What do you think the business that has been increasing around the train station these days? There are many, but one of them is the Mental Clinic.
If you open a public phone book, you can find more than 10 mental clinics around each train station in Tokyo. It did not happen a decade ago. In those days, mental illness was a big issue and we seldom saw clinics in our normal life. Consequently, it was obvious that we literally had to make up our mind and visit major hospitals if we needed to go see a mental health doctor.
However, about 10 years ago, I noticed that a clinic in my neighborhood, whose specialty was to consult the elderly with their blood pressure control, changed its name to “Cranial Nerves Clinic” in associated with cerebral apoplexy. 60% of the patients still wanted prescription of their medicine, but the rest was suffering from depression. Not too long after changing its name, to my great surprise, this small clinic bought a four-story building and established a full-scale mental clinic. I hear that the doctor prescribes a month’s worth of hypnotic drugs without hesitation and the nurse has to give him a warning each time. This clinic is so strange.
In Italy, nobody goes to the public mental hospital (refered in Mental Immunology by Koichiro Fujita, Shinchosha Publishing Co., Ltd.). Professor Fujita, M.D., the author of the book pointed out that the number of bed in the department of Psychiatry in US, France, or England has rapidly dropped down, but contrarily, that of in Japan has kept growing. There is a significantly big difference in acknowledging mental illness between those countries between Japan. It has been aware of a limit on a treatment solely dependent on drugs in those countries whereas in Japan, a treatment is to prescribe each patient for medicine as many as 30 tablets a day.
Professor Fujita, M.D. talks about Professor Feng Jin, The Chinese Academy of Science that he mentions in his book that it has been proved in animal experiments that lactobacillus acidophilus improve intestinal bacteria which help to stabilize emotions. What I found more interesting is the study of Dr. Micheal Gershon, University of Columbia. In order to find out where serotonin is usually stored, he injected 5-hydroxytryptamine labeled with radiation to a mouse and found that it quickly changed into serotonin and 95% of it is stored in the intestine. Serotonin (lacking of this could outbreak depression.) is a substance that leads cerebrum to a relaxing state and it is believed to shift to cerebrum more smoothly on condition that the temperature of intestines and the state of lactobacillus acidophilus are proper.
Modern people should be aware and understand that what is effective to stabilize the state of brain lies in far from the cerebrum, which has never been pointed out in terms of brain science. Now it has been more accepted that a drug like SSRI should not be given too much because it could have the opposite effect in dropping down the quantity of synthesized serotonin. As I mentioned earlier, if serotonin has something deeply to do with the intestine, we should eat food that includes lots of fiber. Soy beans, notto, and tofu include tryptophan. They are not only healthy but also rich in fiber.. They also increase serotonin in the intestines. In the end, they improve the intestine environment.
In ancient times, coelenterates like earthworms were believed to think in their intestines because they didn’t have brain. They produced neurotransmitter called serotonin in the intestines and controlled their whole body with it. Humans are also the descendants of them, so that is why even in the recent times; we store 95% of serotonin in our intestines. Serotonin rapidly breaks if one feels stressed. So it is important to stay away from work or people that you may feel stressed with.