26 Jul Medicine translators want to help you with your diet

In a world marked by globalization, men, women and children travel all over the planet and they need access in their lives to different kinds of healthcare services. Therefore, medical translators must work with healthcare professionals at some point in their careers. On the other hand, healthcare is more and more related not only to curing diseases, but also to avoiding them.

Lifestyle has a crucial role on people’s health, and among the most important subjects linked to health and lifestyle, diet is considered each day to be more important. This means that medicine translators will in addition deal with diet and nutrition as part of healthy life and preventive treatments. Among the most respected diets we find those that are somehow linked to greater longevity, as the Japanese one, which we are going to use as an example in the present article, in order to highlight what a good diet can do for human lifes.

How a diet can reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases

A diet rich in vegetables, fish and fruits, seems to prevent strokes. The Japanese diet is reputed to be healthy, but it also has negative aspects, such as low fat intake or high salt content. However, since 1964, meat was introduced to the Japanese diet, along with the traditional ingredients such as seaweed, vegetables, mushrooms and fish. In 2016, Japan had nearly 66 thousand centenarians and, best part is that 20% of them lead autonomous lives.

Japan is currently the country with the highest life expectancy and with the lowest rates of cardiovascular problems or obesity. Some of the keys to explain this phenomenon are precisely in their diet. Medical interpreting  and translation services come into play as they will be integrated into innovative services helping people to understand medical plans and conditions that will position healthcare or life science companies in a place to reach new customers, not only by breaking through linguistic barriers, but also by expanding their services to areas that are not 100% included traditionally in healthcare, such as nutrition.

Medicine translators following centenarians footsteps

Of course diet cannot be the only factor that reflects into human health, as centenarians have in common frugal eating, a purpose and daily exercise. However, no matter how many factors influence the aging process, it is estimated that just under a third depends on the diet. It is also curious that places in the world with the highest rate of centenarians have a dietary common basis including abundance of vegetables and low sugar consumption, calorie intake or animal fats.

Medicine translators can spread dietary and nutrition information that can positively influence people’s health, letting them know how different diet tend to have different results in groups of people. In this sense, fish in the Japanese diet provides necessary fats, such as Omega 3, high quality proteins, antioxidants (blue fish has carotenoids) and vitamin D. It is consumed even at breakfast.

According to medical experts, it is precisely the amount of fish that Japanese people consume partially responsible for the reduction of cardiovascular problems and the good state of their metabolism. On the other hand, although the consumption of algae is not very widespread worldwide, it is an important part of the Japanese diet. Curiously, algae are the only vegetables that provide Omega 3. They are also rich in iodine and contain fucoidans which seem to have antiviral effects, favoring longevity.

Any medical document translation is a serious undertaking. Medical researchers, life science translation services and pharmaceutical companies deal with people’s health and their quality of life, therefore a medical document translation should be accurate and proofed. Healthcare products in the EU, for example, are roughly 10.4% of gross domestic product. However, the percentage can be much bigger if essential health factors are also included.

Some advices to take for your own diet

The purpose of this article is not to make you adopt Japanese diet, but to be informed and include in your diet some of its habits. For example, eat more fish and fermented foods (foods enriched by the fermentation process as, nato, similar to yogurt, made from soy beans, which is rich in vitamin K2, and affects arteries and teeth wellbeing) or consume green tea (rich in antioxidants, polyphenols), which helps prevent some types of cancer and cardiovascular problems. Eat moderately or try seaweed (the most consumed algae in Japan are wakame, nori and kombu).

Fitness and fitness devices and technology is also a big business these days. In India and China the market is on the move. Manufacturers of fitness related products are taking advantage of this fact, including evolving technology (fitness devices and apps expected to reach by 2022 $12 US billion), which also requires more healthcare related translations.