ABSTRACT
This study determined the relationship between health and physical fitness, and the contribution of each element in physical fitness to health for middle-aged and elderly women. A total of 1, 220 females aged 35 to 64 years participated in physical fitness tests and medical check ups. According to health status, the subjects were divided into two groups ; the healthy group (HG) and the unhealthy group (UG) . Multiple discriminant analysis was applied to the multivariate data. Correct discriminant probabilities of multiple discriminant functions to discriminate the HG and UG ranged from 63.9 to 83.3% among 6 age groups. These results suggested that there was a relatively strong relationship between health status and the level of physical fitness for middle-aged and elderly women. The change in correct discriminant probabilities indicated that degree of relationship would decrease stepwise with age. The contribution of each element of physical fitness to health status was also evaluated by Pearson's correlation coefficient. Age-related changes in the correlation coefficients between the discriminant score representing health status and performance on each physical fitness test demonstrated four different patterns. Therefore, special consideration should be given to the degree of contribution of each physical fitness element at each age level when developing exercise programs to promote health among middle-aged and elderly women.
ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to determine the relationship between health status and physical fitness, and the contribution of each element of physical fitness to the health status of middle-aged and elderly men and women. The subjects were 889 males and females aged 30 to 69 years. Physical fitness tests and medical check ups were performed. According to health status, the subjects were divided into two groups ; the healthy group (HG, n=348) and the unhealthy group (UG, n=207) . Multiple discriminant analysis was applied to the multivariate data. Correct discriminant probabilities of multiple discriminant functions to discriminate the HG and UG were 70.2% and 68.2% for men and women, respectively. These results suggested that there was a relatively strong relationship between health status and the level of physical fitness in both men and women. The contribution of each element of physical fitness to health status was evaluated by correlation coefficients between the discriminant score representing health status, and performance on each element of the physical fitness test and age. Age and muscle endurance contributed significantly to health status in both men and women. In addition, close relationship was seen between health status and elements of cardiorespiratory endurance, balance, and muscle strength in men, while change in physique correlated with health status in women. From these findings, it was concluded that exercise programs for health promotion in middle-aged and elderly people should be provided separately with consideration of the degree to which these specific elements contribute to health status.
ABSTRACT
This Study was performed to evaluate the effect of acupuncture stimulations on meridian points on gastric function.<br>Gastric juice of healthy volunteers was examined, and the effect of acupuncture stimulations at the trunk and remote positions on the gastric acid output was observed.<br>The followiag results were obtained:<br>1) Gastric juice secretion and acid output were suppressed in basal secretion but facilitated in maximal secretion.<br>2) The variation of gastric function was closely related to the location of stimulation; the effect of stimulation was more conspicuous at remote positions than trunk positions.<br>3) The variations of effect depending on the number of stimulations were conspicuous in remote positions, where a larger effect was obtained, and there was a significant difference in effect between single and consecutive stimulations.
ABSTRACT
This paper covers our recent study of the effect of acupuncture and moxibustion treatments on the exocrine function of the pancreas. The study consisted of pancereatic function diagnos-tant (PFD) tests on healthy adults. Stimulations with acupun-cture and moxibustion have been deeply concerned with “hi-no-zo, ” which is called the pancreas in current terminology, so they were applied to the meridian points in the dermatome referring to the pancreas. Measurements were made before giving a stimulus. after 6 consecutive stimuli were givem, after 12 consecutive stimuli were given, and 7 days atfer ceasing stimulation. No significant change in urinary output was obserued after the treatment. The p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) excretion rate in urine showed conflicting results between acupuncture and moxibustion. Acupuneture increased the excretion rate while moxibustion suppressed it after single stimulus of each was applied. The excretion rate increased after either type of stimuli was applied repeatedly.<br>Based on these results, we believe that the effect of stimuli to the meridian points which effect “hi-no-zo” in Oriental medicine on the exocrine function has been confirmed, although some fluctuations of vital reactions which depended on the number of stimuli were observed.