Primary preventive medicine and laboratory medicine

Nutrition plays an important role in the primary preventive medicine. In 1999, we have introduced the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) established by the National Academy of Sciences of U.S. into Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for the Japanese population. Where, reference intervals for the concentration of nutrient in blood are required in setting an Adequate Intakes (AI). For vitamins, also the AI is experimentally determined based on the reference intervals of healthy people, and the assessment of the nutritional status by laboratory investigations is an important part of preventive medicine. In 1997, we founded the Japan Committee for Vitamin Laboratory Standards and standardized whole blood vitamin B1 levels using HPLC method. Reference intervals for vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E might be presented in future report. We annually examined 15,000 participants in national nutrition survey. We proposed a use of results of this research for setting AI of vitamins. Genetic investigation should be introduced in future primary preventive medicine, and stress markers such as "biopyrrin" for oxidative stress, uropepsin, and urinary 17KS-S seems to be very important for medical examination.