has 10% consumption tax, so when we compare with them one, Japanese consumption tax is not expensive. People can get medical treatment with free, but they suffer from high consumption tax.

The second point is people’s motivation for staying healthy. If all people can get free medical treatment, someone may neglect to care about their health, because it is free to get treated. When we look at oral care, according to an online research, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (2022), about 2 % of people 20 to 64 have no teeth. In addition, almost 90 % of adults 20 to 64 have had tooth decay before. There are already a lot of patients. If all people can get free treatment, more and more people will neglect to care about their tooth.

The last point is facilities. If people can take free medical care, it may bring some problem in terms of medical facilities or supplies. According to online survey, Statista (2022), the total national medical costs is approximately 44.4 trillion Japanese yen. From now, these costs are burdened by the public, so government can supply medical services. However, if all these costs are not paid by the people, more and more people will need medical supplies and hospitals will be very crowded.

I mentioned about free medical care with three negative points, cost, people motivation, and facilities. It seems to be very good attractive for people to get free medical care, but there are some problems like tax increase, losing motivation to stay healthy and the lack of medical supplies and facilities. It is helpful if people can get some financial support, losing but free medical care for all is not a good policy.

References
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (2022).https://Dental Caries (Tooth Decay) in Adults (Ages 20 to 64 Years) | National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (nih.gov)
Statista (2022).https://Japan: national medical care expenditure per capita | Statista
Trading economics (2022). https://Denmark Sales Statista (2022). https://Tax Rate – VAT – 2022 Data – 2023 Forecast – 2000-2021 Historical (tradingeconomics.com)