Red koji has been used for a variety of fermentation food such as sake from old in China and South Korea, etc. and it has also been used from a Ryukyu dynasty for Tufuyo, a traditional bean curd food preparation in Okinawa in Japan, and “Red koji color (Monascus color)” extracted from Red koji is widespread as natural colorant.
Recently, lovastatin (Monacolin K) that has the hypocholesterolemic activity is discovered from a part of Red koji, though statins are prescription medicines used now for about 30 million people all over the world to decrease LDL-cholesterol that is the risk factor that causes atherosclerosis, and moreover the Red koji that contains this natural statin becomes available for the processed food such as dietary supplement, and it is expected a beneficial use in the primary care of the lifestyle disease by the eating habits improvement. In this paper, we would like to clarify the history as the food of Red koji, the active ingredients as the functional food material and the mechanism, the effectiveness and safety, including the clinical trial results such as improvement of lipid metabolism, and also introduce the probability as the beneficial material for complementary and alternative medicine as well as for dietary supplement in health conditioning and the prevention of the lifestyle disease.

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Folic acid antagonists, which include such common drugs as trimethoprim, triamterene, carbamazepine, phenytoin, phenobarbital and primidone, may increase the risk not only of neural-tube defects but also of cardiovascular defect, oral clefts, and urinary tract defects. Folate supplementation before conception and during the first trimester reduces the risk of having infants with neural-tube defects and has the potential to reduce the risk of having infants with other congenital malformations and Down’s syndrome. Long-term use of multivitamins containing folic acid may reduce risks for hypertension, colon cancer, and breast cancer. The fortification of enriched grain products with folic acid also reduces the number of middle-aged and older adults with hyperhomocyteinemia, which is known to be a risk factor for deep-vein thrombosis, myocardial infarction, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, congestive heart failure, and osteoporotic fracture. Therefore, folate supplementation has the potential to reduce the risk of a wide variety of conditions and diseases. For example, treatment with folate and mecobalamin (B12) reduced risk of hip fracture successfully in elderly patients with hemiplegia following stroke in a Japanese population. However, compared with specifically supplemented/fortified foods, consumption of naturally-occurring levels of folate in non-supplemented/fortified foods has been shown to be relatively ineffective at increasing folate status. Therefore, advice to consume folate-rich foods as a means of optimizing folate status may be misleading. Rather, increased folate intake with supplements is highly recommended.

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Music therapy(MT) is generally classified into recreational MT in broad sense and therapeutic MT in the narrow meaning. In the latter cases, observing and evaluating the case is necessary. The MT sessions are held rather common for the aged people. We must set a long-term goal in response to the cases; to prevent the reducing mental/physical function and to avoid dementia for the healthy people, to maintain/improve the various functions for the patients with dementia and cerebral vascular accident (CVA), to aim the advancement of QOL for the patients with severe status or in the palliative care. Various evaluating methods are seen: Bando proposed 20 items including sensation, behavior and ADL/QOL; Saji proposed 10 items including activity, persistence, cooperation, emotion, intelligence, singing/playing, handling, walking, smooth action, verbal response. Matsui summarized general MT diagnostic table and MT evaluation table for the aged, and other methods by Kitamoto (Utatsuyama), Okazaki/ Monma, and Akaboshi are seen. The number of the music therapists registered by Japanese Music Therapy Association is increasing, and 1^st Asian International Symposium of Music Therapy was held in March 2009. Thus, MT has become more important in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM).

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Apple polyphenols are polyphenols that consist chiefly of procyanidins extracted and purified from unripe apples. Analysis of the polyphenols in apples has progressed as part of recent research, and they have attracted much attention as an ingredient since animal testing and clinical studies have shown that they improve fat metabolism; suppress fat absorption, reduce body fat, and reduce cholesterol. Other previously unknown physiological functions have also been detected such as anti-fatigue.
Apple polyphenols have been confirmed to be very safe given the long history of eating apples and based on studies of repeated administration, mutagenicity tests and other toxicological tests, and clinical studies. Furthermore, the FDA has approved apple polyphenols as Applephenon^® for the GRAS list.
Apple polyphenols may be taken safely and continuously as part of a normal diet, and thus are a useful health food supplement for life related disease sufferers of a diverse range of lifestyles.

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Agaricus blazei Murill (ABM), widely known as “Himematsutake” in Japan, has been one of the most popular dietary supplements, especially among the aged-population. ABM has been traditionally used to treat age-related disease such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancers. Previously, ABM has been shown to have immunostimulatory, antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antitumorigenic properties. In contrast to antitumor effects in rodent tumor cell lines, ABM has only minimal to moderate antitumor effects in a few human cancer cell lines, and antitumor effects were thought to be attributed to a high molecular weight fraction containing highly branched β-glucans, while a low molecular weight fraction of ABM (ABM F500) is a very effective cancer preventive agent. The question of genetic toxicity with agaritine has been scrutinized by using the transgenic F344 rat LacI, a state-of-the-art mutagenicity testing system. Neither K-ABM nor agaritine proved mutagenic. Furthermore, expected DNA adducts (8-HMPdGuo and 8-HMPdAdo) with the postulated mutagenic metabolite 4-(methylhydroxy)phenylhydrazine (HMPD) of agaritine were not found. These new mutagenicity test results provide irrefutable evidence that the earlier positive Ames mutagenicity test results with K-ABM were in fact false positive. Thus, the most recent mutagenicity test results together with the 2-year chronic carcinogenic bioassay strongly suggest neither agaritine nor quality controlled ABM are mutagenic or carcinogenic. Clinical improvement of QOL among cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy complimented by ABM consumption appears to be due to immunostimulation of immunosuppressed patients. Retrospective QOL analysis of 782 cancer patients further supports the thesis that ABM consumption improves QOL in cancer patients. Thus, it is reasonable to expect ABM treatment in combination with cancer chemotherapy may synergistically enhance the outcome of such chemotherapy. Complimentary clinical contribution of ABM to conventional therapy or type II diabetes is also expected. Further clinical studies are necessary to evaluate and validate the chemopreventive potential of ABM F500 as well as clinical merits of ABM as a complimentary medicine in cancer chemotherapy.

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This study examined cytokine responses to cold exposure together with the effects of exercise and thermal adaptation. Ten male short-track skaters who had adapted to a cold environment, and ten male inline skaters who had not, were each assigned to two experimental conditions. For the cold condition, subjects sat for 60 min at 5–8°C, then exercised on a cycle ergometer for 60 min at 65% maximal oxygen uptake (at 5–8°C), and finally sat again for 120 min at room temperature (20–25°C). In the control condition, subjects participated in the same protocol as the above but at room temperature (20–25°C). Blood samples were collected at pre-cold exposure, post-cold exposure (pre-exercise), post-exercise, post-30 min, post-60 min, and post-120 min, and analyzed for plasma concentrations of interleukin (IL)-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra), IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p40, soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor I (sTNFR-I), cortisol, and myoglobin by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). 60-min cycle ergometer exercise induced significant increases in plasma IL-1ra, IL-10 and IL-12p40 at room temperature in short-track skaters adapted to the cold, but significant decreases in these cytokines were observed with exposure to cold. These results indicate that acute cold exposure has a suppressive effect on cytokine response during exercise, suggesting the possibility of preventive effects on immunosuppression, heat stroke and allergy induced by exercise.

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Fresh kiwi fruit freeze-dried juice has been traditionally used for constipation of elderly patients. Its effectiveness and safety was studied in 42 elderly patients (age 60–84: median age 67±6) suffering from mild to moderate constipation, taken as a food supplement of 6 capsules/3 times per day for 4 weeks following a one week control period, after receiving written informed consent. Bowel habits and generic quality of life questionnaires were monitored. Bowel habits such as evacuation time and stool quality improved from the 14^th day and continued for 28 days compared to the control period.
Quality of life in terms of external appearance (such as skin and edema), lumbago, and headache improved. In conclusion, freeze-dried fresh kiwi fruit juice had a laxative and QOL-improving effect on the elderly. No apparent adverse effects were observed.

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Coix lacryma-jobi L. var.ma-yuen Stapf (Coix seed) is a grass crop that has long been used in traditional medicine as a nourishing food. However, high-intake safety of the extract of the husks, pellicles and astringent skin of Coix seed has rarely been evaluated. We performed a safety test of hot water extract of all parts of Coix seed (CRD extract) in rats. CRD extract showed no significant toxicity on body weight, blood analyses, urinalysis and histopathological examination in acute toxicity tests.

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We conducted a preliminary study of the facial skin-improving effects of collagen-containing beverages as evaluated by objective indices. After obtaining written informed consent, 61 healthy females (age: 25–68, 34±8 y.o.) were randomly divided into two groups, receiving beverages containing 5 g (N=30) and 10 g (N=31), respectively, of collagen daily for one month. Facial skin moisture content and lower eyelid wrinkles were assessed before, 1 week and 1 month after consuming the test beverages. Results were analyzed of the 5 g and 10 g groups, as well as responder and non-responder groups. 10 g collagen beverages showed 50% effectiveness, and were more effective than the 5 g beverage; the effect was observable within 1 week. Furthermore, subjects with more wrinkles and drier skin showed greater benefit than those with higher facial skin moisture content and/or fewer wrinkles. It is suggested that a beverage containing 10 g collagen should be used for aged subjects with more wrinkles and/or drier skin for a period of 1–2 months in future randomized placebo-controlled trials of collagen-containing beverages.

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We report a case wherein a woman with HMG/HCG resistant ovarian disorder was treated with L-carnitine (LC) and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). In this case, successful ovulation and pregnancy were accomplished after initial LC and DHEA administeration, followed by concurrent HMG/HCG administration.

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