Merchant and doctor

Chapter 2435 The Matrix Behind Longevity

Teeth represent age and are a precious part of the body.

Throughout history, people with a bit of knowledge and rich life experience have always cherished their teeth. From the year they reach adulthood, they have always taken great care to protect their teeth.

As a leading figure in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, Nie Yixiong naturally took great care of his teeth. Theoretically speaking, with Nie Yixiong's outstanding medical expertise, it is indeed possible that his full set of white teeth remained intact, or at least none of them were loose.

All masters of traditional Chinese medicine know that teeth are a sign of longevity! The health of one's teeth directly indicates how old one can live. For example, there is a saying that if, regardless of gender, all teeth are healthy and not loose or decayed by the age of 55, one is likely to live past 90.

Similarly, regardless of gender, wealth, or social status, if a person lives past the local average lifespan and has no loose teeth, each tooth can be considered equivalent to 10-15 years of lifespan. Theoretically, this means that a person will live 10-15 years longer than their peers, hence the saying "longevity surplus".

That's what people say, but no one has actually studied it. At least, so far, no professional has published a formal academic paper on it. Whether it's scientific or not, let's just treat it as a folk saying.

Nie Yixiong is getting old, and his teeth have only recently started to loosen. He will most likely easily cross the threshold of 100 years old in the future.

However, he suddenly noticed that his teeth were gradually loosening one by one, which was a bit of a psychological adjustment. This was a normal phenomenon and there was no need to make a fuss about it. If it weren't for the concern of his children, he would not usually bother a famous and popular traditional Chinese medicine doctor late at night for such a trivial matter.

At a specific time, in a specific identity, in a specific scenario... neither too lightly nor too heavily is appropriate for Bian Mu to say it.

"In terms of teeth-strengthening techniques... Situ Jianqing has always been considered the best. It is said that when he passed away, he indeed had a set of teeth as white as jade. However... that is just a folk legend, and no one has ever seriously asked his disciples to verify it. Besides, there's no way to verify such things directly! Even if I know a little, compared to Elder Nie, I wouldn't dare to give advice lightly, would I?" On the other end of the phone, Bian Mu gave a few tactful replies.

Objectively speaking, Bian Mu really had no intention of getting involved with Lao Nie's family.

"It's nothing! It's just casual conversation between friends, don't take it too seriously! If it's convenient, tell me about it?" Nie Yawen replied with a smile on the other end of the phone.

"Then I'll just say whatever comes to mind! There are three in total... Generally speaking, it should be two upper teeth and one lower tooth, right?" Bian Mu guessed cautiously over the phone.

Hmm... guess again!

“To this day, I have never been able to see Elder Nie’s true face, so how can I make wild guesses!” “Didn’t you claim to have restored the ancient ‘diagnosis’ technique? It’s alright, we were just chatting, and I find it quite interesting. Why don’t you give it a try?” On the other end of the phone, Nie Yawen encouraged him with a smile.

"How dare I! How dare I! It's just a joke between colleagues, not to be taken seriously! However... given Elder Nie's medical expertise, he must have a knack for keeping teeth firmly in place. So it must be the lower left lateral incisor? The other two are located above, one of which is diagonally opposite the lower lateral incisor, and the other one is probably pseudo-loose. Based on my experience with elderly people, it's probably a slight collapse of the alveolar bone. Elderly people, no matter how strong their constitution, will still experience some nerve conduction errors. I really can't guess which one it is. In other words, at most one tooth on each side is truly loose, and they are diagonally symmetrical. Otherwise, it wouldn't be quite in line with the image of a medical master like Elder Nie." Bian Mu was quite frank. Since Nie Yawen had already declared that she would speak freely, what was there to hold back?

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, and then Nie Yawen didn't say anything more.

Immediately, Bian Mu guessed that the other party must have the hands-free button on. At this moment, there were probably many people sitting or standing around Nie Yawen's phone!
At the very least, Nie Yawen's father is most likely sitting nearby!
"I'm really curious, how did you guess so accurately?! Is there really some scientific basis for it?" Nie Yawen said on the other end of the phone, and it was clear that she was genuinely surprised.

"Actually, it's not that difficult. Looking across the country, how many people can reach the level of Master Nie in terms of TCM skills? Right? Besides, you can count the number of people as old as Master Nie on your fingers! With that comparison, there's not much information left. I see a lot of dental patients, and the data system does all sorts of statistics and summaries in real time. Whenever I have time, I usually review them before going to bed. So... by going through the process of elimination, some things become clear!" Bian Mu didn't think much of it and told the truth over the phone.

"Hey! It seems... your so-called digital medicine system actually has some real substance! Could it be that you've already led traditional Chinese medicine into the AI ​​era?"

"It's not quite that, but it's definitely equivalent to organizing a small R&D team. The workload suddenly increased by dozens, even hundreds of times. I'm talking about the effective workload. In this respect... Elder Nie and his generation were indeed lacking. I just stumbled upon this by sheer luck, so don't be surprised." Bian Mu quickly steered the conversation back on track with a few modest words.

"Come on! Well... since you're so capable, could you come up with a similar solution to help Grandpa fix it?"

“This… might require the use of matrices… then the timeframe will be a bit tight…” On the other end of the phone, Bian Mu suddenly mentioned matrices, an important tool commonly used in advanced mathematics.

"What?! Matrices from advanced calculus? You're not kidding me, are you?"

"Even if you gave me a hundred lives, I wouldn't dare! We definitely need to use a matrix, and you also need to provide a certain number of medical reports. You know, that's quite taboo in our line of work, so... to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, I'm currently trying to come up with a simulation plan as quickly as possible. It's a kind of medical experiment for our emerging school of thought. This should be Professor Nie's first time encountering this. We'll contact him again after he reviews it?"

"I'm getting a bit confused. You're not just making things up, are you?!" On the other end of the phone, Nie Yawen clearly didn't understand much anymore.

"How could I dare! Actually, the prescriptions used by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners nowadays are no longer sufficient for treating patients. You know, people's lives are much richer now than those of people in ancient times, even compared to those a hundred years ago. So... many TCM practitioners have to extend the treatment course and constantly adjust the prescriptions. This process is actually like solving a system of equations. The more sophisticated ones use simpler medical equations, which are also shorter in length, and vice versa! What kind of status do you have, Master Nie? You have to be extremely precise. If you take the equations up one level, then you'll reach the matrix stage, right?"

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone...