Epidemiological elucidation of the pathogenesis of lifestyle-related disease and preventive measures in consideration of sex difference

我们发现，生活方式与健康状况显着相关的日本男性的生活方式是不同的西方人。然而，在日本女性中并未观察到这种关联。这一差异可以解释为，妇女比男子有更好的生活方式和更健康的状况。多因素分析显示，注意饮食习惯与男性健康状况呈显著正相关。近年来，许多人对自己的饮食产生了兴趣。因此，对饮食习惯的干预可能对改善健康状况有效。然而，容易改变的生活方式因个体而异。我们的研究结果表明，采取任何健康做法都会导致良好的健康状况。健康习惯与健康状况的关系在女性中未发现。50岁年龄段与女性健康状况密切相关。绝经后妇女生活方式相关性疾病的发生应采取相应的预防措施。脂联素是近年来发现的一种由244个氨基酸组成的脂肪细胞源性血浆蛋白。循环脂联素浓度与体重和脂肪量呈负相关，尽管其仅来源于人体脂肪组织。这种负相关性已被认为与肥胖受试者中胰岛素抵抗的起源有关。因此，我们评估了绝经状态对血清脂联素浓度的影响，并研究了脂联素对胰岛素抵抗的贡献是否被绝经状态所改变。更年期的过渡增加血清脂联素浓度。此外，脂联素可能在绝经后而非绝经前胰岛素抵抗的初期发展中发挥重要作用。

We found that lifestyle was significantly associated with health condition in Japanese men whose lifestyles were different from those of the occidentals. However, the association was not observed among Japanese women. The difference could be explained by the fact that women had more good lifestyles and more healthy condition than men. Multivariate analysis showed that taking care of eating habits were significantly and positively associated with health condition among men. In recent years, many people take interest in their own meal. Therefore, the intervention in eating habits may be effective in the improvement of health condition. However, the lifestyles which can be changed easily are differed among the individuals. Our results suggested that taking any health practice leads to good health condition. On the other hand, the relationship between healthy custom and health condition was not found among women. The age of 50 years-old was strongly related to female health condition. We should take measures against the lifestyle-related disease among postmenopausal women. As for this issue, we paid attention to adiponectin which is an adipocyte-derived plasma protein of 244 amino acids that has been discovered recently. Circulating adiponectin concentration is inversely correlated with body weight and the amount of fat mass, despite being solely derived from adipose tissue in humans. This inverse correlation has been suggested to be related to the origin of insulin resistance in obese subjects. Therefore, we evaluated the influence of menopausal status on the serum adiponectin concentration and investigate whether the contribution of adiponectin to insulin resistance is modified by menopausal status. The transition to menopause increases serum adiponectin concentrations. Moreover, adiponectin may play an important role in the development of an incipient insulin-resistant state after, rather than before, menopause.