Backgrounds : The one of the leading factors of deteriorating condition is upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) in athletes. Athletes who are forced in regularly intensive training often decrease salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) which has important role of immune function in the buccal cavity. It causes increase of morbidity risk in URTI. Acupuncture treatment is one of the conditioning methods in the competition field and mainly treated for orthopedic injuries. On the other hands, acupuncture treatment induced increase of natural healing ability which involved immune response, and prevent and treat some diseases. It has been reported acupuncture increase SIgA level. However, the relationship between time course and diagnostic of cold by the acupuncture stimulation effect is still unclear. Thus, the purpose of this measurement is to investigate the effect of acupuncture stimulation on the SIgA during training camp. Furthermore, it is important to investigate questionnaire about diagnostic of cold during and 1 week after training camp, it leads to clear the effect of acupuncture stimulation on the URTI.
Methods : Eighty subjects men who have auditory difficulties (26.7±0.9 yr[±SE]) participated in this study. The subjects were randomly assigned two groups; acupuncture group and control group. The training camp conducted 3 days and training performed 3 hours each in the morning and afternoon. Acupuncture stimulation was applied at LU 6 (Kongzui), LI 4 (Hegu), ST 36 (Zusanli), and ST 6 (Jiache), for 30 min after dinner. To measure SIgA level, saliva samples were taken 7 times; daytime and evening of first day (Day1(D), Day1(E)), morning, daytime and evening of the second day (Day2(M), Day2(D), Day2(E)), morning and daytime in the third day (Day3(M), Day3(D)). The questionnaire about diagnostic of cold was conducted Day1(D), Day2(M), Day3(M) and 1 week after training camp.
Results : The secretion rate of SIgA in the control was not significantly changed during training camp. However, the acupuncture group was significantly higher level in the Day2(M) and Day3(M) compared to the Day1(D) (P<0.05). Both control and acupuncture group was significantly higher SIgA concentration in Day2(M) and Day3(M) compared to the Day1(D) (P<0.05), but acupuncture group was significantly higher in the Day3(M) compared to the control. The frequency of diagnostic cold was 1 in the acupuncture group and 4 in the control group. Moreover, 1 week after training camp, 6 in the acupuncture group and 6 in the control.
Conclusion : Acupuncture stimulation induced significant increase SIgA level during training camp. Moreover, the diagnostic of cold was lower during training camp in the acupuncture group. Therefore, acupuncture stimulation might reduce the risk of the morbidity of the URTI.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of contact lens use in the pool for water polo players. A total of 627 male subjects were studied : junior high school players (n=190), high school players (n=188), college players (n=121) and water polo club players (n=128).Results were summarized as follows : 1) The percentage of players using vision correction devices in daily life was 43.38%, and use of contact lenses during water polo play was 30.14% for all subjects. 2) Junior high school players using contact lenses during water polo play showed a significantly lower rate compared with other players (X²=34.38, p<.01). 3) There were a lot of users of disposable type contact lenses during water polo play. 4) Players using contact lenses during water polo play had significantly higher corneal and conjunctival damage than subjects using vision correction devices in daily life and subjects without vision correction devices (X²=13.64, p<.01).We concluded that it was a problem for junior high school players with low vision acuity during water polo play.

[Objective] This study examined the effects of resting metabolic rate (RMR), sleeping metabolic rate (SMR), and diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT) during acute weight loss in elite male wrestlers.[Methods] Subjects were elite male wrestlers (n=6), who were instructed to reduce the body weight in seven days. RMR, SMR, and DIT were measured by indirect calorimetry in normal training phase and after rapid weight loss. Body composition and energy intake were also measured.[Results] Energy intake significantly decreased in rapid weight loss phase (P<0.05). After the rapid weight reduction, percent reduction of body weight (-4.4%), fat mass (-17.5%), and total body water (-3.2%) significant compare with that of normal training phase (P<0.05). RMR(-15.2%), and SMR (-11.8%) significantly decreased during acute weight loss (P<0.05). DIT(-89.4%) tended to be decrease during acute weight loss.[Conclusion] The present study suggests that rapid weight loss in elite male wrestlers causes decreases in RMR and SMR.

This study examined the effects of the use of contact lenses on static and kinetic visual acuity, ocular pain, and blurred vision during a water polo match. Eleven male water polo players participated in this study, and were assigned to one of two groups: contact lens users (CL, n=5) and non-users (NCL, n=5). Both groups participated in a typical water polo match with four 7-min periods and 2-min resting intervals between the four periods. Static and kinetic visual acuity, subjective ocular pain, and blurred vision were measured before the match (pre-test), during the match (after each of four 7-min periods), and during the recovery phase at 5, 15, and 30 min after the completion of the match.Results showed that kinetic visual acuity was significantly lower for the NCL group than for CL in the 4^th period of the match. In addition, for the NCL group, kinetic visual acuity was significantly lower in the 3^rd and the 4^th periods than at the pre-test time. On the other hand, static visual acuity did not significantly differ between the two groups; but, for NCL, static visual acuity was significantly lower in the 4^th period than at the pre-test time. According to self-evaluation scores, ocular pain significantly increased in NCL compared to CL in the 3^rd and 4^th periods. Ocular pain in NCL was significantly higher between the 2^nd period and recovery phase at 5 min than at the pre-test time. Blurred vision was significantly higher in NCL than CL between the 2^nd period and recovery phase at 5 min. Blurred vision in NCL was significantly higher at the same duration than at the pre-test time.These findings indicate that the use of contact lenses may prevent ocular pain and blurred vision, maintaining both the static and kinetic visual acuity at a normal level during a water polo match. Further, the results of this study suggest that the use of contact lenses is effective for water polo players.

A study was carried out to examine the effects of water replacement on cardiovascular function during kendo practice in a hot environment. Five male college kendoists performed moderately severe 30-min kendo practice at a WBGT index of about 27°C with and without water intake. For water replacement, the subjects ingested 700 ml water (500 ml before exercise and 200 ml at 15 min after the start of exercise) . Under both conditions, body weight was decreased significantly, and hematocrit and serum total protein concentration were increased significantly after the exercise. With water replacement, the body weight loss induced by the exercise was similar to that under water deprivation. However, the decrease in body weight from the basal body weight, i. e. body weight measured before water intake, was significantly less with water replacement than under water deprivation. There were no significant differences in the percentage increases of hematocrit and serum total protein concentration between the two conditions, although the percentage change in plasma vasopressin concentration was significantly lower with water replacement than without. In the subjects deprived of water, the left ventricular end-diastolic dimension and left atrial dimension were significantly reduced after the exercise, and stroke volume, ejection fraction, and fractional shortening were also decreased significantly. The ratio of left ventricular end-systolic wall stress to left ventricular end-systolic volume index was increased significantly after the exercise without water intake. With water replacement, however, the percentage decreases in cardiac dimensions, stroke volume, ejection fraction, and fractional shortening were significantly lower than those under water deprivation. There was no significant change in the ratio of left ventricular end-systolic wall stress to left ventricular end-systolic volume index before and after the exercise with water intake. It is suggested that 700 ml water replacement before and during kendo exercise in a hot environment prevents depletion of stroke volume and deterioration of cardiovascular function, although it might not improve significantly the plasma volume loss after exercise.

This study was carried out to examine the influence of mouthguards on speech intelligibility. Nine male rugby football players with normal personal occlusion and normal speech served as subjects. All players took the speech intelligibility test while wearing self-adapted mouthguards, custom-made mouthguards and without wearing mouthguards.
The ratio of correct judgments for speech intelligibility wearing self-adapted mouthguards was significantly lower than that of wearing custom-made ones or of not wearing one. When misjudged syllables were evaluated by using the manner of production for articulation, plosives had a tendency to be misjudged as flapped sounds or as other plosives while subjects were wearing self-adapted and custom-made mouthguards. When misjudged syllables were evaluated by the points of production for articulation, bilabials and velars had a tendency to be misjudged as alveolar sounds while subjects were wearing self-adapted and custom-made mouthguards, and alveolar sounds had a tendency to be misjudged as various sounds while subjects were wearing self-adapted ones.
The findings showed that speech intelligibility with custom-made mouthguards was better than with self-adapted ones. Speech intelligibility may be better with mouthguards with reduced palatal thickness than with the current ones because points of prodution for alveolars and velars approach the normal points.

This study was conducted to examine the effects of different types of swimming on vision, including contrast sensitivity, depth perception, static visual acuity, number of eyeblinks, and pain scale. Six college water-polo players swam (A) at a water flow rate of 0 m·sec^-1 with floating, (B) at 0.83±0.04 m·sec^-1 with floating, (C) at 1.09±0.05 m·sec^-1 with floating, (D) at 0.83±0.04 m·sec^-1 doing the front crawl (50%VO₂max), and (E) at 1.09±0.05 m·sec^-1 doing the front crawl (80%VO₂max) for 15 min on a swimmill. To avoid the effect by chlorine, the free radical residual chlorine concentration was fixed at 0 ppm in the swimmill.
We found no significant differences in vision before and after A. On the other hand, contrast sensitivity during the test decreased significantly in C and E (p<0.05) . Depth perception and number of eyeblinks increased significantly in C and E (p<0.05) . Subjects had a high pain scale in C and E (p<0.01) . Thus it seems that water flow may disturb of vision. We conclude that it is impor. tant for swimmers to prevent impairment of vision.