• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.226-234
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• 2006

Disturbance of antioxidant system is very common in chronic alcoholics and herbal or natural products with antioxidant activity have been used for its treatment. This study was to investigate the effect of Vitis vinifera extract(V), Schisandra chinensis extract(S), Taraxacum officinale extract(T), Gardenia jasminoides extract(G), Angelica acutiloba extract(A) and Paeonia japonica extract(P), and their combinations on the antioxidant and ethanol oxidation system. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to Lieber-DeCarli ethanol liquid diet(ED) and were then given different herbal extract mixtures for 6 weeks including VST(V 100+S 150+T 150mg/kg/day), VSG(V 100+S 150+G 150mg/kg/day), VTG(V 100+T 150+G 150mg/kg/day), and VAP(V 100+A 150+P 150mg/kg/day). When the activity of alcohol dehydrogenase(ADH) and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase(ALDH) were compared between ED only group and herbal extracts treatment group, the differences were statistically significant. Phase I and II(glutathione-S-transferase, phenol sulfatransferase) enzyme activities were found to be significantly higher in the VAT treatment group compared to the ED group. Herbal extracts not only repressed the ethanol-induced elevation of malondialdehyde level, but also protected against ethanol-induced decrease in glutathione content, glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase and superoxide dismutase activities. The administration of the herbal extracts was found to be effective in eliminating lipid-peroxides induced by long-term consumption of alcohol by activating various enzyme systems and physiological active compound formation system. After a chronic consumption of alcohol, Angelica Radix protected the liver via activating the ethanol-metabolism enzyme system, and Paeoniae Radix via activating the ethanol-metabolism enzyme and the phase I, II-metabolism enzyme system. Taraxaci Herba was also effective in liver protection via activating the ethanol-metabolism enzyme system and the phase I, II-metabolism enzyme system, Gardeniae Fructus via activating the phase II-metabolism enzyme system and the anti-oxidation system enzyme, and Schisandra Fructus and a grapestone via activating the anti-oxidation system. Our data suggest that these herbal extracts may be useful as a health functional food or new drug candidate for fatty liver and hepatotoxicity induced by chronic alcohol consumption.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.29-44
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• 2006

Trust and understanding relationship promoted between a therapist and a client is the basic building block to successful recovery. Its importance is not only pertaining to the music therapy but also to counseling and psychological therapy. Because of its gnificance, broad spectrum of research has been conducted for quite a long time. Historically, researches have been focused on therapists or client's chological variables rather than emotional effects on each other that occur during the therapy session. Recently researchers turned their attention to emotional relationship between a therapist and a client. With recent advances in the field of music and psychological therapy, subsequent study has been conducted to investigate the role that music plays in the therapeutic relationship. For this research, eleven music therapy sessions were conducted for the adult females who are alcoholics. The first three sessions were of group therapy. Fourth to eleventh therapy session was done individually. Throughout the research case-by-case study has been conducted on the basis of the analysis of video and audio taped materials. Analysis depends heavily on its reference from the Amir's music research of 1990, which used Ferrara's seven phases of phenomenological study. Especially, verbal and nonverbal communications were closely analyzed in musical perspective. Research revealed that music and musical instruments act as a mediator between a therapist and a client. By doing so, it protects a therapist from unnecessary negative emotional displacements of a client and creates mutual reliability between a therapist and a client. Here, research suggests that music and musical instrument play a central role in building relationship between a therapist and a client, and it indicates that it has positive effect on treatment.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.178-190
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• 2006

Objectives : We investigated the relationship of the alcohol withdrawal symptoms with genetic polymorphism among alcohol dependence patients. Method : The measuring instruments used in this study were the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol(CIWA-Ar). We analyzed DRD2 TaqI A polymorphism, dopamine transporter(DAT 1) polymorphism, and catechol-O-methyltransferase(COMT) polymorphism in 108 male alcoholics and 76 healthy controls. Results : The major findings was as follows. No significant differences for genotype distribution or allele frequency were revealed comparing controls and alcoholic patients. DRD2 Taq I : The subscale score of auditory hallucination among CIWA-Ar scale in homozygote was significantly higher than in heterozygote(OR=1.34). The total score of CIWA-Ar scale in heterozygote was significantly higher than in homozygote. DAT1 : In the subject without DAT-9 gene allele, it was significantly higher of the subscale score of sweating, anxiety among CIWA-Ar scale than in the subject with DAT-9 gene allele. And The total score of CIWA-Ar scale in the subject without DAT-9 gene allele was significantly higher than in the subject with DAT-9 gene allele. COMT : The total score of CIWA-Ar scale in heterozygote was significantly higher than in homozygote. Conclusion : Our results suggest the relationship between specific genetic factors and the withdrawal symptoms of alcohol dependent patients. As the candidate gene of the severity of alcohol withdrawal syndrome, DRD2 Taq1 gene was recommended.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.147-161
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• 2004

Objectives: There are many habitual drinking in rural area. So it is the key point of drinking control policy in rural community to understand the drinking behavior in leisure time and to have an appropriate screening method for problem drinking. CAGE and AUDIT are famous screening tools for problem drinking and alcoholics. Even though there are some studies to validate CAGE and AUDIT which translated in Korean, they were not studied with community based population but with hospital based patients. In this study we assessed the usefulness of CAGE and AUDIT for selecting problem drinking in a rural population, and compared problem drinkers with normal group about spending leisure, Methods: The study subjects were 120 residents over 20 years old who lived in 3 districts in Dong-San Myun near Chun-chon city. We made up questionnaire by interview from Feb. 13 to 19, 2004. Results: The mean age of study population was 66.01 .26 years old. Defining the problem drinking as more than 12 score in AUDIT and more than 2 score in CAGE, the proportion of problem drinker was 30.600 and 28.9% respectively. This proportions were higher than those of other national wide studies. There were significant difference in drinking frequency per week and amount per one episode between problem drinker and normal group. Experience about driving, accident, injury, disturbance in working and quarrel after drinking were also significantly different. Problem drinker were more tolerable to the bad social culture about drinking (eg. force to drink, bad drunken habit. overdrinking, drinking relay etc.) than normal group. Watching TV and playing with neighborhood were most frequent method of spending leisure in this study population, normal male group exercised more frequently in leisure time than problem drinker. Conclusions: It may be useful to use CAGE and AUDIT score for screening problem drinking in rural community. Appropriate utilization of leisure time may he important for control of problem drinking in rural area.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.4517-4525
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• 2016

Background: Sperm DNA damage is underlying aetiology of poor implantation and pregnancy rates but also affects health of offspring and may also result in denovo mutations in germ line and post fertilization. This may result in complex diseases, polygenic disorders and childhood cancers. Childhood cancer like retinoblastoma (RB) is more prevalent in developing countries and the incidence of RB has increased more than three fold in India in the last decade. Recent studies have documented increased incidence of cancers in children born to fathers who consume alcohol in excess and tobacco or who were conceived by assisted conception. The aetiology of childhood cancer and increased disease burden in these children is lin ked to oxidative stress (OS) and oxidative DNA damage( ODD) in sperm of their fathers. Though several antioxidants are in use to combat oxidative stress, the effect of majority of these formulations on DNA is not known. Yoga and meditation cause significant decline in OS and ODD and aid in regulating OS levels such that reactive oxygen speues meditated signal transduction, gene expression and several other physiological functions are not disrupted. Thus, this study aimed to analyze sperm ODD as a possible etiological factor in childhood cancer and role of simple life style interventions like yoga and meditation in significantly decreasing seminal oxidative stress and oxidative DNA damage and thereby decreasing incidence of childhood cancers. Materials and Methods: A total of 131 fathers of children with RB (non-familial sporadic heritable) and 50 controls (fathers of healthy children) were recruited at a tertiary center in India. Sperm parameters as per WHO 2010 guidelines and reactive oxygen species (ROS), DNA fragmentation index (DFI), 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxy guanosine (8-OHdG) and telomere length were estimated at day 0, and after 3 and 6 months of intervention. We also examined the compliance with yoga and meditation practice and smoking status at each follow-up. Results: The seminal mean ROS levels (p<0.05), sperm DFI (p<0.001), 8-OHdG (p<0.01) levels were significantly higher in fathers of children with RB, as compared to controls and the relative mean telomere length in the sperm was shorter. Levels of ROS were significantly reduced in tobacco users (p<0.05) as well as in alcoholics (p<0.05) after intervention. DFI reduced significantly (p<0.05) after 6 months of yoga and meditation practice in all groups. The levels of oxidative DNA damage marker 8-OHdG were reduced significantly after 3 months (p<0.05) and 6 months (p<0.05) of practice. Conclusions: Our results suggest that OS and ODD DNA may contribute to the development of childhood cancer. This may be due to accumulation of oxidized mutagenic base 8OHdG, and elevated MDA levels which results in MDA dimers which are also mutagenic, aberrant methylation pattern, altered gene expression which affect cell proliferation and survival through activation of transcription factors. Increased mt DNA mutations and aberrant repair of mt and nuclear DNA due to highly truncatred DNA repair mechanisms all contribute to sperm genome hypermutability and persistant oxidative DNA damage. Oxidative stress is also associated with genome wide hypomethylation, telomere shortening and mitochondrial dysfunction leading to genome hypermutability and instability. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report decline in OS and ODD and improvement in sperm DNA integrity following adoption of meditation and yoga based life style modification.This may reduce disease burden in next generation and reduce incidence of childhood cancers.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.115-121
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• 2007

Objetives : Identification of target genes for ethanol in neurons is important for understanding its molecular and cellular mechanism of action and the neuropathological changes seen in alcoholics. The purpose of this study is to identify of altered gene expression after acute treatmet of ethanol in rat gliom cells. Methods : We used high density cDNA microarray chip to measure the expression patterns of multiple genes in cultured rat glioma cells. DNA microarrays allow for the simultaneous measurement of the expression of several hundreds of genes. Results : After comparing hybridized signals between control and ethanol treated groups, we found that treatment with ethanol increased the expression of 15 genes and decreased the expression of 12 genes. Upregulated genes included Orthodenticle(Drosophila) homolog 1, procollagen type II, adenosine A2a receptor, GATA bindning protein 2. Downregulated genes included diacylglycerol kinase beta, PRKC, Protein phosphatase 1, clathrin-associated protein 17, nucleoporin p58, proteasome. Conclusion : The gene changes noted were those related to the regulation of transcription, signal transduction, second messenger systems. modulation of ischemic brain injury, and neurodengeneration. Although some of the genes were previously known to be ethanol responsive, we have for the most part identified novel genes involved in the brain response to ethanol.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.703-712
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• 2009

The principal objective of this study was to supply basic material determine basic information regarding effective health promotion regimens for elderly women via a comparative survey of health status by aging age between elderly women (=70 y) and college women. The subject groups of elderly women (=70 y) and college women were selected and surveyed from March to October, 2008, in the Seoul area. The average age of the elderly women assessed in this study was $78.64{\pm}7.30$, the average height was $147.07{\pm}5.72$ cm, and the average weight was $50.47{\pm}7.44$ kg. As compared with college women, a higher percentage of elderly women ate breakfast regularly, but the elderly women also experienced difficulties in chewing due to dentures, and therefore ate their meals with large quantities of liquids, and usually ate their meals within 10 minutes. The majority of elderly women suffered from at least one disease, and the most common symptom reported was hypertension (25%). 52.2% of elderly women and 47.8% of college women reported that they exercised 1~2 times per week. They reported that their favorite exercise was light exercise, such as jogging and athletics (73.1%). As compared with college women, the smoking rate was lower among elderly women, but some of the elderly women were long-time smokers or alcoholics. The differences in red blood cells counts, Hb, hematocrit, and MCV of the between elderly women and college women were significant. In addition, but the MCH and MCHC were higher in elderly women compared with college women and the total cholesterol of elderly woman ($175.62{\pm}38.89$ mg/dL) was significantly lower compared with college woman ($186.13{\pm}28.19$ mg/dL). TG ($127.89{\pm}51.25$ mg/dL) and LDL-cholesterol ($120.51{\pm}32.88$ mg/dL) of elderly woman were significantly higher than TG ($79.71{\pm}40.9$ 6mg/dL) and LDL-cholesterol($103.78{\pm}22.94$ mg/dL) of college woman (p<0.05). The levels of HDL-cholesterol ($58.78{\pm}12.90$ mg/dL) in the college women was significantly higher than the HDLcholesterol levels ($48.17{\pm}13.79$ mg/dL) of the elderly women (p<0.05). Serum vitamin C levels in elderly women were significantly higher than those of college women (p<0.05), whereas no significant difference was detected between the two groups. Consequently, it can be concluded that the appropriate education programs for dietary habits and health promotion are necessary for a healthier life. Additionally, it is necessary for individuals to precisely determine precisely their own health status, and develop appropriate dietary programs for themselves.