Previous research has demonstrated that exercise and training in hypoxic (low-oxygen) environments is effective for improving physical fitness. Studies focused on improving health have shown that exercise and training in hypoxic environments has beneficial effects, such as reducing body fat and postprandial blood glucose elevation. In an effort to further develop these studies, the present study will examine the effects of lifestyles in hypoxic environments on the improvement of health, such as preventing lifestyle diseases.

There have been many studies in Japan and other countries that report the beneficial effects of exercise and training in hypoxic environments, but such findings have not been applied to everyday life. Out of a desire to contribute to creating a new world as researchers, we aimed to propose hypoxic housing and offices that would be conducive to promoting good health based on scientific reasoning, and decided to take on the challenge of conducting research on this topic.

As a researcher, I want to clarify the effects that lifestyles that incorporate hypoxic environments have on improving health. Through carefully planned studies, my goal is to propose new lifestyles that enrich our lives.

The first step is to form deep cooperative ties with collaborating researchers and related companies in Japan and overseas, and to build a system for advancing this research. We would then start with small-scale studies, and prepare to conduct full-scale studies. After gradually prolonging the amount of time (number of days) spent in hypoxic environments, the idea would be to examine all physiological response indicators (blood oxygen saturation level, pulse rate, blood pressure, etc.).

This research could contribute to societal development, based on proposals for new lifestyles and technologies contributing to better health.
In particular, we expect this to be very academically and societally significant in the fields of health science and preventive medicine.

Partnerships:
Going forward, we will need technology to continuously and non-invasively monitor physiological response indicators (biological information) during people’s stay (lifestyle) in hypoxic environments. Systems will also need to be built that will facilitate the understanding of this biological information remotely and in real time. We hope to collaborate with companies, researchers, and engineers involved in developing this type of technology.

Research collaborations:
One of the important objectives of this study is to train young researchers. We believe that fully supporting young researchers to allow them to produce outstanding outcomes by providing a research environment for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows is important for bringing about next-generation universities.