Complementary medicine aimed at improving patients’ QOL by complementing modern medicine has recently become the focus of attention. These alternative supplements or functional foods are commonly biologically based. Contained within food itself, these specialized components serve a tertiary function regarding biological regulation and defense. Further, in vivo mechanisms are considered to be closely linked to mucosal immunity of the intestine. As the mechanism of innate immunity is further elucidated, the significant role of certain food components in relation to mucosal immunity of the intestine has become a focus of interest.
In this paper, I would like to describe the experimental and clinical applications of complementary medicine in cases of chronic and/or intractable inflammatory bowel disease.

In 2010, we at Konan Kosei Hospital introduced a menu with 8 days set as a cycle for inpatients undergoing chemotherapy. We have thus far used it for 258 patients. Over the 6-month period extending from October 2011 and March 2012, we performed a questionnaire survey on 23 patients (8 with lung cancer, 5 with acute myeloid leukemia and 3 with lymphoma) about their meals. On the basis of the findings, we have made a number of improvements in the menu.　　To the question of ease with which to eat, 96% of patients responded the meals were “easy to eat.” When it came to the volume of meals, 29% replied that breakfast was “small,” whereas 83% said lunch and dinner were “just right.” Cold chawan-mushi (custard-like egg and vegetable dish steamed in a cup) was difficult to eat for 7 patients, whereas there were indications that fish meals were also hard to eat.　　Based on this survey, we have increased the volume of breakfast, and replaced cold chawan- mushi with hot chawan-mushi. Furthermore, in order to reduce the smell peculiar to fish, we substituted kaba-yaki (spitchcocks) and ankake (food dressed with a thick, starchy sauce) fish- cooking styles for nitsuke (fish boiled and seasoned with sugar and soy sauce) and mushizakana (steamed fish) styles. Further surveys are necessary to produce a menu suitable for as many patients undergoing chemotherapy as possible.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan is planning a pooling system for multiple-choice questions (MCQs) for the national examination for medical practitioners. To clarify possible problems of such a system, a field study was performed by 10 medical schools in Japan using 90 MCQs from previous examinations. Nine hundred twenty-four 6th-year students participated in the field test. For each MCQ, the correct-response rates at the originating school and those obtained in the field test were significantly correlated. Thus, the correct-response rates to questions on the field test could be predicted from the rates at the originating schools. However, for each question the correct-response rate was significantly higher for students of the originating school than for students of other schools. In the national examination, care should be taken to prevent differences in scores on the basis of question sources.