Insufficient intake of calcium is one of the risk factors for osteoporosis.Recently, many studies have investigated calcium sources and various food components influencing calcium metabolism. In this study, the bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine and tibia was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in order to examine the effect of globin powder, a polypeptide mixture (average M.W., 8000), on bone metabolism in model rats with postmenopausal osteoporosis. Six-week-old SD-strain female rats were ovariectomized and were fed a low-Ca diet (0.01% Ca and 0.3% P) for 32 days. Thereafter, the rats were divided into 2 groups: a control group fed a control diet (18% casein, 0.3% Ca and 0.3% P) and a globin group fed a globin diet (18% casein, 0.24% globin, 0.3% Ca and 0.3% P) for 27 days. In comparison with the control group, the globin group showed significant increases in (1) the BMD of the lumbar spine and tibia, (2) the Ca content of the femur, (3) the breaking force and energy of the femur, and (4) femoral bone weight.Furthermore, the Ca absorption in the globin group was higher than in the control group. These results suggest that globin powder could be effective for the prevention of bone loss in postmenopausal osteoporotic rats.Key Words bone mineral density, calcium content in femur, breaking force, breaking energy.

SummaryReduced estrogen secretion and low calcium (Ca) intake are risk factors for bone loss and arterial calcification in female rodents. To evaluate the effects of Ca intake at different amounts on bone mass changes and arterial calcification, 8-wk-old female Wistar rats were randomly placed in ovariectomized (OVX) control and OVX with vitamin D3 plus nicotine (VDN) treatment groups. The OVX with VDN rats were then divided into six groups to receive different amounts of Ca in their diets: 0.01%, 0.1%, 0.3%, 0.6%, 1.2%, or 2.4% Ca. After 8 wk of administration, low Ca intake groups with 0.01% and 0.1% Ca diets had significantly reduced bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mechanical properties as compared with those of the other groups, whereas high Ca intake groups with 1.2% and 2.4% Ca diets showed no differences as compared with the 0.6% Ca intake group. For both the 0.01% and 2.4% Ca intake groups, Ca levels in their thoracic arteries were significantly higher as compared with those of the 0.6% Ca diet group, and that was highly correlated with serum PTH levels. An increase in relative BMP-2 mRNA expression in the arterial tissues of the 0.01% and 2.4% Ca diet groups was also observed. These results suggested that extremely low Ca intake during periods of estrogen deficiency may be a possible risk for the complications of reduced BMD and arterial calcification and that extremely high Ca intake may promote arterial calcification with no changes in BMD.

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The management of nutrition, food, and health for disaster relief personnel is one of the crucial aspects for carrying out effective rescue activities during large-scale natural disasters, such as a big earthquake, flooding, and landslide following heavy rainfall or man-made disasters, such as widespread fire in industrial areas. Rescue workers, such as fire fighters and rescue teams who work on the disaster relief operations, have to work long, hard, and irregular hours that require energy (both intake and expenditure), with especially altered eating patterns. Reliable estimates of the energy expenditure (TEE) for such disaster relief operations have not been fully established. Here, we propose to clarify the energy expenditure for each type of large-scale disaster activity conducted by fire fighters. Thirty fire fighters (survey participants in this research) who participated in the simulation training of large-scale disaster activities wore tri-axial accelerometers and heart rate monitors during training; and, post-training, 28 fire fighters submitted complete activity record tables. An estimation formula combining tri-axial accelerometer and heart rate monitor data was used. Additionally, energy expenditure per hour (excluding resting energy expenditure: REE) (per average body weight of participants) was calculated for 10 types of large-scale disaster response activities. We propose utilization of these data as a reference value for examining the TEE of firefighting and rescue operations in future large-scale disasters.