Osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee is known as one of high frequency disease, and prevalence of knee OA is reported twenty to seventy percent in seventy years population and thirty five to eighty in eighty years population in Europe, the United States and Japan. Main symptoms are pain, muscle weakness, stiffness, instability and decreased physical function, and these symptoms lead to decreased independence and quality of life. Many risk factors for developing and progression of knee OA have been reported. These factors are including factors which physical therapy has potential to improve. Therefore, physical therapy must enhance improvement for these factors. Younger persons who damaged their knee may need lifestyle guidance to protect developing of osteoarthritis and guarantee good long term results. Reversely elder persons may be needed intervention of physical therapy and lifestyle guidance to maintain decreasing of independence and quality of life. Specifically, the former may receive the guidance of method to decrease knee load during physical activity and limitation of sports activities, and the latter may need continuing of physical therapy enhancing muscular strengthen exercise, selection of walking aids, maintenance of living environment and rehabilitation for to maintain physical function utilizing care insurance.

  The pathophysiologic hallmark of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is expiratory flow limitation (EFL), whereas the most common symptom is dyspnea. The poor exercise tolerance of COPD includes EFL, impaired pulmonary gas exchange, dynamic hyperinflation (DH), impaired cardiac function and peripheral muscle dysfunction. It has been suggested that patients with COPD may be in a downward spiral of symptom-induced inactivity, leading to deconditioning and muscle weakness. Therefore, exercise training such as endurance and muscle strength was performed. However it may not be able to perform these exercise in patient with severe COPD for remarkable EFL. For these patients, pulmonary rehabilitation programs recommend the use of ADL training as a tool for decreasing dyspnea and making these patients more independent to perform ADL and increased activity. ADL training decrease energy expenditure during ADL associated with a decrease in dyspnea enabling better functional performance and quality of life in these patients. In this review, features of ventilation restriction (EFL, DH) during exercise and the method of effective ADL training in home care of severe COPD was described.

  Diabetes is a metabolic syndrome caused by unsufficient insulin actions (insuline hyposecretion, insulin resistance), and chronic hyperglycemia is pathological trait. Diabetes is classified into type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes and the other diabetes by specific mechanism or sickness. Diabetes coexists with the symptoms of the retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy. In addition, diabetic macroangiopathy leads to the symptoms of the myocardial infarction, the cerebral infarction, the lower-limb arteriosclerosis obliterans, and the gangrenes.

  Exercise therapy improves saccharometabolism and insulin resistance. Therapeutic intervention based on the healthy behavior theory is used for the treatment of the diabetes. The behavioral therapy uses the ideas of a health belief model, self-efficacy, and a behavioral change stage. By treatment with the healthy behavior theory, the weight reduction and the glycemic control restitution were observed. Therefore, it is necessary to improve behavior and execute home exercise for diabetes treatment.

  Eating habits are reported to vary among young people depending on gender, school category, living style, and other attributes. However, the effects (main effects) of individual attributes on eating behavior are yet to be elucidated. This study investigated the main effect of these attributes on eating behavior, using data collected in a questionnaire survey on the eating habits of high school and university students (2,161 valid responders).

  The results were as follows;

1. School category (high school or university) had a main effect on “Nutritional balance” and “Home cooked meals (dinner).” University students tend to eat unbalanced meals more frequently and home cooked meals less frequently than high school students.

2. Living style had a main effect on “Breakfast intake,” “Home cooked meals (breakfast),” and “Home cooked meals (lunch).” Students who live alone tend to eat home cooked meals less frequently at breakfast and lunch, and skip breakfast more frequently than those who do not live alone.

3. Gender had a main effect on “Habit of snacking” and “Snacking when hungry.” Females tend to snack between meals and have snacks to satisfy hunger more frequently than males.

  Introduction: Skeletal muscle is composed of muscle fibers that are huge and multinuclear cells. Several muscle fibers are surrounded by a perimysium, membranous structure. In this study, we developed a method observing perimysium using a combination of SEM, immunofluorescent staining and picro-Sirius red staining, and checked the validity of the method.

  Materials and methods: The soleus muscles of ICR mice were used for observation. Serial paraffin sections were made and one section was observed under SEM. The paraffin section, serial to the SEM specimen, was stained with anti-collagen type IV antibody (a marker for basement membrane). After the observation, the same section was stained using the picro-Sirius red staining method.

  Results: Using a stereo pair of SEM images, we confirmed that the perimysium shows a plate-shaped layer. The plate-shaped layer was stained red with the picro-Sirius red staining method, but was negative for anti-collagen type IV antibody.

  Discussion: In this study, the three-dimensional image of the perimysium of SEM showed a plate-shaped layer that is consistent with those of prior studies. Moreover, the perimysium stained red with the picro-Sirius red staining method is also consistent with those of prior studies. In this study, the perimysium was negative for anti-collagen type IV antibody (a marker for basement membrane). This means that the structure recognized as perimysium is not an ablated basement membrane, artifact. Based on these results, our method was confirmed as an appropriate technique for observing the perimysium. Using our methods, the perimysium was easily visualized in detail.

  We investigated the effects of socks with soft support function around the ankle, on ankle movement and leg muscle activity during walking. Subjects were 13 healthy young women. The socks have support lines with lower elastic power around the ankle, and induce slight dorsiflexion and supination of the ankle. Subjects walked on treadmill at suitable speed and 100 step/min for 5 minutes, with barefoot or wearing the socks. Motions of plantar-dorsal flexion, adduction-abduction and inversion-eversion of the foot, and adduction-abduction of the leg, and electromyograms of tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius, soleus and peroneus longus were analyzed. Following socks wearing effects were obtained: (a) increase in minimum abduction and decrease in abduction movement angle of the leg during stance phase, (b) decrease in maximum plantar flexion during initial swing phase, (c) decrease in peroneus longus activity during first term of stance phase, (d) decrease in mean activity of tibialis anterior near heel contact. Result (a), (c), (d) demonstrated assistance of ankle stability by the socks, and result (b) inhibition of the excessive plantar flexion related to stumble. No significant effect of the socks was found in bilateral differences of the measurement angle. Significant negative correlations were observed between bilateral differences in barefoot and change of the bilateral differences with socks wearing, in the following parameters: maximum plantar- and dorsal-flexion, its movement angle, maximum velocity of plantar flexion, and minimum abduction of the leg. For subjects with larger bilateral differences with barefoot, effects of decreasing the difference were obtained by wearing the socks..