We examined the effect of post-prandial body posture on orocecal transit time and absorption of milk lactose using the breath hydrogen test. In this experiment, subjects ingested a cup of commercially available milk to which we had added a small amount of lactosucrose (an indigestible trisaccharide), and then they lay on their backs or sat on a chair for the first 4 hr (from 08:00 to 12:00). After four hours lying or sitting, they remained sedentary on a sofa for the second six hr (from 12:00 to 18:00). Participants' end alveolar breath samples were collected every 15 min from 08:00 to 12:30, then every 30 min from 13:00 to 18:00. The experiment was conducted on two consecutive days using a randomized, crossover study design. Examination showed that the orocecal transit time of the oligosaccharides (lactosucrose and milk lactose) under the post-prandial supine condition was significantly longer than that under the sitting condition. In addition, the amount of breath hydrogen excretion under the supine condition was significantly lower than under the sitting condition, indicating that the unabsorbed milk lactose moved into cecum under the supine condition is smaller than that under the sitting condition. These findings provide evidence that postprandial supine posture works more beneficially to digest and absorb milk lactose when compared to the sitting posture.

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Susceptibility to stress would presumably be different from person to person and be affected by the cause of the given stress. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interactive effects of task difficulty and subject's personality on mood and autonomic nervous function when stress was induced experimentally by tasks involving 3 degrees of difficulty: easy (Task A), difficult but controllable (Task B), and very difficult and uncontrollable (Task C). Twelve healthy female subjects volunteered for the experiment. We assessed their personalities using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) questionnaire. Mood states were evaluated by a profile of mood states and a frontal alpha laterality ratio (FALR). Autonomic nervous function was estimated by a spectral analysis of heart rate variability (HRV). Repeated measures analysis of variance applied to two groups (low- and high-) divided by a median split of MMPI clinical scales, revealed significant interactions of time course × task difficulty × Hs (hypochondriasis) in FALR and time course × task difficulty × Pt (psychasthenia) in a low-frequency component and in a high-frequency component of HRV, and in FALR. The differences between low- and high-Hs, and low- and high-Pt were more obvious in Task B session. High-Hs group, whose members tend to place overemphasis on existing physical disorders, showed more negative FALR throughout the session, which would indicate prolonged negative mood possibly due to the task. High-Pt group, whose members tend to be susceptible to stress, showed sympathetic predominance during task period and parasympathetic predominance after task period, which would imply a tendency to overreact. These results suggest that task difficulties would affect mood states assessed by FALR and/or autonomic nervous function differently depending on the subject's personality, especially on Hs and Pt.

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The present study aimed to compare the accuracy of estimating the percentage of total body fat (%TBF) among three bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) devices: a single-frequency BIA with four tactile electrodes (SF-BIA4), a single-frequency BIA with eight tactile electrodes (SF-BIA8) and a multi-frequency BIA with eight tactile electrodes (MF-BIA8). Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and hydrostatic weighing (HW) were used as references for the measured values. Forty-five healthy college student volunteers (21 males: 172.9±5.5 cm and 65.8±9.1 kg and 24 females: 160.7±6.6 cm, 52.6±6.2 kg) were the subjects. Correlation coefficients between the BIA measurements and the references were calculated. The standard error of estimation (SEE) was calculated by regression analysis when estimating the reference measures (DXA and HW) from the predictor (SF-BIA4, SF-BIA8 and MF-BIA8). The differences in %TBF between the reference and the predictor, calculated by the reference minus the predictor, were plotted against the %TBF measured by the references. The MF-BIA 8 here showed the highest correspondence to the reference and the least estimation error compared with the other BIA methods. It is considered that there is a limit to directly estimate FFM from a regression equation using impedance, weight, height and age as independent variables, and that %TBF can be more accurately estimated by measuring segmental impedances using eight electrodes and multi-frequency electric currents and then estimating total body water from these impedances.

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