To evaluate the effects of acupuncture on the immune system, the leukocyte, monocytes, lymphocyte and lymphocyte surface markers, CD2, CD4, CD8, CD11b, CD16, CD19 and CD56 in the peripheral blood of seventeen healthy volunteers were counted. The leukocyte above CD⁺ cell counts significantly increased after acupuncture. The results indicate that acupuncture may regulate the immune system and can increase the activity of cellular and humoral immunity and NK cell.
According to the percentage of lymphocytes or granulocytes, volunteers were divided into two types, those with more than 70% of granulocyte were recognized as G type and those with more than 40% of lymphocyte were divided into L type. Interestingly, before and after the treatment of acupuncture, the number of granulocytes and lymphocytes had a negative relationships. Namely we found an increase in the lymphocytes as well as a decrease in the granulocytes in the G type. On the other hand in the L type, we found an increase in the granulocytes and a decrease in the lymphocytes. Therefore we suggest that acupuncture can enhance the activity that maintains the balance of the immune function.

We have simultaneously proved that cell populations taking charge of immunity in human peripheral blood can be regulated quantitatively by acupuncture. Now we investigated the effect of acupuncture qualitatively on cytokine production by lymphocyte cells in human peripheral blood.
The number of IL-1β, IL-4 and IFN-γ containing cells, which are closely associated with macrophage, humoral immunity and cellular immunity respectively, were measured by FACScan. We found a significant increase in IFN-γ containing cells after acupuncture. According to this result together with previous results, the enhancement of CD4⁺ and CD56⁺ cell counts, the treatment of acupuncture can promote the activity of cellular immunity as well as NK cell.

The purpose of this study was to examine how pharmacists can help patients and consumers to obtain appropriate drug information online. We clarified what kind of information about medicines patients and consumers were seeking online. “Yahoo! Chiebukuro”, the largest knowledge sharing community in Japan, was surveyed. We extracted questions related to drugs and healthcare posted in the period of August 1-7, 2017. The survey period was from January to April 2019. Questions that could not be answered by the pharmacist’s clinical judgment were excluded. The content of the extracted questions was analyzed.The extracted 283 posts included 345 questions. Questions related to prescribed drugs comprised 69.0% of questions and questions related to over-the-counter drugs comprised 17.2% of questions. Overall, 69.9% of the questions required expert judgment to be answered properly, although 80% of questions were posted within the pharmacy opening hours. The breakdown of 180 questions on prescribed drugs included 48 (26.7%) questions on drugs that affect the nervous system and sensory organs, 28 (15.6%) questions on drugs against pathogenic microorganisms, and 27 (15.0%) questions on analgesic/anti-inflammatory/allergic drugs. With regard to annual turnover, it was revealed that an estimated 15,000 medical and health care consultations were made online. A pharmacist should give instructions for taking prescribed drugs based on the assumption that patients and consumers will search for information on the internet.