(The Liver running wild)
I happen to have a close friend who suffers from serious atopic symptoms. At the base of atopic symptoms is agonizing emotional turmoil. Atopy causes ceaseless itchiness and anxiety and agonizes the sufferer all day long. Only the person who suffers from it can understand how hard it is.
My acupuncture mentor uses the expression “Kan No Bousou,” which could be literally translated as “Liver Running Wild,” which causes autoimmune diseases such as rheumatism and allergies.

(Functions of the liver)
In Oriental Medicine, “Kan” means the various liver-connected functions, one instance of which is that of capable yet ferocious military leadership. An individual with a stable liver is likely to be equipped with the talent to cope with any situations properly. Such a person could be described as a go-getter. So, a person with reliably stable functions of the liver is capable of successsfully confronting “enemies” that intimidates him/her. In western medical observation, therefore, the liver supports and enhances the immunological functions of the physical system .
Also, the liver loves a relaxed and free atmosphere and hates repression. If it is pushed into some sort of “control” or not allowed to enjoy freedom, it will likely get annoyed and may even “explode” or snap. Letting off steam is needed to alleviate stress which is likely to be imposed on us. But those who lack the skill to let off steam often lose balance in their mentality.

(Blood stored in the liver)
The next important function of the liver is it is a blood storage. This is the reason why blood and its flow is affected if a malfunction occurs in the liver, giving rise to such problems as spasmodic contraction of the eyelid or a cramp in the calf or, in some serious cases, quivering of the head or Parkinson’s syndrome. These are all connected with the movement of muscles. Because blood is essential for keeping muscles in normal condition, malfunctions of muscles are mostly connected with problems with the liver.

When engaged in writing, we are likely to feel unstable and the hand holding a pen begins to tremble, if we feel excessively tensed up. It is only a transient symptom and not at all pathological. But it is said that this symptom proves that an excessive excitement of the liver causes the body temperature to rise and steams up the blood, and as a consequence, leads to the trembling. Thus, in any case, an excessive “excitement” of t he liver lies behind most of the problems with other internal organs.

(Agitated immunity system)
As I have said, the liver is constantly on the alert for attacks of viruses or bacteria from outside, and also for possible disturbance in the spiritual balance internally. If this “military” commander is pushed too hard by stress, it gets annoyed and causes an agitation in the immunity system, giving rise to autoimmunity syndromes such as atopy, collagen diseases or rheumatism. This is a fact recognized by Western medicine as well. In other words, the immunity system, which basically exists for self-protection, turns into an “enemy.” Thus, if the normal spiritual balance collapses, the liver begins to run wild, exacerbating the atopic syndrome and bringing about a vicious cycle. Then what counter measures should and can be taken?

(Try to love oneself)
This means admiring and loving oneself, who is courageously struggling against and agonizing over these physical and mental problems. Never forget to talk to oneself
and silently utter at least once a day such remarks as “How courageous I am, fighting like this!” or “No one could sustain such brave fight against difficulties that I’m faced with.!” As long as one maintains his/her confidence in and strong hope for eventual recovery, an eventual victory is waiting.
I deeply respect people who are suffering from sickness but courageously attempting to overcome it. I feel confident that such a posture of mine toward the problem that agonizes my friend now will eventually succeed in helping her.

Ms. K who turned 93 Today, I visited a 93-year-old patient with a bouquet in my hand to celebrate her birthday. She was born on January 13, 1916. She often says she does not want to die
and keeps yearning to work forever.
She worked as a nurse during her youth and after she got married earned her own income by making kimonos for others until she turned 80. According to her own words,
she had experienced the sweets and bitters of life. At 80 she fell and was told that she had a brain tumor. When we met, she was not able to recognize me and could not speak well. In about several weeks afterward, she regained her speech and the tumor disappeared. She is what is called Akita beauty with a smooth and soft complexion. Though she has lived in Kansai for many years, she speaks with a lively Akita accent. When she smiles, she looks extremely attractive.

Ms. S, a centenarian
Ms. S is my eldest patient. She was born on March 15, 1909 and is now approaching her 100th birthday. She first came to my clinic for rheumatism but last year she fell at the entrance of her house. Fortunately, she suffered no bone fracture. Whenever I visit her to check her condition, she impresses me with her astonishingly quick recovery. Even today, she prepares the breakfast misoshiru (miso soup) with various vegetables for her family. Her memorization is remarkable, giving correct and quick answers to such questions as what day it is, or who he or she is. To my question as to the secret of her vigor, she says “Not to worry too much about anything.” Both of these elders are extremely cheerful and sunny, a result of coming through bitter and hard times.

Willpower to face and cope with challenges
It is reported by a newspaper that back in 1963 we had 153 centenarians. Now the number has risen to 36,000. This marks the highest rate all across the world. Forty years from now, in 2050, the figure will reach 700,000! Three cheers to those who are in their 60s now! These days, elderly people do care about how they are dressed and look. They are fashion-conscious. Moreover, they are really vigorous, and cannot be classed among the “old people.” Those who live long vigorously have strong willpower and enthusiasm.

A 102-year-old man from Iwate prefecture began at age 99 to participate in track and field events. Last year, he broke the world record in the shot put, marking 5.11 meters. What underlies the vigor of these elderly people is their exuberant spirit, which often surpasses that of the young people. Let us give some thought based on Oriental medicine to the source of these elderly people’s eagerness to bravely confront any challenge.

Congenital vigor – power of the kidneys
In Oriental medicine, the secret of longevity resides in the kidneys. The kidneys are considered the source of congenital vigor. All the renal functions are related to the
kidneys, and support our life power. So, they are closely connected with our hair and bones and also with ears, waist, and reproductive organs. Weak kidneys are related to weak bones, lack of hair luster, early appearance of grayish hair, ringing in the ears, involuntary urination, etc., all related to urination or infertility. These symptoms are all related to the aging phenomena. Those who have strong kidney functions, are patient and perseverant.

The older one gets, the weaker the functions of the kidney grow. Those who live long are generally blessed with proper kidney functions. They make efforts not to use kidney functions wastefully. Kidney functions are wastefully expended by, for example, excessive sex activity, lack of sleep, excessive intake of salt, or too much work to attend to.

Acquired characteristics
Rendering assistance to the functions of the kidneys is the spleen. The spleen has a very close relationship with the stomach, digesting the things in the stomach and sending the nourishment to all corners of the body. The spleen tends to support other organs upward, and therefore, its weakening may cause such problems as gastric ptosis, abdominal ptosis, prolapse of the uterus, dizziness, etc. The spleen is also closely connected with the sense of taste, the lips, feet and hands, and the skin, controlling the amount of blood to be distributed in the body. As a consequence, malfunctioning spleen may cause us to lose or gain weight no matter how much or how little we eat. It may also cause taste disorder, sore mouth or tongue, or abnormal bleeding and anemia. Moreover, the spleen is known as a fount of wisdom. The owner of a well-functioning spleen tends to be quick-witted. On the other hand, if it fails to work well, absentmindedness, depressive psychosis, autism, misdemeanor, impetuousness, etc. may follow. Thus, the spleen is a most important organ in the body system. It can be said, therefore, that people who enjoy longevity in good health are equipped with extremely well-functioning spleen and stomach. Then, what sort of living style promotes the ideal functioning of the spleen? Observe the following four pieces of advice.

1)Refrain from immoderate eating and drinking.
2)Walk as much as possible (about 10,000 steps a day).
3)Stay off sweets and too much rice cake and the like.
4)Stop worrying too much about anything.

These four principles may sound very simple in words, but actually they are quite hard to practice. Aren’t they?

Last month, on November 29th, my second eldest brother died of cardiac insufficiency (heart failure). He passed away with his eyes and mouth half open, an expression of courage and hope. My eldest brother and I felt very grateful to him and sent him off saying silently to ourselves: “Thank you indeed. We appreciate your strenuous struggle!” We really felt much indebted to the deceased for what he had taught us.

Clumsy but sensitive since his childhood, my late brother never got angry about things or people. He was amicable even toward people who ridiculed him. He was sort of excessively sweet to everybody around him. But something unfortunate fell on him early in his 20s. At his workplace where he had a part-time job, he got involved in money trouble and was unjustly accused of culpability. This incident made him shut himself up indoors, which was followed by various symptoms such as confusion of day and night, disorder in the life rhythm. He began to use sleeping pills and antidepressant drugs. His doctor diagnosed him with integration dysfunction syndrome.

One out of 120
This psychological trouble, which was known until a few years ago as “schizophrenia,” but to avoid its discriminatory connotation and for other reasons, another name was adopted in 2002, namely, “Integration Dysfunction Syndrome.” Its symptoms differ from person to person, but commonly among the sufferers, visual and auditory hallucination or delusion occurs, and the sufferer gradually loses his/her viability.

They say this problem comes from excessive dose of dopamine, a neurotransmitter, but the cause-and-effect relationship with the disease is not definitely confirmed yet. It is most likely to affect people in their adolescent period. Now its incidence rate is said to be one out of 120, which is very high. Integration dysfunction and depressive psychosis are two major endogenous psychoses. So much so that most psychotics are suffering from either the one or the other.

Self-defense
In psychological medicine, it is said that if an unborn child or a child in its babyhood suffers damage to its genes, the trouble affects normal brain developments and, with the growth of the child, it causes abnormality in various organs and affects the balance of the hormone, thus eventually giving rise to psychological disorder. Observing the symptoms of my brother, however, the thought occurred to me often that he was trying to retrieve his proper mental balance by resorting to visual and auditory hallucinations. This thought is based on my belief as a specialist in Oriental medicine that every human being intuitively tries to maintain proper mental balance in self-defense. Thanks to acupuncture-moxibustion treatment, my late brother suffered comparatively moderate symptoms and for the past several years had very few visual or auditory hallucinations, and lived a peaceful life with a smile on his face.

Oriental Medical View
A number of people suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations or from depressive psychosis come to my clinic. Many of these people are excessively single-minded, lack power of resistance and confidence in themselves. They are so persistent in blaming themselves that I cannot help feeling that these factors drive them into a kind of psychotically difficult conditions. As in many physical and mental cases, both are inseparably related to each other, and the consequence is likely to appear either in physical or mental areas, such as cancer or myocardial infarction in the former, or various psychological problems in the latter.

The growth of psychological tension may be followed by a vicious cycle of the following problems: the liver condition gets high-strung, the stomach is heated up and invites overeating, overeating results in the increase of internal fever, which in serious cases causes the heart to be heated up as well. Heating up the heart may lead to insomnia and unstable mental conditions. Overdose of drugs to counter these symptoms may give rise to loss of self-control, resulting in recklessness. This type of mental disorder seems to be on the increase today.

My brother’s heart was extremely weakened because of the many kinds of drugs .he had taken for long. His doctor had given up on him for some years. This year, his pulse grew faint, hands and feet felt ice-cold, face turned pallid. To help him from this condition, my eldest brother and I took turns to give him moxa treatment on relevant moxibustion points.

Gratitude and Respect
Despite these symptoms, my brother never harmed anybody, so I always accepted his mysterious words and conduct quite naturally. Moreover, I was filled with a sense of gratitude toward him. This was because it seemed that he shouldered the entire hardships on behalf of my eldest brother and me. He was also a most respectable individual. While my whole family and relatives were either successful acupuncturists or medical doctors, he alone was jobless and kept getting into and out of hospital, and lived a most pitiful kind of life.

Every time we saw him, my eldest brother and I myself and all others in my family were deprived of any sense of arrogance, which is something often seen among medical specialists who are addressed as “Sensei,” a word usually used in addressing or referring to somebody “superior.” Our late brother always “warned” us against the possible temptation to feel superior to others and made us wonder who are really respectable, people in high positions, wealthy people, or people with a fame.

The genuine value of a human being has nothing to do with his/her title or wealth. He made us realize the importance of asking this question most seriously. Recollecting the faces of my late mother and brother, I am always made to re-determine to live out my own life in their footsteps and fulfill my mission as a respectable human being.

May both of them rest in peace!

I have absorbed to watch the drama titled “the garden of the wind” directed by Mr. So Kuramoto though I have less chance to watch the TV.
Each performer is splendidly expressing a deep human drama in the time that flows quietly with beautiful flowers and plants.
The main cast is an anesthesiology medicine and an advanced-stage pancreas cancer. The actor as his father post is Mr. Ken Ogata who died of liver cancer several weeks after finishing taking this drama.
Mr. Ken Ogata seemed to have kept performing without telling anyone about the cancer but his family.
I have devoted on watching his every move because of his clear mental power.
Tears fall in the scene even if he doesn’t say anything.
The theme of this drama is how he ends his life.
I have been wondering how Mr. Ken Ogata felt in his mind.

(A deep resolution)

We have to face the advanced-stage cancer which is the evil of the death coming slowly to the body and spirit.
We have to select how to die and how to live.
An individual way of thinking and the selection are multifarious.
However, the end of the life is forcibly consolidated by how to live. I feel what a solemn scene it is. I was related to five patients who were advanced cancer terminally these four years and attended their solemn death.
If there was no deep mutual trust with families including the patient, it would never be done.
I visited their houses and hospitals anytime if I had the interval of the clinic. I had faced the patients for months with a deep resolution that cut down my life.
I had the time I only rubbed patient’s hands and feet because the acupuncture was not able to be done.

(The death of M)

M, who had been sentenced as several months to live, extended longevity three years. M passed away without any pain as sleeping at home on the 21st this month.
M had a liver cancer.
I’ve heard that my name was called many times because M wanted to say thank me on the phone even just before the death.
Enough treatment to this patient was not able to be done because M lived away from me. I would like to apologize for that.
However, the face is a really tranquil, tender, beautiful and with a smile when I was in a hurry to come.
I was very impressed by the appearance who overcame the cancer.
One social welfare commissioner said to the family, “I’ve never seen such a face tenderly changed so much though I saw many persons who passed away. This is a satisfied face indeed. Good wasn’t it.” It was very impressive.

(Who is the main?)

I caught the topics titled “Home Hospice” written by Mr. Takashi Sakurai on the newspaper.
Home hospice means that taking care of the patients who are advanced-stage cancer is done at home.
Dr. Sakurai said, “When I worked for the university hospital, I took the death as defeat of the medicine. Doctors try to prolong the life, and they sometimes request the family to leave the room of the hospital. The main was the doctor. However, the patient and family can lead the part at home.” It was a great speech.
82.3% of died person is in a hospital and a clinic according to vital statistics (2006), and at home is 12.2%.
However, the death at home occupied the more than half in around 1970. The death in the hospital and clinic exceeds 70% after 1990.
This result often makes me think.

(Never forget human emotion)

Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara from St. Luke Hospital whom I have respected introduced the result of the questionnaire in Suginami Ward in his book. It was that where you wanted to die.
40% of doctors said that they had no idea until that time came. Three-quarter of 60% doctors answered, “If possible, I want to die at home.”
Moreover, if doctors become advanced-stage cancer, they are asked, “How do you want to be treated? One third of doctors’ answers were to be treated in the minimum extent
Dr. Hinohara said that the doctors should understand what patients are worried, and simultaneously with the partial and objective all the time.
It is important to touch the person who is in troubles as the same human as myself. It is very natural but easy to forget about it now.

(Face can be seen.)

A friend asked her friend who is a doctor, “Is patient’s death a routine work (regular things in a daily life)?” “Yes, It is. I have no emotion at all.” It was an answer.
Of course, if the doctor bewails every time, she can’t work. The doctor should take objective eyes, or otherwise there might be a wrong judge.
I doubt the medical treatment which keeps watching only internal organs automatically.

The person who found my mother’s cancer was the local doctor.
Mother trusted him very much though there was no chance to meet only several days.
After a while mother passed away, I met the doctor by chance on the street.
He said to me, “Hard wasn’t it. I wanted to go to the funeral, but I didn’t know where.” He came to home to offer incense.
I don’t know what he prayed but I’ve never forgot he prayed for a long time.
The most important end is finished as most humanly by the hands and hearts with obedient feelings. I think a person who is finished such like this is very lucky.

I had deceased mother’s dream after a long time the other day.
She wearing the beige suit lectured on acupuncture in a room in the pension surrounded by beautiful trees.
I was pleased that she seemed a really fine, and thought in my mind she was still alive.
Four years have passed on the 26th today since mother died of pancreas carcinoma.
I’ve never had a day I don’t think of mother during 4 years.
I’ve never had a day I don’t thank mother during 4 years.
I have been full of appreciation and respect for the fact that mother fought against cancer.

Mother’s pancreas carcinoma was not found in any hospitals during half a year.
It seemed sincerely to have been good now. When the pancreas carcinoma (especially, tail of pancreas cancer) is found, there are a lot of cases which are too late. If it was discovered before half a year, mother had to be in bed. However, she could go on a trip and see grandmother and sisters living in Fukushima.

(The expression I cannot say all my life)

It was only a month which mother had been in hospital. There was such a conversation when in hospital.
“Cancer was really painful.” Mother said to the doctor. The doctor answered, “I understand well.” “Are you sure? I don’t think you can understand because you are not cancer, but don’t be cancer,” said mother.
Even if I can say to the patient, “Oh yes” and “I know you have difficult times”, but I cannot say “I understand well.” I might be able to say this sentence through my life.

(Pain which cannot be breathed in)

The place in Sichuan in China where mother wanted to go once two years ago is “Kyukan-Ko” which is World Heritage and the mountain of the altitude 3500m. I went to climb that mountain.
I could never forget such a beautiful and clear surface of the water splendid emerald green.
However, I couldn’t keep stepping ahead because I became suffocating soon. Although there were a lot of people using the oxygen cylinder, I climbed without it.
The reason why I choose this mountain is to have experience of the pain which cannot be breathed in. I climbed up the mountain while taking a rest. The pain was much more than I imagined.
Mother’s cancer had metastasized to lungs; she faced the severe difficulty breathing several times.
To think of mother’s suffering makes me painful when the amount of oxygen decreases rapidly.

(The expression I don’t regret)

The pancreatic carcinoma had pressed the bile duct, so mother was not able to take meal. She vomited because of the overflow of bile.
I asked the doctor, “How about having only the soup of the noodle?” The doctor answered severely, “If she feels delicious, the bile overflows …”
However, mother said to us who took care of her in the hospital, “Take meal everytime.”
One day mother asked me, “What do you think if a person cannot eat anything for a month?”
I was too painful in such a question. “It’s OK! Only one month.” I said half in joke.
“It’s cruel. Painful!” I couldn’t say anything to the answer of mother.
I offer a full of white rice in front of mother’s photograph.
How do you talk to the person in distress?
This is the big problem of work, and facing in daily life.
I don’t think we need technique how to talk to the patient.
I would like to grow up a person who can say the expression not regretted owing to mother.

(Happy departure)

I feel I became qualified to be allowed the medical treatment because I had a big fight with the cancer got over with mother.
I felt that the fight with the sickness was too sublime, and the moment the person die is deep, intense ad honorable when I lost the most important person.
I had rubbed mother’s arm while praying several days before mother passed away in the hospital.
Mother said, “I feel so good. I have no pain at all. It is effective better than any medicine.” She looked really happy.
The day before mother passed away, I said the word of gratitude to mother. Mother in the near-coma state nodded, she mumbled. I couldn’t catch her words, but I heard saying that thank you.
Mother had thanked for everything since she was hospitalized. I think that how wonderful she spent the finishing of the life.
Four years passed since then.
I feel being defended still by mother, and I am so excited seriously because whether where and when I meet mother.
The death is a departure of the following life. Even if the appearance is different, mother will be re-born with the same life.
When I show the acupuncture, eyes will shine. I believe I can meet such a person while I am alive.