Kampo

Understanding Kampo Medicine is important for foreign physicians teaching in Japan. Many patients are concurrently using both traditional and kampo medicine and this complicates the interpretation of therapeutic and toxic effects. Resources for English speaking academics are limited. Two useful resources are listed below:

1. The Practice of Chinese Herbal Medicine in Japan. http://www.itmonline.org/arts/kampo.htm Authoritative –historical review

2. Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (eCAM) http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/. Up to date articles in digital format. eCAM is an international, peer-reviewed journal that seeks to understand the new, yet ancient world of complementary and alternative medicine..

dg

Rash and Fever -answer

Kawasaki disease. First identified in the '60s in Chiba, Japan it is now recognized worldwide. Rates in Asians are much higher. Treatment with IV IG reduces the rate of coronary aneurysms. Cause of the erythema at BCG site is unknown.

DG

Japanese Access to Health Care Highest

Longevity as a function of access to health care was reviewed by the WHO in several populations. Japanese at age 60 had the highest. USA ranked 18th. See the full report at: http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications

USA leads in cost however, with the cost of family coverage up 87 percent since 2000 to an average $11,481. For details see: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/27/business/27insure.

Rash and Fever

6-year-old boy presented recently with fever, rash, redness of the palms and desquamation of the skin of his fingers. His site of BCG vaccination became bright red during the febrile episodes.

Questions.
1. Diagnosis?
2. Treatment of choice?
3. Cause of change in his BCG site?

Answers tommorow!

New ACP and IDSA Associates

Over 30 residents at Kameda signed up to be associates with the American College of Physicians. For an annual fee of $40 they recieve all online journals and discounts on all ACP programs and resources. Go to (www.acponline.org) and check out the associates membership section.

Dr Hosokawa is now an associate of the IDSA and Asako Doi is a member in training.

DG

Asian American longevity

Asian Americans keep their longevity advantage even after moving to America. The gap between Asian females and Black males is an astonishing 20.7 years!! They seem to maintain their culture of health (diet, activity, low violence) even after moving to America.

Chart shows Asian males (America 1) and 7 other ethnic groups. The full report is available at: http://www.globalhealth.harvard.edu/

American Medical Educator Experience

Insight into the expatriate medical educator experience.

"How lucky we are to be able to take the best of both cultures and incorporate those traits into our lives. "
Joel Barish, TMDU

How true! As educators we are observing and learning as well as teaching. Thankfully, we have access to the best of both worlds.

Green Tea Works!

40,530 Japanese adults were studied. Those who drank lots of green tea were less likely than those who drank only a little tea to die from cardiovascular disease and other causes.

Journal of the American Medical Association, Sept 13, 2006. Dr. Shinichi Kuriyama of Tohoku University in Sendai.

DG

Japan on Google Maps!

Google maps now has NASA satellite images of Japan!! Roads are up to date and terrain photos are superb!

Google.com
maps section
Type .... kamogawa japan
Experiment with navigation, size and detail. It is truly fantastic!

DG

Answer to last photo

Sting ray envenomation!!

Venom is deactivated by heat. Soak sting site in hot water. Use lidocaine for local anesthesia.

http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic556.htm

I evaluated this interesting patient recently in NC. 56 YO female while walking in surf 16cms deep experienced severe-sudden-sharp pain on the dorsum of her left foot.

Clue, a famous TV personality recently died of this envenomation.
Answer in tomorrow's blog entry.

Japan Med goes live!!

The internet is grand! It allows rapid communication among like minded people and creates an instant sense of community and comaraderie.

For those who are isolated, either by geography, culture or other factors, the blog is a convenient antidote.

In the future we will post significant events, and clinical observations.

Dr. G
Japanmed.com