Decline in physical fitness of the elderly and its counter plan-with reference to thermoregulation, adaptation and endocrine system-

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We performed the human experiment in the climatic chamber and fieldwork in a home for the aged and so on.Subjects for the experiment were healthy elderly group (60-year-old men, n=7) and younger group (20-year-old men, n=7). Subjects kept quiet for 60minutes in a sitting position in the front room at air temperature 28℃. After that they moved to the climatic chamber at 20℃, 28℃ or 36℃ for 90minutes, doing the head-up-tilt standing posture test for 15minutes. Afterwards, they removed to post-room, sitting on a chair for 30minutes. The experiments were performed in winter and summer at the same experimental condition. Measurement items were the body temperature (sublingual temperature and the skin temperatures), blood pressure, heart rate, the votes of thermal sensation and comfort sensation, cortisol and nitric oxide in saliva, and so on.The systolic blood pressures and heart rates of the aged group and heart rates of the young group were affected with ambient temperatures and the postural change using the head-up-tilt. Sublingual temperatures of old people in summer increased more than in winter by heat exposure. The thermoregulatory responses of both groups to the same air temperature were different by the season. The mean skin temperature and sublingual temperature of old people in summer was lower than in winter to cold exposure. In post-room after the cold exposure, the rise of sublingual temperature of the old people was slower than the youth, and this tendency was remarkable after the cold exposure in summer.The field study was carried out on residential environment, home for the aged etc., measuring air temperature and humidity. The questionnaire on thermal sense and comfort etc were done for 42 elderly persons and nursing staffs of 41persons. Although air temperature in home for the aged in winter was controlled comparatively well, the relative humidity was low below 20%.I guessed that sensations to air temperature and humidity of the elderly became weak.