Water homeostasis is essential for healthy living. Body water turnover, meaning the replacement of body water that is lost in a given period of time, has been examined in a number of previous studies, and a review of their results has yielded the following findings. Children up to 15 years of age show higher body water turnover than adults, although it is not clear how the aging process influences body water. Among people of similar age, the rate of body water turnover seems to be higher in those who exercise than in those who are sedentary. Therefore we hypothesized that healthy individuals have a higher body water turnover than unhealthy individuals whose metabolic balance, as indicated by water turnover, has broken down, and that a prolonged condition of excessively slow body water turnover may be associated with a lower level of metabolism. If so, body water turnover can be an indicator of human health. However, there is a paucity of information regarding water turnover rates in individuals with various physical characteristics. This study indicates the need for further investigation of body water turnover levels associated with significant changes in physiological condition and metabolic state.

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This study evaluated the clothing colors in the elderly. We took photos using the elderly as models, displayed them on a computer screen, and produced 75 colors of the clothing in the elderly using computer graphics. The 75 colors were evaluated by Japanese and Korean female students. We compared the ideal colors for and the colors actually worn by elderly people in Japan and Korea. Korean students tended to evaluate high value colors positively, while Japanese students tended to evaluate low value colors positively. When asked to choose the ideal clothing color for elderly people, the choices differed between the Korean student group and the Japanese student group. The images held concerning these colors also differed between the two groups. When selecting the ideal color to be worn by elderly people, Japanese students attached importance to taste, brilliance, functionality and comfort. On the other hand, Korean students attached importance to commonness and inactivity when selecting the ideal clothing color for elderly people. Thus, in the present study, the evaluation of the clothing colors for elderly people differed between Japanese and Korean students.

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Undernutrition without malnutrition (low-energy diet) increases maximum longevity, reduces the incidence of several cancers and delays their onset, in animal studies. It has also been demonstrated by experimental study that caloric restriction provides a beneficial effect on various inflammatory diseases. In this study, we offered a low-energy diet to patients with atopic dermatitis (AD). Nineteen adult patients (5 males and 14 females aged 15 to 36 years) were enrolled in the study which lasted 8 weeks. The energy intake was 550f nutritional requirements; protein was 75%, calcium 180%, iron 130%, vitamin A 105%, vitamin C 250% and vitamin E 1100f the daily requirement. No patient experienced adverse reaction, and none dropped out of the trial. Body weight, body mass index (BMI), and systolic blood pressure had decreased significantly by the end of study. The SCORAD (scoring atopic dermatitis) index, which combines objective (extent and intensity of lesions) and subjective (daytime pruritus and sleep loss) criteria, was reduced significantly. In 11 patients with severe AD, there was a significant reduction in oxidative DNA damage. The change in the inflammatory intensity score and the change in BMI caused by energy restriction showed a significant positive correlation. The change in oxidative DNA damage levels and the change in BMI showed a positive correlation. These results clarify the relationship between weight loss and the improvement of AD. It may be hypothesized that this low-energy diet which included several additional nutrients has a possibility to reduce inflammatory symptoms of patients with AD.

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A breath hydrogen test has been used widely as a noninvasive and simple method of detecting carbohydrate malabsorption as well as estimation of the small intestinal and orocecal transit time. By means of this method, we have examined the change in breath hydrogen concentration of young female students in their everyday life in order to reveal the breath hydrogen excretion profile under normal circumstances. In this survey, we have asked them to collect their own breath samples every one-hour as regularly as possible during one day from awakening until bedtime. We also asked them to complete the questionnaire concerning their dietary habit, dietary record and physical activities. Among the 43 subjects who gave the breath hydrogen records, 37 subjects excreted detectable hydrogen into their alveolar air. By comparing the changes in breath hydrogen concentration during the time of day, breath hydrogen excretions could be classified into two distinct patterns; more than half of the total hydrogen excretion occurred in the first half of the waking hours (designated as "pattern A", 18 cases) and in the latter half (designated as "pattern B", 19 cases). Taking into consideration the subjects' records of diets and physical activities, the early-pronounced breath hydrogen excretion observed among 18 "pattern A" students was probably resulted from the malabsorption of the dietary carbohydrate in the breakfast meals.

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