We all know that the Japanese have one of the longest life expectancies in the world. Peter McGarry suggests that a combination of the right diet and lifestyle is the reason why the Japanese live so long, listing things such as fish, soybeans, wheat and walking as important factors. However, in a country which has one of the highest rates of tobacco consumption, it is still an amazing statistic.
One of my students recently visited an ‘organic food’ restaurant in a bid to stay healthy, and told me how the owner of the establishment tries to prove the need for organic food by analyzing the patrons’ blood!
Apparently the restaurant is affiliated with a health clinic, so within the restaurant you can give a blood sample and study it under a microscope. The problem is that since only qualified doctors and nurses are allowed to draw blood, the staff ask you to draw your own! While my student wasn’t too keen, her friends eagerly took samples with syringes and were able to see the movement of their red and white blood cells.
While this may encourage some people to go back to the restaurant, I find the idea of eating in a place where people take blood rather off-putting. This story did however tie in nicely with the topic of ‘health in the future’ which I’ve been thinking about lately.
I envision that in the next decade, there will be home appliances that can check your health, just as a doctor does, and tell you exactly what you need to eat and in what quantities to get healthy. I’m no expert, but if the doctor can make a report listing your blood pressure, cholesterol level, amount of fibre, and all that other important stuff, why can’t a machine?
Maybe this ‘health appliance’ will print off a shopping list for you, and further into the future, it might even cook dinner for you! If that’s the case, and our bodies have the perfect balance of minerals, vitamins and everything else, would we not live longer? Would aging be delayed by decades? Could we even reverse the affects of aging?
Perhaps that won’t be necessary though as according to another of my students, when his one-and-a-half year old daughter was born, he paid the hospital to store a sample of blood from her mother’s womb. The hospital will keep it frozen for ten years until he has to pay again. The hope is that if his daughter ever becomes seriously ill or loses a limb, DNA from the blood can be used to heal her, including cloning body parts that need replacing!
It’s all a bit freaky really, but as technology develops, perhaps we could all live forever!
If you like, you can find me on Twitter at @nick_ramsay. I'd love to hear from you!
this is even weirder than the restaurant stuffed with computers.
La Flor, I agree entirely!
It is only the 13th March here. It seems strange to see your latest entry dated 14th March. It is very interesting article. Where do you find them all?
Thanks mum, I guess I’m already living in the future then!
This post is just based on what I heard from students, but it’s not too hard to find something to write about. I just have to look around me. Things that are an everyday part of life for me in Japan are often fascinating to people from different countries and cultures.
That syringe stuff sounds like a brilliant marketing stunt rather than anything else.
I wasnt going to comment on this but since this is the only article i havent commmented on, well i couldnt leave it be!