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.

We have been utilized acupuncture and moxibustion in our department of internal medicine at Meiji University of Integrative Medicine since its investment in 1987. In the department, various kinds of symptoms in the field of internal medicine have been managed with acupuncture and moxibustion. In this article, I would like to introduce our activities regarding acupuncture treatment in the department of internal medicine and some remarkable results of our clinical studies which evaluated effects of acupuncture and moxibustion as well as relationship between acupuncture therapists and the staff of our department. In the field of respiratory disorders such as COPD or bronchial asthma, usefulness of acupuncture have been proved through a controlled clinical trial which involved COPD patients who had not been able to control with standard care. Also, acupuncture was found to be useful in the management of bronchial asthma in a case series study in which acupuncture treatment was repeatedly applied with intervals without acupuncture. We have also demonstrated that acupuncture was useful for gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Results of a case series with n-of-1 study design showed significant reduction in the symptoms during acupuncture treatment, while those in the period without acupuncture had been aggravated. Data from studies on diabetic complications such as peripheral neuropathy or gastropathy also showed usefulness of acupuncture. We considered that it is valuable to explore unknown usefulness of acupuncture in the field of internal medicine and prove effectiveness of acupuncture with appropriate scientific manner.

Purpose: Upon very specific diagnosis facial pain can be classified into idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia, secondary trigeminal neuralgia, neuralgia of the glossopharyngeal nerve, superior pharyngeal neuralgia, knee area neualgia and indeterminate facial pain.
In the future it will be necessary to determinate to what degree the acupuncture-moxibustion therapy is effective in treating these cases, and also when nerve block therapy is indicated and should be applied.
In the literature of the acupuncture-moxibustion trigeminal neuralgia is found among such diseases, for which A-M therapy is indicated, however the degree of effectiveness is unclear. Therefore we intend to clarify just how effective can be the acupuncture-moxibustion therapy in the pain clinic treatment of definitely diagnosed idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia.
Method: Among the facial pain patients, who visited the Pain Clinic, the Dep. of Anesthesiology, Osaka Medical University, we selected idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia patients, in whom the pain occured along the branch of the nerve, and indeterminate trigeminal neuralgia patients, in whom the pain occured diffusely and not necessarily along the path of the nerve, and we performed a comparison of effect of treatments with principally accupuncture and with principally nerve block.
The study was based on a questionnaire investigating long term results.
Results: Concerning facial pain, the results of the acupuncture-moxibustion therapy for idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia showed fewer cases of excellent or effective results than the nerve block therapy, but in fact most results of the former showed some effect. However, for indeterminate type trigeminal neuralgia more excellent results were observed with acupuncture therapy.
Of facial pain the acupuncture-moxibustion therapy is indicated for the treatment of indeterminate type of trigeminal neuralgia, however, it was learned that in general for the treatment of idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia the acupuncture-moxibustion therapy was less effective than the nerve block therapy.