The blood pressures of the subjects were measured using the HEM-712C Omron blood pressure monitor, and duplicate readings were obtained after the subjects were in resting condition for at least 10 minutes. Height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) measurements were obtained with the Omron HBF-362. Serum lipids and blood glucose were measured using the Hitachi 7180 automatic biochemical analyzer. Hypercholesterolemia was defined as a serum total cholesterol level of 200 mg/dL or more. Habitual smoking was defined as daily use of > 10 cigarettes (24 (link)). All equipment was calibrated according to the manufacturer’s protocol at the start of the day before measurements were performed by the same observer throughout the study.