He published about 30 books, based on his experience on Japanese/Eastern chiropractic practice and on his lectures.
"Colds and their benefits" comes with a counter-intuitive title. Colds and flu are bad, aren't they? Otherwise, people wouldn't panic over new Coronavirus (2019-ongoing) nor SARS (2003) or MERS (2012).
He asserts that when your cold properly runs the course, it has a "reset" effect on your body. And the "reset/refreshment" effect is a major benefit of colds.
From his chiropractor's standpoint, your body has natural tendencies (that he calls body habits/TAIHEKI) to accumulate a certain type of tension or stress in particular places. Such tension or stress can be worked on by chiropractic body work. He noticed that once you come through a cold, the tension or stress is relieved, and your body's balance tends to be restored for the better.
He also asserts that some of the people who do not catch cold tend to have sudden big ailments like cancer, stroke or hear attack, and speculates that while catching cold now and then, your body is resetting itself to a healthier state, somewhat like tossing and turning while you sleep.
His old (1962) argument may have a support from contemporary immunology. Periodically activating immune system in whole body with colds may be beneficial for systemic surveillance purpose. Although this "immune surveillance" is a tricky subject to study, we scientists now have tools to investigate it.
There are many anecdotal health assertions. Many of them are untested. First-hand observations by doctors or healthcare workers are precious resources for new research ideas in medicine.
[Colds and their benefits (Japanese version). English translated one is available, too]
Last week I had a cold, and stayed in bed for 3 days from Tuesday to Thursday. Can't believe how fast time flies while you are sick and in bed. The cold did not come with high fever or respiratory symptoms, but was awfully uncomfortable one with whole body tiredness, muscles aches and headaches. On Friday afternoon I went to work. I had a Traumatic Brain Injury meeting and a short presentation. The meeting was to organize the TBI consortium and to visualize research resources for TBI in our institute. Since I have an ongoing collaboration with a TBI researcher, I wanted to attend it. Then I was resting over weekend.
I feel like the cold has properly run its course now and is gone. I am hoping that it "reset" my body for the better. It did not kill me. I should be stronger.
