Abstract
Extension of healthy life expectancy is one of the important issues in Japan. The causes for need of long-term care are dementia in the first place, cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) in the second place and weakness due to aging or frailty in the third place. Therefore, effective measures to prevent those diseases and condition are urgent.
It is recommended to have healthy lifestyles such as appropriate diet and exercise habits, maintain proper weight and stop smoking. In addition to these, from the view point of the current scientific evidence, proper use of dietary supplements and health foods containing functional food materials can contribute to the extension of healthy life expectancy.
The introduction of mandatory fortification of grains with folic acid in 1998 in the United States resulted in declined the stroke mortality rate and decreased the prevalence of dementia. Even though Japanese government has no policy for mandatory fortification of folic acid, some local governments have introduced the usage of folic acid supplementation as their policy.
Effective measures against frail/frailty and sarcopenia are important to prevent weakness due to aging. Glucosamine as a functional food material also attracts attention, as joint diseases are the main reason for disability for elderly. Recent clinical trials such as MOVES and LEGS trials confirmed the efficacy of glucosamine for knee osteoarthritis. In addition, PROOF trail showed the efficacy of glucosamine to prevent knee OA.
Today, where the extension of healthy life expectancy is set as the goal of the country, several new efforts by public-private partnership between local governments and healthcare companies have been carried out. In this context, the utilization of functional food materials / functional foods is considered to be one of the important measures for achieving healthy longevity in an aging society.
