A Study on “Keiketsuryoku” concerning the Efficacy of Moxibustion of Five Element Acupoints

INTRODUCTION<br>In our research of acupoint tension we performed acupuncture on the dorsal entry acupoints (yu-ketsu) and measured the skin resistance to the needles. We called this measured value “keiketsuryoku” or acupoint tension. Since we found many examples of a recovery from distortion in the acupoint tension of dorsal entry points, we concluded that moxibustion of five element acupoints is indeed effective in causing just such a recovery. Besides this there was also the question of whether acupuncture of the dorsal entry points alone was effective or not.<br>The aims of this research were 1) In order to measure the acupoint tension we performed acupuncture of the dorsal entry points to see if there was a recovery from distortion in the acupoint tension or not, 2) We compared the results of this with the effect of moxibustion on five element acupoints.<br>METHODOLOGY<br>A device called a “tanomi meter” was used to measure the acupoint tension. The acupoints used for this study were, HAI YU (Bl. 13), KETSU IN YU (Bl. 14), SHIN YU (Bl. 15), KAN YU (Bl. 18), HI YU (Bl. 20) and JIN YU (Bl. 23). These six bilateral acupoints thus totalled twelve in all. Deciding the distortion of acupoint tension. A decrease in the standard deviation value was deemed “effective” (σn SYGMA) and an increase as “reverse effect”.<br>Measurement of acupoint tension: The ten subjects in group “A” were measured three times. The twenty subjects of groups “B” and “C” had moxibustion administered at acupoint “KOUKAN” (Lv. 2) and were measured each time before and after treatment. Using the five element theory, KOUKAN (Lv. 2) was found to be the most suitable acupoint for “B” group, diagnosed as having hyper liver and kidney. However in “C” group which had a different diagnosis, eight examples were found of the unsuitability of acupoint KOUKAN.<br>RESULTS<br>There were four examples of efficacy in “A” group (40%). Using moxibustion at acupoint KOUKAN in “B” group we had ten examples of effective results (83%). The same treatment resulted in three examples of efficacy in “C” group (38%).<br>Average σn value: In “A” group 3% decrease. In “B” group 33% decrease and in “C” group 2% increase.<br>CONCLUSION<br>In group “B” which was suited to using moxibustion at acupoint KOUKAN, there were many effective results. The decrease of the σn value was obvious, whereas in group “C” which was not correlated to this acupoint there were many examples of non-efficacy, and from the 2% increase of the σn value we can see the importance of classifying five element acupoints in their applicability, or non applicability (to meridian imbalances).<br>“A” group. Even with simple insertion only, to measure acupoint tension, there were some effective examples, but the σn value decrease was a mere 3%, showing rather poor clinical results. However, it can be assumed that the reverse effect found in “C” group, with a fixed σn value increase of 2%, points to the suppression of efficacy at the “YU” entry points. Here then, after careful consideration, we concluded that the efficacy of acupuncture of entry points held no influence over treatment results obtained using the five element acupoints.