Hair is a “memory medium” that stores information about the condition of the body over time.[1] From the 2017 United Nations study on World Population Ageing.13Hair grows about 1cm (0.4 inches) per monthThe fi rst 12cm (5inches) contains health data for the last yearThe hair root contains last monthʼs health datatechnology, Torio says, “Without a doubt, the way is opening up. We want to pursue possibilities that will serve society.” Another approach to painless, casual health check-ups may develop from the hair on our heads, each only 0.1mm in diameter (around 0.004 inches). Takashi Tsuji of the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research says, “We’re looking at a society that can make health check-ups by hair in three years time, and diagnose disease in five years.” Tsuji has been investigating treatments to regenerate hair over many years. The hair of the head, which is an aggregation of dead cells originally produced by cell division of hair matrix cells deep in a follicle, grows about 1cm (0.4 inches) per month. That means that health data, as a chronological log, is stored in the 1-cm segment closest to the root for the most recent month, and in the first 12cm (5 inches) for one year. Tsuji believes that an analysis of both the shape of the hair and the status of substances such as the proteins contained inside, and using it as a chronological series of health data, will let us notice changes in health more quickly, and facilitate earlier discovery and response to such conditions as cancer and diabetes. At the end of 2017, a group of businesses that agreed with Tsuji’s ideas formed the “Hair Diagnostic Consortium” to develop a hair diagnostics project involving 10 different laboratories in RIKEN, with participation by 21 firms and organizations. The initial goal is to build a database by collecting the hair health data of 10,000 people in two years, with the aim of the social implementation of health services and disease diagnosis by hair diagnostics. “By developing systems for hair diagnostics and giving individuals accurate health indicators, we can then head off diseases by utilizing health services based on scientific evidence,” Tsuji says. “The goal is to help people stay healthy longer, and thereby bring about a society where people enjoy healthy, long lives.” As the phenomenon of super-aging in the near future, the concept of painless healthcare may indeed become an important support for such a society. Japan undergoes Hair＝memory record from the present to the indefinite futureA variety of health data can be obtained from hair, such as changes in shape and composition. Health data available from hair・Morphological dataThickness (hair types and alopecia stage), curvature, medulla, cuticle, color (tone, white hair, and dyed hair)・Composition of a hair shaftMinerals (trace elements), proteins (structural proteins and amino acids), lipids (oils and metabolites), hormones (e.g., steroids), pigments (e.g., melanin), drugs (medicines and their metabolites), color changes (white hair and dyed hair), genetic data (gene sequence and gene expression)
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