Hello everyone. I’m Midori Meshitsuka, the director of M Regenerative Clinic. At our clinic, we everyday consult with our patients with sincerity under the motto of “HEART TO HEART”, desiring to help them not only overcome illness and diseases, but also live a happy and satisfactory life. I hope these six- part series of essay may help you recognize the importance of optimal health.

Today’s society is sometimes stressful, however, the average life expectancy has continued expanding thanks to the progress of medicine. Developed countries are eventually entering into the era of the 100-year life. In these circumstances, medical science is expected not only to treat an illness or disease, but also to help people live happy and healthy life. Human healthy life expectancies can be prolonged by slowing the physiological aging. It means that we can more positively enjoy a healthy life than remain in a passive state of just “being alive”. Aging comes on to everyone equally, and time can never be turned back. The few things you can’t buy with money are happiness and health. Then how can we maintain good health while aging? The answer is prime aging. Many of you may have heard the term anti-aging. What are the differences between anti-aging and prime aging?

Anti-aging literally means to resist aging. The definition of anti-aging is “theoretical and practical science that aims to enjoy a healthy and long life”, and its purpose is to stay beautiful, youthful, and healthy with the use of latest science. Of course, this is a great idea. However, the speed of physiological aging accelerates with advanced age in nature. Therefore, even advancing anti-aging technologies can’t keep on meeting increasing demands for rejuvenation. These situations sometimes cause troubles involving excessive anti-aging treatments. Some Hollywood actresses have tried to maintain their beautiful appearances by such means as continuously adding hyaluronic acid to the wrinkles, however, these efforts eventually result in as if an artificial face that is hardly identified. It’s actually the result of excessive anti-aging treatments.

On the contrary, the goal of prime- aging is to age while maintaining the optimal health. Of course, prime aging isn’t the method to stay healthy without applying modern science technology at all. Advanced science is very useful especially in terms of time- saving, which benefits busy people with well- balanced dietary supplements, pharmaceutical products with few side effects, and less- invasive treatments. According to my interpretation, prime aging is not a way in which we are solely dependent on the power of science, but the method to enjoy our lives by naturally enhancing our own innate power through keeping an ideal balance between mind and body.

So then, how can we practice prime aging? The key is “to enjoy changes that are going around you” and “respecting yourself as you are.” We all age equally day by day. Until around 20 years old, changes occurring to ourselves may be positive as a whole, which make us feel our own progress. However, after 20 years old, we sometimes experience opposite changes. We find difficulties in doing something that were quite easy for us to do in the past, and come to realize that we are actually aging. In these circumstances, we shouldn’t be discouraged, instead, should try to take advantage of the accumulation of experiences which we have acquired over the years. These attitudes encourage us to accept our aging as “positive changes”, and eventually to live satisfactory life.

For an example, I work as a surgeon. We, surgeons, of course gradually come to suffer from vision troubles or hand disabilities as we age. These situations may discourage us from working any more as a surgeon. However, instead, it is still possible for us to perform a safer and more efficient surgery by reflecting on what went well and what could have gone better over the past years. Furthermore, we can transmit these knowledge and skills to younger generations. If we positively accept our own aging, we can enjoy our job more, and promote our self-compassion and self-esteem. Our taste of music and food changes as we age, and our body and mind change as well. We can be happier if we are satisfied with what we are at each time. Additionally, needless to say, it is important for us to eat a well-balanced diet, to enjoy moderate physical exercise, to avoid oxidative stress including smoking and ultraviolet rays, to find your own way to relax, and to have enough sleep. Furthermore, no matter how old we are, we can live a fruitful and satisfactory life by having a goal, and by spending precious time with our friends and loved ones.

From the view point of brain science, alpha brain wave increases when we are relaxed. This wave is known to be effective not only in relieving stress and improving concentration, but also in enhancing the immunity and self-healing ability. The goal of prime aging is to enrich our lives by slightly changing our own way of thinking, since these efforts help us stay healthy and happy by improving our self-healing power. In this series of essay, I would like to talk about how to carry out “prime aging” especially from the view point of nutrition, immunity, and anti-inflammatory.

Everyone, look forward to next time!