The Japan Society for Oriental Medicine, and The Korean Oriental Medical Society, organizations representing traditional medicine in both countries, concluded a convention of scientific exchange and held a formal signing ceremony on March 29, 2009. Taking this opportunity, the presidents of both societies gave commemorative lectures on behalf of their organizations.
1) Korean president Kim spoke of an original medical tradition differing from that in China, having existed before the time of Christ. He raised yomogi and garlic as examples of herbs not described in Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica. He told how traditional medicine exchange was already active between China, Korea and Japan, during China's Three Kingdoms period, and how after the Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine was published, traditional Korean medicine took root with the common people, and the concept of Four Constitution Medicine was created. Kim then spoke of how western medicine was introduced in 1876, and how a dual medical system has since developed in his country.
2) President Ishino told of how Kampo medicine originated from China, and how in particular, it was Japanized during the Edo period. He spoke of how its characteristic feature is a focus on “practice” rather than “theory”, which eliminates idealism, places more emphasis on positivism, and has led to the development of fukushin, or abdominal diagnosis. He explained the history of Kampo medicine in great detail, and spoke of how after the medical system was reformed in the Meiji era, Japanese medicine became western based. He then explained how after entering the Showa era, Kampo medicine was revived, and is now well-established and integrated with western medicine.

Kampo formulae are selected according to a patient's symptoms. In certain cases the decoctions are modified with additional herbs to provide a suitable treatment. Knowledge of herbs and formulae used clinically in Kampo medicine is essential; however there is a lack of knowledge on how extensively certain herbs are applied. We have analyzed our Kampo outpatient clinic prescriptions for September 2004. The 20 most frequently applied formulae accounted for 60% of all prescriptions. Also, we analyzed our patients' medical backgrounds in relation to the most frequently used 20 prescriptions in September 2004, and the distribution of our patients for each prescription. The distribution of patients for each prescription differed significantly from the distribution of all patients. As a last point, we looked at which herbs were most frequently added to prescriptions. The most frequently added herb was Astragali Radix, followed by Coicis Semen and Aconiti Tuber. We consider this to be significant information for Kampo physicians and pharmacists.
Medicine, Kampo ; seconds ; Distributing ; Clinic ; Analysis

Medicine, Kampo ; Century ; Road ; Maps

We report 2 patients with Graves' disease and psychological disorders. In these patients, treatment did not relieve psychological disorders despite normalization of thyroid function, but kampo therapy was effective. Patient 1 was a 24-year-old female. In 2000, she was diagnosed as having Graves' disease. Treatment with an antithyroid drug normalized thyroid function, but did not relieve psychological disorders such as irritation, anxiety, or despair. In February 2005, the patient consulted our hospital. Patient 2 was a 26-year-old female. After graduating from a high school, she developed Graves' disease. Treatment with an antithyroid drug was started. However, thyroid function was unstable ; mild hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism repeatedly occurred. During this period, irritation, fatigue, malaise, and alopecia deteriorated, and she consulted our hospital in January 2005. In the two patients, keishikanzoryukotsuboreitogohangekobokuto was prescribed (the regimen was changed during follow-up in Patient 1), and their conditions markedly subsided after 16 and 9 weeks of administration, respectively, suggesting the usefulness of kampo therapy in the treatment of Graves' disease associated with psychological disorders.
Therapeutic procedure ; Graves' Disease ; seconds ; Patients ; Mental disorders

Swelling and pain appear when blood flow is delayed in states of “oketsu.” Until now “oketsu” as a circulatory disturbance has been studied from profiles of vascular resistance characteristics and blood fluidity. Blood fluidity is influenced by blood cell function, plasma ingredients and reactive oxygen. In this study, we administered the various Chinese herbal medicines, tokishakuyakusan, saikokaryukotsuboreito, tokakujokito, keishibukuryogan and juzentaihoto to determine the effect of these medicines on “oketsu” by observing reactive oxygen dynamics and blood fluidity in rats.SPF male Wistar rats weighing 200 g were used. Each experimental group was given feed containing 3% extract of one Chinese herbal medicine for1week. Blood samples were mixed with heparin, EDTA-2K or sodium citrate to block coagulation. Blood fluidity was measured with a Micro Channel Array Flow Analyzer (MC-FAN). A PA-20 examined platelet aggregation by the reaction to ADP, which activates platelet aggregation. Reactive oxygen dynamics were measured with a Free Radical Elective Evaluator (FREE).As a result, anti-oxidative ability and blood fluidity increased in all Chinese herbal medicine-administered groups. Furthermore, an inverse correlation between the fluidity of erythrocyte suspensions and anti-oxidative ability was shown. We speculate that an anti-oxidative influence of Chinese herbal medicines affected erythroid deformability or stickiness. In addition, tokishakuyakusan, tokakujokito and keishibukuryogan decreased platelet aggregation ability.This study shows that “oketsu” improves blood properties and suggests that Chinese herbal medicine improves decrease in blood fluidity, the causes of conditions such as thrombosis or embolism.

Recently, the number of physicians using Kampo (Japanese traditional herbal) medicines has been increasing in Japan, and it is becoming more common for pharmacists to dispense Kampo medicines. As Kampo medicines become more popular, in addition to extract formulae, the use of decocting formulae that are more suited to each patient's predisposition and symptoms has increased. Therefore, more pharmacists are dispensing such decocting formulae. However, dispensing decocting formulae can be a complicated task. The risk of dispensing errors is not small. In present paper, we examined preventive measures based on investigations of errors involving decocting formulae in our Kampo clinic. From 1990 to 1999, there were 54 cases in which errors were found after patients received their medicines, and 44 of these cases were dispensing errors. To prevent such errors, in addition to having the knowledge of Kampo medicine and medicinal herbs that is needed for dispensing decocting formulae, it is also necessary to understand the contents of the prescription. The most important preventive measures are to re-inspect the weight and contents of the prescription after preparing it, and to do a final inspection of the medicine contents with the patient. It is expected that this report will play a role in preventing dispensing errors of Kampo medicines by pharmacists.