[Objective]To motivate acupuncture school teachers to introduce higher-quality methodology in clinical acupuncture research.
[Methods]Twenty-eight teachers from 18 acupuncture schools participated in the simulated randomized, subject and evaluator-blinded, and sham-controlled trial of acupuncture for low back pain. Twenty of them played a role as subjects, four of them were raters, and another four were therapists. Before and after conducting the trial, all the participants were asked several questions using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) regarding necessity of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) in acupuncture and their level of understanding of several terms related to a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT),
[Results]After the simulated RCT, the understanding level of all terms related to RCT increased significantly ("RCT":from 58.0 ± 27.2 to 75.5 ± 25.7, "informed consent":from 88.1 ± 15.4 to 99.2 ± 10, "recruitment":from 43.0 ± 41.0 to 74.8 ± 31.3, "random allocation":from 55.5 ± 35.0 to 78.7 ± 25.8, "masking":from 54.7 ± 35.0 to 79.0 ± 26.0) (mean ±SD). Nineteen teachers answered that they would try to conduct RCT and introduce it to their education program.
[Conclusion]The results suggest that the practice of simulated RCT is effective in understanding RCT and motivating acupuncture teachers to introduce it to their education program.

Moderate to vigorous physical activity is associated with improving insulin resistance in overweight and obese adults. However, effect of light physical activity on insulin resistance remains to be fully elucidated. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of light physical activity on insulin resistance in overweight and obese men. Thirty-seven overweight and obese middle-aged men (28.9 ± 1.8 kg/m², 51.0 ± 8.8 years) participated in this study. They took part in the lifestyle intervention (calorie restricted diet and exercise) for 12 weeks. Anthropometric parameters, fasting glucose, HbA1c, fasting insulin, and HOMA-IR were assessed at baseline and post intervention. Physical activity was objectively measured using a triaxial accelerometer at baseline and during intervention. Light physical activity (+17.7 min/day) and moderate-vigorous physical activity (+33.2 min/day) increased significantly, while body weight (-12.4 kg), fasting glucose (-9.5 mg/ml), fasting insulin (-4.2 μU/ml), and HOMA-IR (-1.1) decreased significantly. The change in light physical activity from baseline to during intervention were inversely related to change in fasting insulin (r = 0.18, P = 0.02) and change in HOMA-IR (r = -0.16, P = 0.03), after adjustment for several confounders. These results suggest that an increase of light physical activity improves insulin resistance in overweight and obese men.

It has been reported that physical fitness of breast cancer patients is relatively lower due to the cancer treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy, or endocrine therapy. Previous studies have revealed that not only cardiorespiratory fitness but also muscle strength is lower among breast cancer patients than no disease women and these symptoms may aggravate the health-related quality of life. However, there is no study which has focused the physical fitness level in Japanese breast cancer survivors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the physical fitness level and the relationship between exercise habituation and physical fitness level in Japanese breast cancer survivors. Fifty breast cancer survivors participated in this study. Participants were assigned to either exercise habituation group (n=25) or non-exercise group (n=25). We evaluated exercise habituation using an original questionnaire and examined various physical fitness level. Body weight, body mass index, and percent body fat were significantly lower in the exercise habituation group than non-exercise group. T-score of cardiorespiratory fitness was significantly higher in the exercise habituation group than average Japanese women. These results suggested that exercise habituation is relative to body weight and cardiorespiratory fitness level in Japanese breast cancer survivors.