東北積雪地帯農民の労働と保健に関する研究 : 第4報 農繁期疲労に及ぼすアスパラギン酸塩およびビタミンB<SUB>1</SUB>の影響について

Abstract

An investigation was made on the effects of aspartate and vitamin B1 upon the fatigue in 75 apple cultivating farmers. These farmers were divided into three groups, to each member of which a tablet including 150 mg of K- and Mg-aspartate, a tablet including 5 mg of VB1, and a tablet of placebo was respectively given every day. In some of them, the fatigue, subjective and objective, was estimated weekly; namely, the former was estimated by the questionnaire method and the latter by measuring body weight, physiological functions (flicker fusion frequency, threshold of patellar reflex, and blood pressure), Donaggio reaction and uropepsin during the farming season, May, June and July. In the other farmers, the subjective fatigue, body weight and blood pressure were measured once a month in the same season. The results were as follows: (1) The subjective fatigue in the group given aspartate and VB1 tends to decline in the later period of the season (Figs.1 & 2). (2) The body weight decreases gradually through the farming period. However, the decrease in the aspartate group is lower than in the other groups (Fig.3, Tab.1). This fact suggests an anabolic effect of aspartate through activation of the adrenal gland. (3) The flicker fusion frequency increases and the threshold of patellar reflex decreases in the middle period, and these changes are more remarkable in the group of aspartate and VB1 than in the placebo group. In the last period the flicker value decreases and the threshold value increases, and these changes are less in the former two groups than in the latter (Fig.5 and Tabs.2, 3). (4) Examinations of Donaggio reaction and uropepsin in the urine after the farming work revealed that the former tended to be lower in the VB1 group and the latter lower in the aspartate group (Fig.6). (5) The blood pressure tends to decline monthly in the aspartate and the control group, but not in the VB1 group (Fig.4). This tendency suggests that the seasonal variation of the physiological functions, including the blood pressure, is related not only to the variation of climate but of nutrition and other factors. These results show first that the aspartate and VB1 lighten the chronic fatigue in the farming seasons. However, it is a question whether the subjects were deficient in VB1 and the above effect of VB1 on the VB1 group was not pharmacological and positive but nutritional just supplying the deficiency. From this point of view, the effect of aspartate also should be further reexamined in the experimental conditions in which the nutritional requirements of VB1 in the subjects have certainly been fulfiled.