Our previous study indicated that saliva level of free-3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylethyleneglycol (MHPG) and immunoglobulin-A (s-IgA) increases with the acute stress. However, it is nuclear whether these psychobiological stress responses are relevant to health state. This study investigated the relationship between the psychoneuroimmunological response induced by mental stress testing and health state using General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28). Subjects were 23 healthy male volunteers (mean age 41.9±8.2). At first, the subjects completed GHQ-28. After 10 minutes rest in an armchair prior to the stress session, the subjects were exposed to 9 minutes mental stress testing followed by 3 minutes practice session. Before and after the stress session, the saliva was collected from each subjects. Mental stress testing increased the saliva level of free-MHPG. The saliva level of s-IgA was decreased significantly with the depression scale. The salivary free-MHPG in the group of high somatic symptoms was higher than the lower group. The salivary s-IgA in the low depression group was higher than that of higher group. No relationship was found between any GHQ sub scale and the level of s-IgA or free-MHPG. These results show that the health state influence psychoneuroimmunological response.

View full abstract

This study was conducted to clarify the genetic and environmental factors for physical exercise. The subjects were 159 pairs of twins, consisting of 145 monozygotic and 14 dizygotic. They answered mailed questionnaire.
Genetic analysis was performed as follows. First the answers were summarized in the form of a 3 × 3 contingency table. Then, polychoric correlations of the contingency table were calculated according to zygosity using the program package PRELIS 2. Furthermore, covariance structure analysis was performed for bivariate genetic models using the program package LISREL8.
The results were as follows. Physical exercise during school days was under strong genetic control, with the heritability .73. Otherwise, physical exercise in adult life was moderate genetic control, with the heritability. .24. Genetic correlation was .44 and environmental correlation was .14.
These results show the importance of genetic effect for physical exercise, especially during school days.

View full abstract

The aim of this study was to clarify the genetic and environmental role on total healthy lifestyle in adult Japanese.
Subjects were 159 same-sexed Japanese twin pairs, consisting of 145 monozygotic (MZ) and 14 dizygotic (DZ) who answered a mailed questionnaire, including requests for information on 8 lifestyle items (sleeping hours, physical exercise, mental stress, alcohol drinking, smoking, eating breakfast, eating a nutritionally balanced diet), which was based on Breslow's and Morimoto's criteria. Total healthy lifestyle was defined as the number of good lifestyle of each item they do.
Genetic analysis was carried out as follows. Polychoric correlation was calculated according to zygosity and covariance structure analysis was performed using program packages PRELIS2 and LISLEL8.
The results document that (1) females showed more healthy lifestyle than males. (2) Total healthy lifestyle was under moderate genetic control, with the heritability .27. These results show that genetic contribution should be considered in the future management of good lifestyles.

View full abstract

The present study was conducted to examine the construct validity and test-retest reliability of the emotional intelligence scale (EQS), which has three target areas of intrapersonal, interpersonal and organizational. As for construct validity, it was found that a) the scores of EQS were greater among mentally healthier group than unhealthy one by General Health Questionnaire, b) correlated positively with optimism, and c) also correlated positively with intellect factor of big five personality questionnaire. As for the test-retest reliability, it was shown that relatively high correlations of EQS scores after 8 weeks. These findings suggested the validity and reliability of EQS.

View full abstract