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October 2009 
Words of Wisdom From a 97-Year-Old Physician
Posted on Apr 26th, 2009
by 
Flowerchild
Flowerchild
Words of Wisdom From a 97-Year-Old Physician
At the age of 97 years and 4 months, Shigeaki Hinohara is one of the
world's longest-serving physicians and educators. He has been healing
patients at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo and teaching at
St. Luke's College of Nursing since 1941.
He has published around 150 books since his 75th birthday, including one
Living Long, Living Good that has sold more than 1.2 million copies. As
the founder of the New Elderly Movement, Hinohara encourages others to
live a long and happy life, a quest in which no role model is better
than the doctor himself:
Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot.
Hinohara says we all remember how as children, when we were having fun,
we often forgot to eat or sleep. He believes that we can keep that
attitude as adults, too, and that it's best not to tire the body with
too many rules such as lunchtime and bedtime.
All people who live long -- regardless of nationality, race or gender --
share one thing in common: None are overweight. For breakfast Hinohara
drinks coffee, a glass of milk and some orange juice with a tablespoon
of olive oil in it. His lunch is milk and a few cookies. His dinner is
veggies, a bit of fish and rice, and, twice a week, 100 grams of lean
meat.
Always plan ahead. His schedule book is already full until 2014. In 2016
he plans to attend the Tokyo Olympics!
There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot
later than 65. The current retirement age was set at 65 half a century
ago, when the average life-expectancy in Japan was much lower.
Share what you know. Hinohara gives 150 lectures a year, some for 100
elementary-school children, others for 4,500 business people.
When a doctor recommends you take a test or have some surgery, ask
whether the doctor would suggest that his or her spouse or children go
through such a procedure. Contrary to popular belief, doctors can't cure
everyone -- so why cause unnecessary pain with surgery? Hinohara thinks
that music and animal therapy can help more than most doctors imagine.
To stay healthy, always take the stairs and carry your own stuff. He
take two stairs at a time, to get his muscles moving.
Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it.
Hospitals must cater to the basic need of patients, and we all want to
have fun.
Don't be crazy about amassing material things. Remember: You don't know
when your number is up, and you can't take it with you to the next
place.
Hospitals must be designed and prepared for major disasters, and they
must accept every patient who appears at their doors. Hinohara helped
design St. Luke's so that it was possible to operate anywhere: in the
basement, in the corridors, in the chapel. Most people thought he was
crazy, but on March 20, 1995, he was unfortunately proven right when
members of the Aum Shinrikyu religious cult launched a terrorist attack
in the Tokyo subway. St. Luke's accepted 740 victims and in two
hours figured out that it was sarin gas that had hit them. Sadly they
lost one person, but they saved 739 lives.
Science alone can't cure or help people. Illness is individual. Each
person is unique, and diseases are connected to their hearts. To know
the illness and help people, there is a need for liberal and visual
arts, not just medical ones.
Life is filled with incidents. On March 31, 1970, when Hinohara was 59
years old, he boarded the Yodogo, a flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka. The
plane was hijacked by the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction. He
spent the next four days handcuffed to his seat. As a doctor, he looked
at it all as an experiment and was amazed at how his body slowed down in
a crisis.
Find a role model and aim to achieve even more than they could ever do.
Hinohara's role model was his father, who went to the United States
in 1900 to study at Duke University, in North Carolina.
It's wonderful to live long. Since the age of 65, Hinohara has worked as
a volunteer. He still puts in 18 hours, seven days a week, and loves
every minute of it.
Sources:
The Japan Times January 29, 2009
<http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090129jk.html>
At the age of 97 years and 4 months, Shigeaki Hinohara is one of the
world's longest-serving physicians and educators. He has been healing
patients at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo and teaching at
St. Luke's College of Nursing since 1941.
He has published around 150 books since his 75th birthday, including one
Living Long, Living Good that has sold more than 1.2 million copies. As
the founder of the New Elderly Movement, Hinohara encourages others to
live a long and happy life, a quest in which no role model is better
than the doctor himself:
Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot.
Hinohara says we all remember how as children, when we were having fun,
we often forgot to eat or sleep. He believes that we can keep that
attitude as adults, too, and that it's best not to tire the body with
too many rules such as lunchtime and bedtime.
All people who live long -- regardless of nationality, race or gender --
share one thing in common: None are overweight. For breakfast Hinohara
drinks coffee, a glass of milk and some orange juice with a tablespoon
of olive oil in it. His lunch is milk and a few cookies. His dinner is
veggies, a bit of fish and rice, and, twice a week, 100 grams of lean
meat.
Always plan ahead. His schedule book is already full until 2014. In 2016
he plans to attend the Tokyo Olympics!
There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot
later than 65. The current retirement age was set at 65 half a century
ago, when the average life-expectancy in Japan was much lower.
Share what you know. Hinohara gives 150 lectures a year, some for 100
elementary-school children, others for 4,500 business people.
When a doctor recommends you take a test or have some surgery, ask
whether the doctor would suggest that his or her spouse or children go
through such a procedure. Contrary to popular belief, doctors can't cure
everyone -- so why cause unnecessary pain with surgery? Hinohara thinks
that music and animal therapy can help more than most doctors imagine.
To stay healthy, always take the stairs and carry your own stuff. He
take two stairs at a time, to get his muscles moving.
Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it.
Hospitals must cater to the basic need of patients, and we all want to
have fun.
Don't be crazy about amassing material things. Remember: You don't know
when your number is up, and you can't take it with you to the next
place.
Hospitals must be designed and prepared for major disasters, and they
must accept every patient who appears at their doors. Hinohara helped
design St. Luke's so that it was possible to operate anywhere: in the
basement, in the corridors, in the chapel. Most people thought he was
crazy, but on March 20, 1995, he was unfortunately proven right when
members of the Aum Shinrikyu religious cult launched a terrorist attack
in the Tokyo subway. St. Luke's accepted 740 victims and in two
hours figured out that it was sarin gas that had hit them. Sadly they
lost one person, but they saved 739 lives.
Science alone can't cure or help people. Illness is individual. Each
person is unique, and diseases are connected to their hearts. To know
the illness and help people, there is a need for liberal and visual
arts, not just medical ones.
Life is filled with incidents. On March 31, 1970, when Hinohara was 59
years old, he boarded the Yodogo, a flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka. The
plane was hijacked by the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction. He
spent the next four days handcuffed to his seat. As a doctor, he looked
at it all as an experiment and was amazed at how his body slowed down in
a crisis.
Find a role model and aim to achieve even more than they could ever do.
Hinohara's role model was his father, who went to the United States
in 1900 to study at Duke University, in North Carolina.
It's wonderful to live long. Since the age of 65, Hinohara has worked as
a volunteer. He still puts in 18 hours, seven days a week, and loves
every minute of it.
Sources:
The Japan Times January 29, 2009
<http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090129jk.html>
Access: Public
