Therapeutic Medicine and Preventive Medicine

Therapeutic medicine and preventive medicine are two different things, although they both deal with diseases. There are various ways of thinking about “prevention”.

There are many ways to think about prevention. In other words, you can only treat a disease after it has developed. Prevention, on the other hand, includes diet, exercise, and taking supplements to improve health.

One of the most important things to do is to detect diseases as early as possible. For example, as I am sure you are aware, there is a cancer screening.

In Japan, cancer screening is conducted quite enthusiastically. Well-known examples are screening for stomach cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, and lung cancer. For colon cancer screening, the fecal occult blood test, or so-called stool test, is used to check for bleeding in the digestive tract. For breast cancer screening, mammography is used to take X-rays of the breast, and for lung cancer screening, X-rays are taken of the chest.

These are things that many of us have done during health checkups and physical examinations. It can be said that one of the ways of preventive medicine is to take these checkups conducted by local and national governments to detect diseases that you are not aware of as early as possible.

Precautions for DNA (genetic) testing

As a preventive medicine, early detection of diseases is very important. In addition to health checkups and physical examinations, you may have recently heard of DNA testing.

Many companies offer kits that say, “You can easily measure your genes,” and some of them are very inexpensive.

When we examine our genes with these DNA test kits, we know that there are genes that clearly cause cancer, but for other diseases, the possibility of getting the disease is vague, ranging from low to high.

For example, I have seen a DNA test kit from a company that says, “You have a high probability of developing XX disease”, but at the same time it says, “There is no solid evidence for this. Therefore, you should be careful not to take the test results for granted.

Also, you may not realize it, but when you check your own genetic information, the company that does the genetic test may make you sign a form saying that it is okay to use your genetic information.

Normally, it costs 50,000 to 80,000 yen for a company to collect your genetic information, but a company that does it for 10,000 to 20,000 yen may want to collect a lot of genetic data for a low price and use it as data for their own company.

Therefore, it is not advisable to provide your genetic information to various companies unnecessarily just because it is relatively easy to do DNA tests.

Genetic information is very important personal information, and it is also the personal information of your parents, siblings, and offspring who will inherit your genes. Please check what kind of research or data it will be used for before you decide whether you want to sign the part that says you can use the genetic information.

Nowadays, not only DNA test kits, but also “tests” are becoming more and more accurate. For example, cancer screening used to be very difficult, but now it is possible to measure trace elements in the blood or very small amounts in the urine. We believe that in the near future, a drop of blood or urine will be enough to identify a person with cancer.

DNA, Telomere Length and Life Span

Finally, in genetic research related to health and longevity, the topic of telomere length and lifespan has come up. Telomeres are what we call the ends of DNA. It is said that the shorter the telomere, the shorter the life span.

However, telomeres can also be increased. The female scientist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the enzyme telomerase, which breaks down telomeres, said in one of her lectures, “People think that telomeres get shorter and shorter and do not increase as we get older, but this is never the case. We can make it longer again by changing our diet, exercising, and lowering the stress”.

This is because telomere length is an important factor in life expectancy, but it can be increased through daily living.