In this day and age with the complicated, rapidly changing society and living environment there has been a tendency for the number of half-healthy persons, that is those with a syndrome of indefinite symptoms, to increase. This is not a serious syndrome but for the sufferer there is a desperate search for a cure for his pain, thus jogging, calesthenics and other various forms of excercise therapy, brown rice, vegetable and other diet therapies and finally various types of “point” therapies using acupoints and meridians, the roots of acupuncture-moxibustion therapy are becoming popular.
Considering acupuncture-moxibustion therapy as a therapeutic measure and approach which contributes to the primary prevention of diseases we examined by questionaire just how much of a role it plays.
In addition, I examined acupuncture-moxibustion therapeutic results for this indefinite complaint syndrome using as a basis the results obtained at Osaka Medical College Anesthesioology Dept. Pain Clinic.
Two points were selected as subjects of examination:
1. Normally experienced indefinite symptoms (shoulder stiffness, insomnia, headache, eye fatigue, menstrual disorder).
2. Health methods used to combat these indefinite symptoms
Using the results of the above investigation I will examine the position of acupuncture-moxibustion therapy in preventative medicine especially as a primary preventative.

In order to investigate the meridian phenomenon elicited by the stimulation on auricular acupuncture point, a patient, 58-year old, in whom marked meridian phenomena are observed on the body was selected as a subject.
The stimuli were ginen by means of a low frequency electrical stick method on the 210 auricular-points of the left ear.
The echo sensation to the remote district from the auriculo-points stimulated was observed in about 30% of the total points.
In 4.3%, the site to which echo sensation reached corresponded to the response organ that is expresed in the name of point. A point named “anesthetic point for tooth extraction” was one of the representatives.
The comfortable feeling over head, eyes, and whole body was also observed when stimulation was given to these points.

The direction of echo sensation of each acupoint was examined on the patients who showed obvious meridian phenomenon.
The heart meridian and large intestine meridian were chosen. Echo sensation propagating both directions, i. e. afferently and efferently, was seen most often, then afferently only and efferent only followed.
The direction of echo sensation did not neccesarilycoincide with that of meridian stream.

Acupuncture treatment was undertaken for 153 cases with dysurea after radical operation for carcinama of uterine cervix. Eighty-four percent of the patients were forties, fifties or sixties. Seventy percent of them underwent acupuncture treatment within two weeks after the operation. The treatment consisted of one or combination of the following methods: direct current acupuncture, in situ acupuncture, low-frequency electro-acupuncture and SSP. Acupoints considered to facilitate metabolism in the pelvic cavity and to be related to diurea were selected. The treatment group (fifty cases) had 19.7 days on which average residual urine was less than 50ml, whereas the control group 24.6 days. “Remarkable effect” and “effect” were obtained with SSP in seventy-seven percent of the cases, and with low-frequency electro-acupuncture in seventy-three percent. With the latter, “no effect” was obtained in only two percent of the cases. SSP therapy was effective and gained patients' favor because it gave no anxiety.

We have been studying the optimal condition of low-frequency electro-acupuncture. In the present paper, clinical effect of music-rhythm low-frequency electro-acupuncture on shoulder stiffness was evaluated. In this therapy, musical rhythms was directly converted to pulse waves.
Subjects were fifty patients with chronic shoulder stiffness who visited the anesthesical department of Osaka Medical College and assented to be a subject of this experiment. Each patient underwent the following three methods in random order: conventional 3Hz continuous-wave low-frequency electro-acupuncture (C method), music-rhythm low-frequency electro-acupuncture without music sound (S method), music-rhythm low-frequency electro-acupuncture with music sound (M method). The acupoints such as “Tianzhu” and “Jianjing”, which were reported by the Acupoint Committee of Japan Acupuncturists' Association as frequently used ones, were selected as basic points. Music-rhythm low-frequency electro-acupuncture was carried out using a special signal discriminating apparatus which output alternating square waves (1-100Hz) sychronizing with a music tape. Electrical stimulation was given for 15 minutes. The music was from an album of Japanese popular songs called Enka. No. 20 needles of 30mm in length were used. The effect of each method was evaluated by the patient immediately after the treatment using a numerical scale. The numerical evaluation was classed into four grades (“remarkably effective”, “effective”, “slightly effective”, “not effective”), and “Remarkably effective” and “effective” cases were counted as effective ones. Comfortableness was rated using a visual analog scale with 11 grade {-5 (discomfort): 0: +5 (comfort)}.
As to the immediate effect, “effective” was seen in 60% cases of C method (30/50), 58% of S method (29/50) and 76% of M method (38/50). M method showed 20% higher effectiveness than C and S method. This was statistically significant. Averaged comfortableness was 2.1 in C method, 1.9 in S method and 2.7 in M method.
We demonstrated the effectiveness of music-rhythm low-frequency electro-acupuncture on shoulder stiffness. To give music sound simaltaneously is necessary to get better physical and psychological results.

Acupuncture anesthesia is not often used in dental practices because its efficacy depends on various conditions. However, pain-relieving methods, which use no medication, are necessary for those rare patients who are hypersensitive to local anesthetics or for whom local anesthetics are difficult to use because of diseases of the internal organs of the nervous system. In a patient hypersensitive to local anesthetics, we recently attempted to relieve the pain during extraction of an impacted lower third molar by applying acupuncture anesthesia, after relaxing the patient both physically and mentally with acupoint stimulation. By these methods, pain control for this patient was successful during and after surgery, without medication.

[Objective]To survey the current situation of infection control in clinical practice of acupuncture and to discuss the problems and strategy.
[Methods]The subjects were 1,000 acupuncture clinics enrolled in iTownPage in the Chubu region. The questionnaire was sent to them by mail in November 2008. The questions were the following; 1) Profile of respondent, 2) Hand hygiene, 3) Preparation of needling sites, 4) Sterilization and storage of needles and equipment and disposable products, 5) Disposable needle, 6) Hand-pressing (Oshi-de), 7) Infectious waste, 8) Awareness, efforts and self-evaluation of practitioner for infection control, and 9) Comments of this survey.
[Results]The collection rate was 22.2%. Washing time for less than 30 sec was 31.1%, Usage rate of a cloth towel was 67.7%, Hand antisepsis by the basin method was 18.9%, Usage rate of 50 %isopropyl alcohol was 19.8%, etc. 26.6%of all respondents answered that the possibility of infection in acupuncture and moxibustion therapy was very low and 50.9%of those responded that it was low. However, only 27.0%of the responders answered that infection control in their own clinics was appropriate. In addition, 72.5%of the responders belonged to the Japan Acupuncture and Moxibustion Association (JAMA) or the Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (JSAM).
[Conclusion]Although some infection controls have been improved, many problems became clear. These problems are suggested to be caused by poor acknowledge, previous experience and wishful thinking of practitioners. It is necessary to continue activities to raise practitioner's awareness for infection control.