最近5か年間における鍼灸臨床研究成果とその考察

In Oriental medicine, body and soul are regarded as one and inseparable.<br>Many of the cases described involve syndromes characterized by their chronic nature. Chief complaints are cold shoulders, necks and arms with pain or numbness in them; or paresthesia in the lower half of the body, specifically from thoracic vertebra TH¹⁰ down. Many of the patients combine syndromes related to the digestive system accompanied by such psychic conditions as apprehension and restlessness. With constant pain and numbness as well as paresthesia, it is understandable that the patient should feel restless and irritable.<br>In these cases, therapy is not limited to the patient's chief complaint such as pain in the shoulder. Rather, the general complaint which forms the background to the pain is grasped and attempt is made to alleviate the symptoms through changing the general condition of the patient. This leads to alleviation and elimination of the chief complaint.<br>I have learned this through first-hand experience gained in the last five years, treating chronic patients who visited our laboratory as out-patients. I, therefore, believe that acupuncture and moxibustion therapy is a representative physical therapy in the domain of Oriental medicine and that it is a allassotherapy that shares the objective with modern physical therapy in that both aim at removing the chief complaint through treating general complaints. Needless to say, mental and emotional conditions can cause trouble of the digestive system. That is the very reason why reference was made to treatment of patients with complaints related to the digestive system in addition to descriptions of our clinical experience with patients with pain which is known to indicate acupuncture and moxibustion therapy. You have seen that acupuncture and moxibustion therapy is a uniquely Oriental physical therapy which aims at treating the body on the principle that it is one with the mind.<br>The clinical cases just reported demonstrate that acupuncture and moxibustion therapy can be expected to produce direct effects on such chief complaints as pain, numbness and paresthesia. The reason is explained variously by different experts. We have reached the following conclusion through such modern demical experimental and observation techniques as moirétopography, infrared thermography, electrocardiograms and electroencephalograms: The efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy manifests itself in the improvement of the peripheral circulation system through relaxation of tension in the soft tissue, which results particularly from proper selection of the tsubo. I believe this demonstrates one aspect of the overall effect of acupuncture therapy.