Japan is a land of great innovation but also steeped in tradition.

Here are some of the aspects the traditional Japanese lifestyle, including diet, exercise and in general a way of life that should be the model of healthy living for the rest of the world.

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arestou

Fast food is like the blob – quite literally. It spreads across the land, in this case the globe, devouring all that it touches.

Think about it, the U.S. is awash with fast food, many people are enormous, and it seems every report about fast food popping up overseas says it’s destroying traditional diet habits, and wrecking national health.

And now, Kuwait joins the list of victims, which already includes Japan, China, and most of Europe.

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TOKYO, Jan. 15 (UPI) —

Japan needs to recognize more people who suffer from radiation disease caused by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nation’s health minister said.

Minister Akira Nagatsuma called for a revision of the law governing radiation illnesses caused when the United States bombed Japan in August 1945 near the end of World War II, The Mainichi Daily News reported Friday.

Without legal revision, further relaxation (of the standards) would be difficult, Nagatsuma told a group of people who represent radiation victims.

The law last was revised in 1981 to give more medical benefits to atomic bomb survivors, who since have argued the legislation too narrowly defines who was harmed by radiation from the bombs.

Nagatsuma made no mention of revising the healthcare allowance of about $372 a month that most atomic bomb survivors receive.

NARA, Japan, Jan. 14 (UPI) —

Thyme oil is among six essential oils found to suppress inflammation, researchers in Japan say.

Study author Hiroyasu Inoue of Nara Women’s University in Nara, Japan, says essential oils from clove, rose, eucalyptus, fennel and bergamot also suppress the inflammatory COX-2 enzyme, an enzyme responsible for inflammation and pain.

The study, published in the Journal of Lipid research, suggests the anti-inflammatory effect of the six essential oils, which compares to the health benefits of the chemical resveratrol in red wine — is due to the chemical carvacrol.

Inoue and colleagues screened a wide range of commercially available oils and identified the six that reduced COX-2 expression in cells by at least 25 percent. Of these, thyme oil proved the most active, reducing COX-2 levels by almost 75 percent.

When the major active agent found in the thyme oil — carvacrol — was used as pure extract, COX-2 levels decreased by more than 80 percent.

New findings from the Monell Center and Kyushu University in Japan report that endocannabinoids act directly on taste receptors on the tongue to enhance sweet taste. “Our taste cells may be more involved in regulating our appetites than we had previously known,” said study author Robert Margolskee, M.D., Ph.D., a Monell molecular biologist…

NEW YORK, Jan. 1 (UPI) —

Many cultures worldwide eat special foods for luck on New Year’s Day that, while they may not provide prosperity, do offer good health.

The Web site epicurious.com says people in many countries eat legumes including beans, peas, black-eyed peas and lentils that are also symbolic of money. Lentils resemble coins that swell when cooked so they are consumed with financial rewards in mind.

In Brazil, the first meal of the New Year is usually lentil soup and in Japan, a group of symbolic dishes eaten during the first three days of the New Year includes sweet black beans.

Cooked greens, including cabbage, collards, kale, and Swiss chard are consumed at New Year’s in many different countries for one reason — their green color and leaves look like folded money.

In Spain, Portugal, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru, people eat 12 grapes at midnight — one grape for each stroke of the clock and each month of the year. This custom dates back to 1909, when grape growers in Spain initiated the practice to take care of a grape surplus, the Web site said.

People in Cuba, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and the United States eat roast pork because it’s a symbol of prosperity and abundance. Many in these same countries refuse to eat any poultry on New Year’s Day so their good luck will not fly away.

BAMAKO, Mali, Dec. 31 (UPI) —

A device introduced by Swiss researchers to the West African nation of Mali will detect bogus or substandard medicine within minutes, the researchers said.

The capillary electrophoresis technology, using thin wires hooked to electrodes to analyze a medicine’s chemical properties, will weaken Mali’s growing counterfeit medicine market, which most often targets patients with life-threatening diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, the Integrated Regional Information Networks reported.

Until now, Mali’s national health laboratory used a chemical analysis that was cumbersome and costly, Director Benoit Yaranga Koumare said.

Getting results could take a day, compared with 10 minutes with capillary electrophoresis, he said.

Mali’s lab will use the device to analyze antibiotics amoxicillin and clotrimazole, prescribed for diarrhea and ear infections; the HIV therapy of lamivudine, zidovudine and nevirapine; anti-malarial quinidine; and the antibiotic rifampicin, to treat tuberculosis and leprosy.

The drug-testing technology — used in Europe, Japan and the United States — typically costs $80,000. But Swiss researchers delivered a prototype to the Mali lab for less than $7,000, said the Integrated Regional Information Network, an independent news agency associated with the United Nations focusing on humanitarian stories.

The University of Geneva donated labor and research costs, Serge Rudaz of the university’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences told IRIN.

Counterfeit drug sales worldwide will reach $75 billion in 2010, an increase of more than 90 percent since 1995, the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest estimates.

Eighty percent of medicines sold in Africa are imported, the World health Organization says.

Electronista

And they call us fat in America. Well, we are, but that’s beside the point!

No, your eyes don’t deceive you–that’s a 7 meat patty Burger King Whopper.

So, why does it exist? To help promote a new computer operating system, duh!

In October, Microsoft launched Windows 7, and to promote its release in Japan, they came up with that 7 meat patty, a 2,120 calorie artery bomb.

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PARIS, Dec. 10 (UPI) —

The United States spends more on healthcare — $7,290 per capita in 2007 — than any other country, an international ranking found.

The fifth edition of health at a Glance provides the latest comparable data on different aspects of the performance of health systems in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

The more than $7,000 spent by the United States on healthcare — 16 percent of gross domestic product — is almost two-and-a-half times greater than the OECD average of $2,984, or an average of 8.9 percent adjusted for purchasing power parity. France follows the United States in healthcare spending at 11 percent of GDP, Switzerland at 10.8 percent and Germany 10.4 percent.

Japan has higher survival rates for people with cancer than most countries. The United States and Canada have good cancer care, screening more people than most other countries, the report said. However, the United States suffers from worse primary care and preventable hospital admissions for asthma and diabetes are twice what they are, on average, in the OECD, the report said.

Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the OCED in Paris, said the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and Germany provide good primary care, but no one OECD country provides high quality care in all areas.

There are opportunities for all countries to improve the performance of their healthcare care system, and making such improvements does not necessarily require higher spending, Gurria said.

research TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Nov. 16 (UPI) —

A majority of smokers worldwide support smoking bans in the workplace, a survey conducted by U.S. researchers indicates.

The survey by RTI International and Harris Interactive surveyed more than 3,500 employees who smoke and more than 1,400 employers, both smokers and non-smokers, in 14 counties about their attitudes toward workplace smoking and cessation.

The study, published in the International Journal of Public health online edition, shows 74 percent of smoking employees and 87 percent of employers felt the workplace should be smoke-free.

Although there was widespread variation among countries, overall the results demonstrate global support for workplace smoking bans, lead author Michael Halpern, a senior fellow at RTI, says in a statement.

Those in India favor the workplace smoking ban the most at 85 percent. Support for a ban was 75 percent in Japan, while 33 percent favor the ban in Germany and 37 percent in Poland.

The survey, sponsored by Pfizer, found employees estimate they spend an average of one hour per day smoking at work, but almost 70 percent say they did not believe that it had a negative financial impact on their employer. However, about half of the employers interviewed say they believe that smoking had a negative financial impact on their organization.

No further survey details were provided.