Human Life Scientific Study on Construction of Local Life System Aiming at Self-support of the elderly-From the View Point of Environmental Adaptability

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Three groups of our faculty members conducted studies on the local support system for independence of the elderly for four years. In the Food and Nutrition field, they studied to develop a convenient model to investigate senescence of host defenses and the influence of food and nutrition. A small soil nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, was grown for 3 days from hatching on a lawn of the normal food-derived bacterium Escherichia coli OP50 (OP50), and subsequently the nematodes were fed lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The lifespan of worms fed LAB was significantly longer than that of those fed OP50. In the Housing and Environmental Design field, they studied to investigate the relationship between maximum voluntary contraction(MVC) and current exercise in the healthy Japanese elderly. The joints of the upper limbs investigated were the shoulder and elbow and those of the lower limbs were the knee and leg joint. The MVC of these joints were measured by isometric "make" tests in the sagittal plane, and was analyzed by ANOVA with Fisher's PLSD to determine dependence on the presence or absence of current exercises. The analysis of the relationship between MVC and exercise revealed a significant difference between the subjects, both male and female, with or without current exercise concerning MVC of the upper limbs. In the welfare research group, they studied to consider the mechanism of the self-directive adaptation to the change of environment. For that purpose, they carried out a three-year follow-up research. They researched how a person had influenced environment toward forming a new own system for life, and what change of feelings he had experienced inside. As a result, they found that the self-directive adaptation to the change of environment was influenced by the instability of his being and the awareness of the necessity for changing himself.