Today ; Japanese language ; Language

View ; Japanese language ; Acupuncture

Japanese language ; Medicine ; Mental association

The world has now rediscovered the value of traditional medicine. Much traditional medicine in South-East Asian countries originated from the medicines of ancient China, and developed independently within those individual countries. As a measure toward information exchange and communication among these countries, the World Health Organization's Western Pacific Regional Office (WHO-WPRO) has published its International Standard Terminologies (IST) for use globally. While domestically in Japan, Kampo is now taught as a regular subject in all medical schools. In this light, there is significant meaning to holding conference with the purpose of understanding the current status of Japanese Kampo around the world, and considering the best ways to disseminate Kampo information globally. The International Conference of Kampo Medicine (provisional title) has been held thus far a total of three times, to address the current status of Japanese Kampo, Japanese Kampo issues from global point of view, as well as the current status of traditional medicine in China and Korea also originating from the ancient Chinese medicine. The conference was entitled &lsquoWhy Kampo? Why Now? Why Me?—The reason why foreign medical doctors worldwide choose Japanese Kampo, and the situation or development of Kampo medicine in their own countries”, in which foreign doctors in Japan, medical students, and leading Kampo medical practitioners were invited to give lectures, which were followed by free discussions by all participants.
Medicine, Kampo ; Medicine ; seconds ; Japanese language ; Conferences

Japanese pharmacopoeia prescribes a crude drug, Uncaria hook, or the hook-like structures of Uncaria rhynchophylla (Miq.) Jacks, U. sinensis (Oliv.) Havil., and U. macrophylla Wall., while Chinese pharmacopoeia prescribes the hooks with attached stems of above3species, in addition to2other species of Uncaria hook; U. hirsuta Havil. and U. sessilifructus Roxb (all in the Rubiaceae family). Our herbological study has found that the botanical origin was Uncaria rhynchophylla before the Ming Dynasty, and that the part used was not the hook itself, but the plant's bark till the early Ming Dynasty. Use of the hooks with stems began in the late Ming Dynasty. On the other hand, in Japan, the hooks themselves have been mainly collected from wild U. rhynchophylla plants growing in southern warm-temperate zone of Japan, for use in Kampo medicines. We considered this differing Japanese custom was influenced by the descriptions in the Ben Cao Gan Mu (1596)written in the Ming dynasty by Li Si Chen, which state that the hook itself had medicinally sharp power. And we conclude that use of Uncaria bark alone is reasonable for prescriptions which originated before the early Ming dynasty, such as chotosan.
Unit ; Chinese People ; Japanese language ; Within ; Hook

This is the second report of the findings of the clinical and epidemiological studies on pathogen-carrying madani tick bites (ixodiasis) and the vector-borne diseases conducted by a study group of researchers specially organized by the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine. The report covers the period from January 1 through December 31, 2004.The same questionnaires that had been prepared in the previous survey were sentto 80 JARM-affiliated medical facilities and 11 non-member medical institutions to collect information about tick bites and resultant infections.It was found that during 2004 there were 134 cases (67 for men and 67 for women) of skin lesions caused by ixodid tick bites, 14 cases of Lyme disease (7 for men and the same for women), and none for Japanese spotted fever. These ixodiasis cases did not show any speciffic difference from those reported previously. All the Lyme disease patients developed erythema migrans which characterize stage 1 infection.As there is still plenty of catching up to do in terms of coping with the tick bite problems in Japan, we referred to some literature on the control of ixodid ticks, serologic testing techniques for Lyme disease, administration of prophylactic antibiotics and therapeutic methods.
Ticks ; Clinical ; Lyme Disease ; seconds ; Japanese language

Objective: Although the Japanese EuroQol instrument was developed in 1998 by a Japanese translation team, the reliability of health state valuations of the fuller questionnaire has not yet been investigated in Japan. We carried out a pilot study to investigate the reliability of health state valuations of the Japanese EuroQol instrument. Methods: The survey was conducted twice with the fuller questionnaire of the Japanese EuroQol instrument in a class of preventive medicine. We analyzed test-retest reliability based on the health state valuations and calculated Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of both tests. Results and Conclusions: The mean valuations of 14 hypothetical health states and ‘death’ between test and retest were not significantly different by paired t-test. The reliability by calculated correlation between test and retest was 0.996 (p<0.0001). In addition, Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of the first test was 0.827, and that of the second test was 0.865. Although good reliability was shown in the present study, our conclusion was limited to applications of population-based surveys because of the small number and limited subjects of the present study. Further investigations are required in the form of a population-based survey.
Japanese language ; Health ; seconds ; instruments ; Surveys

Trichotillomania is a disorder of recurrent hair pulling, resulting in the dermatological expression of partial or total hair loss. Trichotillomania has been thought rare for many years, but recently it has been speculated that it is far more common than previously believed. The number of patients is increasing daily. In 1987, a new definition was proposed in the United States, and trichotillomania is now considered to be distinct from mere hair pulling behavior. Worldwide, a debate about the conditions and cures for trichotillomania continues, specifically debates based on the definition adopted in the United States. The author reviews the latest Japanese reports on trichotillomania, comparing key literature from abroad.
Trichotillomania ; Japanese language ; Recent ; United States ; Hair

From ancient times, the crude drug rhubarb (Da-huang in Chinese, Daio in Japanese) has been processed using liquor in various ways in China. There are mainly three ways of processing it ; liquor-soaking, liquor-dipping and liquor-frying. Today, the liquor-fried rhubarb, appropriately named ‘liquor rhubarb’, is widely used. But it is not clear why use of the rhubarb processed with liquor began. Thus, we researched ancient literature published after the Jin and Yuan dynasties, when medical treatment was done based on the theories. We found that the ‘liquor-soaked rhubarb’ was used as a depurative, while the ‘liquor-dipped rhubarb’ was used as a purgative or a digestive. ‘Liquor-fried rhubarb’ use began after the Ming dynasty, and its medicinal effect was expected to be the same as the two processed rhubarbs of earlier periods.
distilled alcoholic beverage ; Rhubarb ; Today ; dalton ; Japanese language

We investigated the clinical efficacy of concomitant Kampo treatments, expected to have immediate effect in improving outcomes with western drug therapies for Japanese cedar pollinosis. Twenty cases using shoseiryuto, considered a first-line drug for allergic rhinitis, were studied. The resultant efficacy rate was 45%. The efficacy rate for 24 cases using eppikajutsuto, by contrast, was 64%. The latter cases demonstrated far better therapeutic result than the former. In 7 cases using maoto + eppikajutsuto (as simplified daiseiryuto), another prescription we often use for serious illness, the resultant efficacy rate was 72%. Of these, the most favorable effect resulted in 16 cases using shoseiryuto + gokoto, which resulted in an efficacy rate of 87%. We had originally developed this prescription in order to improve the effectiveness of mao and sekko as anti-inflammatories. There were no cases where patients needed to be dosed with an oral steroid. The only notable event was one patient who complained of stomachache as an adverse drug reaction. In conclusion, we can say that the overall therapeutic outcome with 11 different Kampo medicines was extremely satisfactory: an efficacy rate of 83%. These marked improvements in clinical efficacy were made by using Kampo medicines together with a western drug used for the treatment of Japanese cedar pollinosis.
Medicine, Kampo ; Japanese language ; Clinical ; Therapeutic procedure ; Western Herbs and Botanicals