TOKYO —

Hard-working people suffer daily from exhaustion, insomnia, backaches and other minor ailments. Perhaps all they need is a dose of preventive medicine in the form of vitamins and other nutritional supplements.

On April 1, a private service, called Tenteki10, opened in Ebisu Garden Place, to provide “pick-me-ups” through IV drips. People can drop by without a reservation and take the 10-minute instillation right away.

Tenteki10, which is located on the 4th floor of Ebisu Garden Place Tower, operates as a subsidiary of a medical clinic. Because it is a medical practice, the drip is given by nurses and doctors. However, it is not covered by National Health Insurance.

Ten options with different effects and five courses consisting of these options are available. The basic price is 2,000 yen, and customers can request an option or course menu, for an additional charge.

“Many people daily suffer from exhaustion, insomnia and backaches on a daily basis because they don’t take proper care of themselves,” says a doctor at Tenteki10. “They try supplements, home remedies or cheap energy injections. Some of these ailments cannot be healed that way and could possibly develop into more serious illnesses, including depression.”

But the service at Tenteki10 is not “cosmetic,” the doctor adds. “It’s ‘preventive medicine.’ Also, we don’t publicize this service like a business, nor do we suggest it to anyone. We just leave leaflets at the clinic. We think of it as an option for people to raise their awareness of daily health management on their own.”

A spokesperson for Tenteki10 says,  “We don’t want our customers to believe that the drip service will bring them perfect health. Although it has strong and quick effects, it is more important that customers be more aware of how to take responsibility for their daily health. Our service is just one option for them.”

According to Tenteki10, about 30 male and female customers a day currently make use of the drip service as remedies for exhaustion as well as for skin care and anti-aging purposes. Some of them come with their husband, wife or family.

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 26 Total Comments Show All

• 

  noborito at 06:49 AM JST - 1st May

  semperfi, not pill-dropping... You have got to be kidding. Japanese doctors, under law, can't charge a customer unless they give them some kind of medicine. The last time I got sick, I had 6 drugs. 1 for my head, 1 for my stomach, 1 to keep the medicine down (to keep my stomach calm from taking the other medicine) 1 for my nose and 3 more I didn't even know why I was taking them. Japan is pill crazy! (and white powder crazy)

• 

  zaichik at 06:59 AM JST - 1st May

  theirs is not **tunnel-vision-pharmaceutical-pill-dropping **approach typical of wester medicine.

  On the contrary - Japanese doctors are far more likely to over-prescribe (especially when people run to the doctor for the slightest sniffle and a temperature 0.3 degrees above normal), in my experience. You get the drug to cure your lurgi, then the other drug or two to counteract the side-effects of the first one. Because the national health insurance system is pretty generous and there appears to be little or no auditing as to the appropriateness of treatment plans and lengths of stay in hospital, doctors seem to dish out drugs like sweeties. And don't get me started on the way that antibiotics are prescribed without even telling the patient that they are antibiotics.

  Anyway, while these drips may make people feel better (placebo effect, anyone?), I'm pretty dubious about their medical necessity/appropriateness. My advice is to stay as far away from doctors as possible unless you absolutely need medical intervention (or have any suspicious lumps). There will be enough opportunity to have needles stuck in you when there's actually something wrong with you.

• 

  timorborder at 09:17 AM JST - 1st May

  Drug-dependency by another name....

• 

  Nessie at 10:06 AM JST - 1st May

  Yeah, I hear that the drips do give you a of warm, tingly high. But that has nothing to do with you getting better. It seems to be the body's reaction to the intraveneous introduction of outside fluids. My unscientific theory is that it relates to the body's temperature self-regulation.

  And amen to what Zaichik said about pills. Fortunately, if you question the doctor carefully, he or she will tell you which ones you really need. Tell the doctor you have a strong stomach and prefer to take as little medication as possible. Usually this will halve your pill burden.

• 

  Nessie at 10:09 AM JST - 1st May

  And when then the doctor want you back, say you'll be in and out of town on business travel. This is test of whether you really need to come back. Often, the doctor will then say, "Well then, come back if there's a change for the worse". Which is what doctors should say in the first place. You really need to game the medical system here, because you can be sure it's gaming you.

• 

  Ultradude at 10:18 AM JST - 1st May

  Watching so many people get multiple pills and packets of powdered medicine really puts me off the local docs. Not to mention long waits in confined areas with other sick people. Been here 15 yrs and haven't gone to a clinic for except for a flu vaccine or annual check-up. I get the occasional cold/flu but just sleep it off or use over the counter stuff to mitigate the systems. The docs here get commission on what they sell and are not likely to let you walk away without a prescription.

• 

  UnagiDon at 10:40 AM JST - 1st May

  Looking forward to the BYOB version, with corking fee.

• 

  tiredallthetime at 11:56 AM JST - 1st May

  Tiredness and exhaustion is one of the most common complaints to the doctors, and a very difficult one to diagnosis. You take the normal batch of blood test, they turn out fine. You start exercising, eating more healthy and take a multivitamin. Still you feel tired and exhausted. The doctor says “There is nothing wrong with you, you just need to relax more.” How? Quitting your job? I’ve been like that, on and off for the last 6 years, and it’s just so frustrating. When I say tired and exhausted, I don’t mean the kind of tiredness cured by a good night’s sleep, but waking up feeling like you haven’t slept a second, in addition to mild flu-like symptoms, headache, low-grade-fever, etc., lasting for weeks. What do you tell your boss? “Sorry my work is crap nowadays, but I just feel so tired!” Answer: “Get some sleep, exercise, eat healthy and take multivitamins. Take it easy (but don’t forget about that deadline)” . Tiredness and exhaustion is one of the major diseases if our time, but still it is still quite invisible, because people don’t get a formal diagnosis, and many manage somehow to cling on to their job. A UK doctor I went to told me: “It’s just Life with a capital L.” A J-doctor I went to gave me the IV drip, and it did help me somewhat. Another J-doctor gave me medicine with relaxation/sedative/anti-depressant effects, and it helped me even more.

• 

  Ultradude at 12:43 PM JST - 1st May

  tiredallthetime - if your condition is that chronic, long-lasting and life-affecting and yet defies diagnosis, perhaps you need a change of lifestyle/career/location or a very loooong vacation. Have you considered that it may be a mental condition that is the cause of this array of symptoms? Sorry but if I got to the stage of using my condition as a profile name a on a web forum, it may time for a drastic change. Best of luck.

• 

  jerseyboy at 12:58 PM JST - 1st May

  What a scam...Put clear Red Bull in an IV and charge 2,000 yen per dose. Why didn't I think of that?

• 

  tiredallthetime at 01:39 PM JST - 1st May

  Ultradude - well, my condition is not literary "chronic", more "recurrent". Sometimes I have a few rough weeks a couple of times a year. This is not too bad. Other times I am more bad than good for months and months. This is bad, although I am able to drag myself to work and do some low-quality work. Perhaps you have heard about Chronic Fatigue Disease: people who are not able to work because of...well...chronic fatigue, and the doctors can not find any explanation. That's just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many out there struggeling as best as they can to do the day's work that is expected of them, go home and straight to bed, and wake up the next morning feeling like they haven't slept for a second. Mental, physical and outside factors all plays a role, I think. It's probably impossible to pinpoint one exact reason. Change lifestyle/career/location? Easier said than done, for all sorts of reasons (family being one of them). And I can have long periods when I am feeling great and love my work. But the medicine the last doctor gave me does help me, I just try to be careful not to get too addicted to them. Sorry for the self-pity, just felt like explaining what chronic or recurrent fatigue/exhaustion/tiredness feels like.

• 

  cupidstunt at 04:01 PM JST - 1st May

  I wonder if it cures hangovers too?

• 

  Sarge at 09:11 AM JST - 2nd May

  "IV drip"

  What?! And have a needle stuck into my arm?! Far better ways to relieve stress: Play pranks on your neighbor Get a massage Take a nice hot bath Make fists with your toes ( I got that one from John McClane )

• 

  swfiua at 04:54 AM JST - 4th May

  tiredallthetime: I can relate to your story, I was in a very similar position for 5 years. I got glandular fever and never got better. My GP had me down with post-viral-fatigue. Also diagnosed depression and in fact anti-depressants helped quite significantly.

  After 5 years I developed double vision -- and this led to a diagnosis of Myasthenia Gravis -- see http://www.mga-charity.org/ for more info.

  The odds are low that you have MG (it is pretty rare) -- but I strongly believe that chronic fatigue is likely, like MG, auto-immune at heart.

  This was how I ended up here, one of the treatments for MG is to administer intraveous immunoglobulin -- i wondered if that was on the menu (probably not 'cos it is pretty expensive stuff). The IVIG calms the immune system -- the exact mechanism by which it works is a bit unclear, and ironically it can be also used to boost the immune system.

  If your problem is auto-immune in nature I would expect that other illnesses, such as flu/colds tend to make things worse. Also, any sort of stress tends to stir things up.

  Anyway good luck getting a proper diagnosis.

• 

  imussbehypnotized at 12:30 AM JST - 8th May

  I wonder if it cures hangovers too?

  Actually Cupidstunt it is amazingly effective at curing hangovers, getting THC out of your bloodstream (so you can pass drug tests), and treating extreme dehydration. When I was in the Army, my medic buddy had a little side business going. For 20 Deutchmarks you'd get like 20K CCs of saline solution. Only thing was, it takes a while for your body to absorb it.... and afterwards you had to piss like a racehorse. Worked like a charm tho...

Register or Login to leave a comment