• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.30-39
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• 1999

This study was designed to investigate the effect of Ca supplementation of 1,000mg per day for 53 weeks on lipid, Na, and K metabolism and on blood pressure in postmenopausal women. The subjects were 12 healthy women aged from 60 to 70 years. They were divided into two groups : the placebo(control group) and the Ca supplemented(1,000 mg/day) group(Ca group). Metabolic studies were conducted twice in the 1st and the 53rd weeks. The results were as follows : Serum triglyceride, total cholesterol and LDL-choesterol levels tended to be decreased after the experiment. Serum VLDL-cholesterol lowering effect was observed with Ca supplementation(p<0.05), and also the significantly elevated HDL/(LDL+VLDL) ratio in Ca supplemented subjects whose average Na intake was as high as 4.9g per day. This phenomena was accompanied with increased Na retention and increased Na excretion in feces, but with decreased urinary Na in Ca supplemented group. However, considering much higher Na reteniton in the control group at the end of experiment(control va Ca ; 1272.3mg vs 732.9mg), Ca supplementation may have some beneficial effects on Na blance. Serum aldosterone level increased significantly in the Ca group after the exsperiment(p<0.05). With these normotensive subjects, there were no level increased significantly in the Ca group after the experiment(p<0.05). With these normotensive subjects, there were no pronounced effect of Ca supplementation on blood pressure, however, decrease in diastolic blood pressure were observed at the 14th week and end of the experiment(p<0.05). In summary, the Ca supplementation on postmenopausal Koran women appears to exert a desirables effect on blood lipid patterns related to the coronary heart diseases and to be beneficial in controlling diastolic blood pressure. Further studies with hypertensive or/and hyperlipidemic subjects are required to clarify the effect of Ca supplementation in Koreans.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.242-248
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• 2007

It is known that onion increases antioxidative and antibiotic capacity, and decreases blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The study was carried out to investigate whether ethanol extract of onion can enhance blood lipid profiles in hypercholesterolemic patients. Foully three hypercholesterolemic patients were randomly divided into 2 groups; 25 in controls and 18 in experimental group. The control group was offered to take placebo for 4 weeks (200 ml/day), and experimental group was offered to consume ethanol extract of onion for 8 weeks (200 ml/day that corresponds to 500 g of onion). There were no differences in sex, age, body mass index (BMI) and educational levels between groups before treatment. After 8 weeks of onion extract consumption, plasma triglycerides level was significantly decreased in experimental group compared to control (p<0.05). Total cholesterol level was tended to decrease in experimental group, but there was no significant difference of change between control and experimental group. The levels of plasma glucose and LDL-cholesterol were not changed significantly after onion extract consumption. In summary, alcohol extract of onion may have a positive effect on the lipid profiles of hypercholesterolemia patients through decreasing plasma triglyceride concentration.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.107-118
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• 2009

In patients with type 2 diabetes, oxidative stress could be increased by their metabolic changes. Elevated plasma homocysteine is considered as one of markers of enhanced oxidative stress. Due to oxidative stress, some complications like cardiovascular or renal diseases may develop in type 2 diabetes patients. Plasma homocysteine concentration may be increased if folate status were inadequate. Protective effects against oxidative stress may be diminished if the status of anti-oxidative nutrient as vitamin C was poor. It is, therefore, important to maintain adequate status of folate and vitamin C in type 2 diabetes patients. Thus, this study was performed to determine the effects of supplementation of folate and/or ascorbate on blood glycated hemoglobin ($HbA_{1c}$) level, serum concentrations of homocysteine and cholesterol, plasma oxidized low density-lipoprotein (LDL), concentration and plasma glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in the patients with type 2 diabetes. A total of 92 type 2 diabetes patients participated voluntarily with written consents. They were divided into one of the four experimental groups; Control (C), Folate-supplemented (F), Ascorbate-supplemented (A), and Folate plus ascorbate-supplemented (FA). The subjects in C were taken placebo, those in F were supplemented 1 mg of folate, those in A received 1,000 mg of ascorbate, and those in FA were given 1 mg of folate plus 1,000 mg of ascorbate daily for 4 weeks. Supplementation of folate or ascorbate resulted to increase serum folate level or plasma ascorbate concentration apparently, respectively. Folate supplementation not ascorbate seemed to decrease plasma concentrations of homocysteine and oxidized LDL and reduce plasma GSH-Px activity. There might not be synergic effect of the supplementation of folate plus ascorbate. The results indicate that oxidative stress in the patients with type 2 diabetes may lower mainly by folate supplementation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.1103-1109
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• 2002

This study investigated the effect of 2-bromo-$\alpha$-ergocryptine (anti prolactin agent) on plasma levels of prolactin, oestradiol-17$\beta$ and progesterone in domestic hen during the active period of lay. Fifty healthy female White Leghorn birds were administered with anti prolactin agent (2-bromo-$\alpha$-ergocryptine, Sigma-USA., methane sulphonate salt, $C_{32}H_{40}BrN_5O_5.CH_4SO_3$) subcutaneously @100$\mu$g/kg body weight at weekly intervals from 17th to 36th week of age. Another group of fifty birds as controls were given placebo in place of bromocriptine. The level of prolactin remained lower in treated birds than in the control birds from 19 to 36 weeks of age. Level of prolactin even in the control group was found to decrease during the peak production period. Oestradiol-$17{\beta}$ and progesterone concentration in treated birds were significantly (p<0.01) higher than the controls during the treatment. Egg production, is positively correlated with oestradiol-$17{\beta}$ (r=0.02; r=0.67) and progesterone (r=0.49; r=0.90) in control and treated groups respectively where as prolactin level is positively correlated with egg production in the control birds (r=0.07). Prolactin levels were negatively correlated with egg production (r=-0.55) in treated birds; and oestradiol-$17{\beta}$ (r =-0.71; r=-0.53) and progesterone (r=-0.22; r=-0.27) respectively in control and treated groups. The total number of pause days during the treatment period decreased significantly (p<0.01) in the treated group compared to the control group. The reduction in pause days in treated group resulted in 1.76% increase in egg production over that in control group. The increase in egg laying days and the total egg production were found to be significant (p<0.01). These results indicate that a lower level of prolactin in circulatory blood enhances egg production in the domestic hen.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.150-160
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• 2015

We previously reported that 1-palmitoyl-2-linoleoyl-3-acetyl-rac-glycerol (PLAG) accelerates hematopoiesis and has an improving effect on animal disease models such as sepsis and asthma. The effects of PLAG supplementation on immune modulation were assessed in healthy men and women. The objective was to evaluate the effects of PLAG supplementation on immune regulatory functions such as activities of immune cells and cytokine production. A randomized double blind placebo-controlled trial was conducted. Seventy-five participants were assigned to one of two groups; all participants had an appropriate number of white blood cells on the testing day. The PLAG group (n=27) received oral PLAG supplements and the control group (n=22) received oral soybean oil supplements. IL-4 and IL-6 production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were lower (p<0.001 and p<0.001, respectively) with PLAG than with soybean oil. However, the production of IL-2 and IFN-$\gamma$ by PBMC was unaltered with PLAG supplementation. The B cell proliferation decreased significantly in the PLAG group compared to the soybean oil control (p<0.05). The intake of PLAG in healthy adults for 4 weeks was deemed safe. These data suggest that PLAG has an immunomodulatory function that inhibits the excessive immune activity of immunological disorders such as atopic and autoimmune diseases. PLAG could improve the condition of these diseases safely as a health food supplement.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.191-201
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• 2003

Objective : To research the trends of study related to tension-type headache and migrain with acupuncture in PubMed, and to establish the hereafter direction of acupuncture. for tension-type headache and migrain. Methods : We searched in PubMed, with tension-type headache, migrain and acupuncture limitted by abstract and enterz data 10 years. Results : 1. The pattern of the study was as follows: Review article(18), Clinical Trials(23), meta analysis(2) and rondomized controlled trials(16). We further estimated 23 articles. 2. Many of these studies provide equivocal results because of designs, sample size and the others, but in the majority of the trials were concludes that acupuncture offers benefits in the treatment of headache. 3. Acupuncture methods need individualization, a carefully selected placebo and cross-over design must have adequate time between the two treatment periods.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.249-255
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• 2015

BACKGROUD/OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of peanut sprout extracts (PSE) on health indices in overweight and obese women (BMI $${\geq_-}23kg/m^2$$). SUBJECTS/METHODS: Subjects were divided into three groups by double-blind randomized trial; the Placebo group (n = 15) and the Low PSE group (2.6 g PSE/day, n = 15), and the High PSE group (5.8 g PSE/day, n = 15). Subjects consumed 12 capsules per day, three times a day, 30 min before meals, for 4 weeks. Anthropometric data, blood biochemical variables, and dietary intake were evaluated before and after the experiments. RESULTS: In the Low and High PSE group, the waist circumference showed a significant decrease between pre- and post-test. In the Low PSE group, the reduction of systolic blood pressure between pre- and post-test was statistically significant. Serum LDL or triglyceride levels in both Low and High PSE groups were significantly decreased, and serum alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase were significantly decreased only in the Low PSE group. The parameters regarding erythrocyte and leucocyte counts showed no significant differences between pre- and post-test among groups, which suggested the safety of intake of peanut sprouts as a dietary supplement. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that PSE supplementation improves abdominal obesity and overall health indices. Therefore, an appropriate amount of peanut sprouts may be a plausible effective agent for obesity and obesity related health problems in obese women.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.221-225
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• 2012

Zinc deficiency is known to be associated with insulin resistance in obese individuals. This study was performed to evaluate the effect of zinc supplementation on insulin resistance and metabolic risk factors in obese Korean women. Forty obese women (body mass index (BMI) ${\geq}25kg/m^2$) aged 19-28 years were recruited for this study. Twenty women of the study group took 30 mg/day of supplemental zinc as zinc gluconate for 8 weeks and 20 women of control group took placebo. Usual dietary zinc intake was estimated from 3-day diet records. Insulin resistances were measured using Homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) indices, and insulin sensitivities Matsuda indices, which were calculated using oral glucose tolerance test data. Metabolic risk factors, such as waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting glucose, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and adipocyte hormones such as leptin, and adiponectin were also measured. At the beginning of study, dietary zinc averaged 7.31 mg/day and serum zinc averaged $12.98{\mu}mol/L$ in the study group. Zinc supplementation increased serum zinc by 15% and urinary zinc by 56% (P < 0.05). HOMA values tended to decrease and insulin sensitivity increased slightly in the study group, but not significantly so. BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, blood glucose, triglyceride, HDL cholesterol, and adipocyte hormones did not change in either the study or control group. These results suggest that zinc status may not affect insulin resistance and metabolic risk factors in obese Korean women. Further research is required on a larger cohort with a longer follow-up to determine the effects of zinc status on insulin resistance and metabolic variables.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Oriental Medical Informatics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.79-93
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• 2008

Objectives : Taichi for arthritis was developed in 1997 by Paul Lam, M.D. of family medicine in Australia. It is an exercise treatment program and a good approaching method of the oriental medicine for arthritis. However, clinical and academical researches were rare. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the Taichi for arthritis. Methods : We used the medical literature search system, MEDLIS and the database of academic journal, DBpia to search medical studies published in korea. Keywords were "Taichi", "Tai Chi Chuan" and "Arthritis". We classified literatures with two criteria, year of publishment and study design. Then we classified as placebo design and summarized whole material. We determined its effectiveness by positive-negative results of Taichi for arthritis. Results : Taichi for arthritis could release pain of the rheumatoid or degenerative arthritis. Also it is thought to increase muscular power and enhance physical flexibility, balance. Conclusions : There were limits to ensure effectiveness because of small number of studies comparing Taichi with other exercise program for arthritis. However the Taichi for arthritis could have positive effect to treat the rheumatoid and degenerative arthritis. We hope further studies to be followed in oriental medical field.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.579-582
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• 2008

This study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of moxibustion on dysphagia after stroke. We conducted his study in the Department of Cardiovascular and Neurologic Diseases (Stroke Center), Hospital of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee Medical Center, from May 1, 2005 to August 1, 2006. After recruiting dysphagia patients after stroke, we applied the Direct Moxibustion ($1.2\;{\times}\;1.4\;cm$) to the Chon-Jung acupoint 5 times, and assessed its effect on swallowing reflex by Swallowing Provocation Test (SPT) before and 30 min after treatment. Effectiveness of the swallowing reflex was assessed by the Latency Time of Swallowing Reflex (LTSR) which was checked from test starting to the onset of swallowing reflex. Thirty four subjects with dysphagia were treated with moxibustion. The mean of the latency time in swallowing reflex was shortened from $2.2\;{\pm}\;0.9$ to $1.5\;{\pm}\;0.5$ seconds after moxibustion, which had statistical significance (P < 0.001). We suggest that moxibustion at Chon-Jung could be useful for dysphagia after stroke. Further study with a randomized controlled trial compared to placebo is needed to confirm this suggestion.