Body weight gain or obesity has been reported to increase the risk of developing lifestyle-related diseases. However, few longitudinal studies have examined the relationship between body shape change and health, and the few that do exist used body shapes reported by the subjects.
We investigated whether or not maintaining a “youthful” body shape helps prevent the development of lifestyle-related diseases in healthy women. Changes in body shape in a group of healthy women were evaluated over 30 years starting from sometime in their 20s by visually judging pictures of the subjects and using body shape vectors. Subjects were classified into two groups: a group of 12 (mean age: 44.9±5.1 years) who were judged to have maintained their youthful body shape (maintained group) and a group of 16 (mean age: 47.5±6.1 years) who were judged not to have maintained their shape (non-maintained group). Body size and composition measurements were then compared with biochemical markers that measure the risk of developing lifestyle-related diseases. Mean body weight in the maintained group was 4.0 kg less than in the non-maintained group, while body fat mass was 4.6 kg less. In addition, the maintained group showed better scores for biochemical and pulse wave velocity tests.
Taken together, our results suggest that women who maintain their youthful body shape into their later years have a reduced risk of the lifestyle-related diseases that frequently accompany age.

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Objective: Previous epidemiological surveys of diet indicated a potential relationship between fruit intake and the pathogenesis of lifestyle-related disease. Recent reports indicate grapefruit (GF) may affect sugar metabolism. The present study measured glucose, triglyceride and insulin levels in human blood after GF ingestion with and without other foods.
Methods: Twelve healthy, non-smoking female volunteers, non-obese (age 40.5 ± 4.2 years old, BMI 22.0 ± 0.9) were provided with five different breakfasts on successive days: GF, bread or fried vegetables alone, GF + bread, GF + fried vegetables. In meals that included GF, the GF was eaten before the bread or fried vegetables. Blood samples were taken after meals to measure plasma glucose, immuno reactive insulin (IRI), triglyceride and vitamin C.
Results: Plasma glucose following a meal of bread or fried vegetables or a meal of bread and fried vegetables with GF was similar. Insulin secretion was slower after a meal of GF alone compared to bread alone (p < 0.001) and the area under curve (AUC) of glucose per carbohydrate intake was lower when GF was eaten prior to bread or fried vegetables than after a single intake of bread or fried vegetables alone (p < 0.001). The AUC of triglyceride after a prior intake of GF before fried vegetables was slower than that after an intake of fried vegetables alone (p < 0.05). Blood vitamin C concentration increased after GF intake (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: GF contains saccharides and a variety of dietary elements, including fiber, vitamins, citric acid, naringenin and bergamottin. It is possible that these compounds may affect sugar and lipid metabolism.

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Objective: As the concentrations of some hormones are known to decrease with age, the aim of the present study was to develop a method to predict the functional age of the endocrine system.
Methods: We retrospectively examined data for blood serum or plasma hormone concentration from 3,313 healthy Japanese (2,006 men and 1,307 women, aged 40-79 years) who gave blood samples between 2005 and 2009. Data for DHEA-s, insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I), cortisol, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (FT3) and free thyroxine (FT4) were analyzed, and the correlation between concentration of each hormone and age was calculated. In a second stage, data were grouped in 10-year age intervals, subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and evaluated using Tukey’s post-hoc test.
Results: In both men and women, TSH was positively correlated with age. IGF-I, DHEA-s and cortisol were negatively correlated with age; in men, age was negatively correlated with FT3. Although correlation coefficients (r) and significance levels differed between sexes and hormones, DHEA-s concentration was highly correlated with age and declined with age in both men and women. An age-structured model was developed from the regression of mean DHEA-s concentration and median age of each group. The confidence limits for the regression were small and imply that the predictions from the model are accurate.
Conclusion: We developed an age-structured model of age related to serum DHEA-s concentration. It may be useful as an index for evaluating the functional age of the endocrine system in Japanese men and women.

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