The purpose of this study was to clarify the developmental changes in healthy children with regard to the timing of thinking and recognition of living, dying and life. The study focused on 89 children whose ages ranged from 3 to 15 years old. These subjects were interviewed by means of a questionnaire consisting of 10 items such as "Concept of death" "Death related items" and "Living and dying for him/ herself". The results were as follows : 1. 60% of the children in the age stage II (6-8 years old) answered about four components of concept of death : ireversibility, cessation of function, inevitability, and causality. And there understood almost the concept of death. 2. The children who had the bereavement experience were 50% in the age stage II and exceeded 80% in the age stage III (9-11 years old) and the age stage IV (12-15 years old). 3. Three girls in the age stage IV talked what there thought about "Life and death" from the bereavement experience with grandparents, and thought about the meaning and the way of life where I lived. 4. The children in the age stage III and IV was characterized spiritual and mental answer about the world of postmortem, and "reincarnation" in the answer of "cessation of function" "inevitability" and "Postmortem outlook". Especially, "reincarnation" was remarkable in the age stage IV. 5. The children felt living when there were happy feeling and felt fact of living. 6. "Impulse of death" was seen from the age stage, and 12 children in 16 children were girls.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the roles of community health promotion activities by investigating the change in the health promotion behavior of members who participated in the health promotion activities of F-city in Japan. The data were collected from a questionnaire that had been distributed to 356members. The questionnaire asked questions about the degree of satisfaction that the member felt from performing the activities ; changes in the member's health promotion behavior ; health behavior and the health promoting activity towards their families and their communities. The questionnaire was also distributed to 150 adults who were not members in the health promotion activities of F-city. The results were as follows : 1. The mean age of the 356 subjects was 56.2years. 2. The degree of satisfaction from this activity and the ages of this activity experience are related to the health promoting activity towards their families and their communities. 3. Comparison of the degree of health-promotion activity towards their families and their communities that has between the first-year and the second-year members, showed that the second-year members has higher activity than the first-year members. 4. The members who participated in the health promotion activities of F-city had a much higher interested in the health care of her family and people in the region than those who were not members.

View full abstract

To obtain basic data on the usefulness of the measurement of the degree of obesity in the community, we performed measurements of the body mass index (BMI) and percent body fat (% fat) by the bioelectrical impedance method (BI method) and the skin fold thickness method (SF method) in 548 males and 851 females who underwent health examination of the Elderly Health Law in Nishiizu, Shizuoka Prefecture in 1999. Evaluation of the association between the results of these measurements and those of health examination showed the following findings. 1. When the subjects were classified according to certain criteria into "thin", "normal", "slightly obese", and "obese" groups, the obese group included 11.1% of the males and 14.0% of the females according to BMI, 10.4% of the males and 30.7% of the females according to % fat by the BI method, and 7.7% of the males and 25.4% of the females according to % fat by the SF method. 2. Irrespective of the measurement method, the incidences of abnormal blood triglyceride, GPT, and blood glucose levels were significantly higher in the obese group than in the other groups. The sex・age-corrected odds ratios to the normal group for blood triglyceride, GOT, GPT, γ-GTP, and blood glucose were significantly higher in the obese group than in the other groups. 3. The measurement of BMI was combined with the BI method (BMI-BI method) or SF method (BMI-SF method), and the subjects were classified into "non-obese", "apparently obese", "latently obese", and "obese" groups. The obese group included 29.6% of the males and 36.5% of the females by the BMI-BI method and 20.8% of the males and 32.1% of the females by the BMI-SF method. 4. By the BMI-BI method, the incidence of abnormal values was higher for many items in the apparently obese group than in the other groups by the BMI-BF method and higher in the obese group than in the other groups by the BMI-SF method. The age ・ sex-corrected odds ratio to the non-obese group for blood triglyceride was 4.312 in the latently obese group and 5.176 in the obese group by the BMI-BI method, and that for blood glucose was 5.249 in the obese group by the BMI-BI method and 5.726 in the obese group by the BMI-SF method. The odds ratios for glucosuria, blood triglyceride, GOT, GPT, γ-GTP, and blood glucose were significantly higher in the obese group than in the other groups both by the BMI-BI method and BMI-SF method.

View full abstract

Most of the medical volunteers who applied clinical trials of medical drugs in our clinic were twentieth of ages. Their clinical data before trials were analyzed to make our standards for each examination. Large deviations of data were observed on certain examinations such as CPK, total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase and γ-GTP. But these deviations were suspected to be caused not by pathological changes but by the healthy active life from correlation analysis of the data for each examination. These deviations for a certain examination should be counted as physiological deviations for the selections of volunteers.

View full abstract

Electrocardiogram findings for the healthy 200 medical volunteers of age 20s who applied clinical trials for medical drugs in our clinic were analyzed following by their Minnesota cords. Only 16% of them were found to have no abnormal findings. Incidences of abnormal findings of infarct, axil deviation, myocardial ischemia, myocardial damages, atrioventricular conduction disturbance, bundle branch block, extrasystole, sinus arrhythmia, other pulsus irregularis, rotation and abnormal ST or T were 5.5, 12, 18.5, 3, 1, 6, 1, 2, 8.5, 17, 5.5 and 25.5%, respectively. These incidences were far higher than those for individuals who received health examinations in human dry dock. This fact suggested that many of these abnormal findings were caused not as organic changes as their diagnosis but as physiological changes followed by the active physical exercises during young ages.

View full abstract

We assessed a total lifestyle index of middle aged and old aged who conducted an annual health examination for 2 successive years by using the same 9 health practices as Morimoto's index, and analyzed the correlation between improvement of total lifestyle index and changes of obesity and serum lipids. The results indicated that the total lifestyle index changed apparently between middle aged and old aged in males, and that the effects of lifestyle on obesity and serum lipids were greater in males than in females. As a result this index was valid in males. On the other hand in females particularly its effects on serum lipids or Arteriosclerosis Index (AI) were indicated to be small. However %ΔHDL-C was negatively correlated with change of BMI. It is necessary to acquire better health practices aiming at prevention of obesity by controlling a proper weight and keeping a proper BMI or body fat % as a means of the Primary Prevention against hyperlipemia in a Community. However the improvement of total lifestyle index had not a significant negative correlation with a decline of obesity and serum lipids.

View full abstract

In order to synthesize exogenous opioide-peptide derived from food protein, enzymatic synthesis by X-prolyl dipeptidyl-aminopeptidase (XPAP) of Aspergillus oryzae was investigated. When acetonitrile, dimethyl sulfoxide, N,N-dimethyl formamide and tetrahydrofuran were used for organic solvent reaction system, enzymatic synthesis of Val-Pro-Arg-OEt by XPAP did not succeed. However, in a low-temperature reaction system, when the substrate concentration of Val-Pro-OEt and Arg-OEt was in the ratio of 1:1, and the reaction temperature was -10℃, reaction pH was 9, enzymatic synthesis of Val-Pro-Arg-OEt by XPAP succeed. It can be concluded that enzymatic synthesis by XPAP was effective for the synthesis of exogenous opioide-peptide such as β-casomorphin.

View full abstract

A new high Mr aminopeptidase was discovered and purified from Aspergillus oryzae grown on solid bran culture medium. The purified enzyme was homogeneous on polyacryl-amide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) at pH 9.4, and its Mr was 690,000 a gel filtration. The pI was 4.6. The enzyme was inhibited by ethylenediamineteraacetate (EDTA) and o-phenanthroline. It had a pH optimum at pH 7.5 for L-leucyl-glycyl-glycine (Leu-Gly-Gly). The Km value of the enzyme for Leu-GlyGly at pH 7.5 and 30℃ was 16.7mM.

View full abstract

A questionnaire survey on health consciousness and eating habits of college students and the general public was conducted. Questionnaires were given to the college students and people at large on the same day. The survey results indicate that general public feel they are healthy than do college students. Both groups sleep for six to seven hours. As they grow older, they have more satisfaction from sleep. 81.3% of the general public eat breakfast every day. 26.3% of the general public and 36.8% of college students eat health food supplements. However, many answered that they were not sure of the effect of health food suppliments.

View full abstract

We collected the samples of usual diets from students of Sagami Women's University, determined samples of model diets in five days and investigated the nutritive balances of both. We measured the concentration of sodium ion and potassium ion using the salt meter, sodium ion meter and potassium ion meter compared them with calculated values by standard tables of food composition in Japan.. The value of salt measured with the salt meter was hightest, caluculated ones was the next hightest, and the one measured with sodium ion meter was the lowest in usual diets and model diets. There is a positive correlation with the coefficient r of correlation 0.641 between the value of salt measured with sodium ion meter and the one with salt meter. Also a big positive correlation with r=0.845 is between the value of salt measured with sodium ion meter and the calculated one. The value of potassium measured with potassium ion meter was lower than the calculated value. Using the experimentally obtained expressions, we can estimate more precise values of total amount of the sodium chloride from calculated values and the one measured with salt meter. We can give the method of nutritive guidance for mineral balance.

View full abstract

We investigated and analyzed the ratio of sodium to potassium, and that of calusium to magnetium in total diet samples from students of Sagami Women's University from 1994 to 1998. The following results were obtained. 1) Nutritive intake was as follows ; total energy, calusium and magnesium was lower than recommended values. 2) The dietary energy decreased from 1994 to 1998. 3) The dietary ratio of Na^./K^. was higher than 1.2 of the recommended value. 4) The dietary ratio of Ca^<..>/Mg^<..> higher than 2 of the recommended value and increased from 1994 to 1998.

View full abstract