[99] 腹八分、笑い十二分 EAT LESS AND LAUGH MORE

　
　　　　　腹八分、笑い十二分　
　　
　先週、村上和雄筑波大学名誉教授著の「生命の記号」を読んだ。それによると、人間の身体は６０兆の細胞からできており、さらに個々の細胞には３０億の遺伝子記号が記されていて、その内の９５パーセントが眠っているという。身体に役に立つ遺伝子もあれば、そうでないものもある。だから、健康な生活を送るためには悪い遺伝子を眠ったままにしておき、良い遺伝子を起こすことだ。どうするか。村上氏は、鍵は前向き思考だと言う。前向き思考は良い遺伝子を起こすそうだ。さらに、笑いも良いと言う。村上氏は笑いの効果を２６人の糖尿病患者で実験し、証明した。

　最近、私の友達が車から降りるとき膝を骨折してしまった。３カ月の治療で治ったが、当初、医者は「私は治療のために９９パーセントの事は出来ますが、最後の１パーセントは治そうという御本人の意思にかかっています」と言ったそうだ。

　昨日、ＮＨＫで「長寿の秘訣」と言う番組を見て驚いた。科学者が「サーチュイン」という物質を発見し、そのスイッチをオンにすれば、長寿を含む１００もの身体にいい事をしてくれるそうだ。どのようにオンにするか。簡単なことで、摂取カロリーを３０パーセント減らすことだ。番組では４人の被験者に、いつもより３０パーセント少なめの食事を摂ることを７週間続けてもらった。結果は驚くなかれ、加齢要因である活性酸素の量が４人とも減ったのだ。

　私は長生きして多くの事をしたい。良い短編を書いたり、好きな本を読んだり、杖道の技を磨きたいし、リニア中央新幹線に乗りたいし、曾孫の孫もみたい。

　結論：　モットー　＜少く食べて、大いに笑う＞

  　　　　　　　　EAT LESS AND LAUGH MORE

Last week I read a book about genes titled Seimei no Kigo (Code of Life) written by Kazuo Murakami, an emeritus professor of Tsukuba University.
Murakami says that a human being consists of 60 trillion cells and each cell has 30 billion genes, 95 percent of which are sleeping. Some of them are good for your body while others are not. Therefore, all you have to do to live a healthy happy life is to let the bad genes sleep and wake up the good ones. How to do it? Murakami says the key is positive thinking, which switches on the good genes and wakes them up. Besides positive thinking, he says, laughter is good. He proved the effect of laughter based on an experiment with 26 diabetic patients.
A friend of mine recently had her knee fractured when she was getting out of her car. After almost three months of  treatment, her knee has recovered. Her doctor had told her that he would do his best to cure the injury, but added that all he could do was 99 percent and the last one percent depended on her will to get well.
Yesterday I watched an NHK program “How to Live Long.” I was surprised to know that scientists had found special substance called sirtuin. If you switch on your sirtuins, they will give you about 100 good influences on your body including longevity. How to wake them? It is simple and easy. Just decrease the amount of calories you take by 30 percent every day. The program showed four persons who ate 30 percent less amount of meals than usual for seven weeks. The result was marvelous. All of them showed the decrease in the level of active oxygen, which is a common factor in the aging process.
I want to live long and do many things including writing good short stories and reading books, to be more skillful in the martial art of Jo, riding the linear Chuo Shinkansen train which is scheduled to run in 2027, and seeing my great-grandchildren.
In conclusion, my motto is to eat less and laugh more.