| Contents of discussion |    |
The aging of society, prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases, and deterioration of our ability to adapt to the environment are among the current social problems. The consequent demand for improved comfort increases energy consumption, which causes various adverse environmental effects associated with global warming. To break this vicious cycle, sports medicine is expected: 1. At the laboratory level, to elucidate the (1) effects of exercise prescriptions for the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases and disabilities requiring support, (2) effects of intake of nutritional foods and use of exercise machines, and (3) mechanism of improvements in our ability to adapt to the environment. 2. At the clinical level, to develop methods for (4) clinical intervention to evaluate the effects of exercise prescriptions, the (5) application of exercise prescription systems to large populations and data mining, and (6) search for genes responsive to exercise prescriptions and analysis of their interactions. Discussion will be held on how new knowledge acquired at the laboratory level should be applied clinically, and, inversely, how problems identified at the clinical level should be reflected in laboratory activities, how the problems can be solved, and how the solutions should be fed back to clinical settings. Measures for the international standardization of exercise prescriptions will also be evaluated.
Details
of the contents of discussion will be as follows:
(1) Effects of exercise prescriptions
for the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases and disabilities requiring
support: The effects of exercise prescriptions on elderly people and
patients with lifestyle-related diseases will be discussed concerning
cardiovascular functions (atherosclerosis, hypertension), glucose tolerance
(diabetes), and exercise abilities (endurance capacity, muscle strength).
(2)
Effects of intake of nutritional foods and use of exercise machines: The
intake of nutritional supplements and use of exercise machines considered
effective in exercise training for elderly subjects will be discussed.
(3)
Mechanism of improvements in our ability to adapt to the environment:
From their advent, humans have widened their habitat from polar regions at
-50˚C to tropical regions at 50˚C due to their marked ability to adapt to the
environment. However, the increase in energy consumption due to the use
air-conditioning devices is adversely affecting the global environment. How the
innate ability of humans to adapt to the environment should be harnessed for
energy saving will be discussed.
(4)
Clinical intervention to evaluate the effects of exercise prescriptions:
To apply the results generated in laboratories to clinical settings and
evaluate their effectiveness, a research plan with a strong statistical basis
must be established before the commencement of research. This problem will be
discussed while evaluating presentations by researchers with accomplishments in
exercise epidemiology.
(5)
Application of exercise prescription systems to large populations and data
mining: In Japan, exercise facilities and trained staff that enable elderly
people to undergo exercise training are extremely inadequate, and this
deficiency greatly restricts the spread of exercise prescriptions. Recently,
telecommunication-based individual exercise prescription systems using IT
networks are being developed. Their effectiveness and prospects for their
future development will be discussed. Furthermore, the development of a program
that facilitates the instantaneous evaluation of the effects of exercise
prescriptions based on indices concerning lifestyle-related diseases and
disabilities requiring support using databases involving several thousand to
several tens of thousands of samples and appropriate statistical techniques
will be evaluated.
(6)
Search for genes responsive to exercise prescriptions and analysis of their
interactions: The effects of exercise prescriptions show individual
variation, which is derived from constitutions, i.e., inherited characters of
individuals. There are polymorphisms in some genes related to indices of
lifestyle-related diseases and disabilities requiring support, and these have
indeed been shown to be involved in individual variation in responsiveness to
exercise prescriptions. In the future, measures to search for these genes will
be discussed at international levels. Moreover, to analyze the relationships of
multiple gene polymorphisms with clinical data concerning the effects of
exercise prescriptions, the development of programs centered primarily on
genetics-based and other statistical approaches will be discussed.