When I think pollinosis from a viewpoint of the Oriental medicine, I judged it is an abnormal symptom of the lungs system and the large intestine system.
So I burnt moxa on an effective spot, “Tsubo” of above mentioned systems of the pollinosis patients.
On this report, I want to report two other things. One of them is about the change of the symptoms of the patients against increase or decrease of flying pollens.
I examined ten Japan cedar pollinosis patients, whom I burnt moxa on each one spot selected from “Daitsui”, the lungs system and the large intestine system……on three spots. As a result, the symptoms of the patients have been steadied regardless of number of flying pollens. So I thought moxa cautery can control the symptom of pollinosis.
The other examination is about nasal congestion of the patients.
Nasal congestion of pollinosis patients is caused by expansion of a blood vessel. If the patient keeps the skin heat of the root of a nose lower, he can prevent expansion of a blood vessel.
This time I took this skin heat of the patients, and made an index from it. And the index I made showed that moxa cautery is effective for the cure of nasal congestion of the pollinosis patients, too.

From a viewpoint of the Oriental Medicine, I judged that pollinosis is an abnormal symptom of the lungs system and the large intestine system. So I burnt moxa on some effective spots “Tsubo” of above mentioned systems of the pollinosis patients. About the remedial value, I reported on my first report “MOXIBUSTION THERAPY FOR POLLINOSIS I”.
This time I compared and examined the symptoms of two patient-groups. One group consists of 9 moxibustion therapy patients, and the other consists of 5 medicinal therapy patients who took antiallergic.
A term of treatment was from February to March in 1990.
The effective spots “Tsubo” of moxibustion therapy patients on which I burnt moxa are three spots selected from “Daitsui” and the lungs system the large intestine system of right and left arms. Quantity of moxa is a half grain of rice size, and I burnt the quantity of moxa three times without a break on the same spot. I tried this treatment four times a week.
As the remedial value, the symptoms of moxibustion therapy patients as well as medicinal therapy patients didn't get worse and were steadied on the days when a large number of pollens flew.
When I continued to burn moxa, each symptom of the patient got better in the latter half of the term of treatment.
So I think moxa cautery for pollinosis patients was effective on controling the symptoms.

[Objective] Using a near infrared spectrometer and laser Doppler blood flowmeter, we investigated how the number of moxa applications influences blood flow at moxibustion and peripheral sites.
[Method] The subjects were nine healthy adult males, aged 25-28 years (average age 25.4). Skin blood flow was measured with a laser Doppler blood flowmeter while changes in the deep tissue (deep subcutaneous level and muscle surface course level) blood volume were measured with a near infrared spectroscopy. Each of the probes was located at the moxibustion treatment site and 20 mm away from the site.
On different days, measurements were taken from a control group not receiving stimulation, groups receiving five-cone and seven-cone moxibution (2 mg of moxa per application), respectively.
Measurements of the control group were taken for 25 minutes, while measurements for the other two groups were taken for 5 minutes before conducting moxibustion and for 20 minutes directly after completion of moxibustion.
[Results and Discussion] The skin blood flow demonstrated an further increased tendency after seven-cone moxibustion than five-cone moxibustion. This seemed to be due to the strong flare phenomenon affecting cutaneous blood flow quantity by increasing the number of moxibustion cones.
The effect of moxibustion on skin blood flow volume is suggested to be due to the strong flare phenomenon induced by increasing the number of moxibustion. The effect to the deep tissue indicated a tendency for the blood flow volume to decrease.
It is considered that further detailed experiment will be necessary in the future regarding these ambiguous points.

Studies on the effects of heating as well as the mineral components of hot spring water have been conducted to investigate the effects of balneotherapy. However, few studies have been conducted on the effects of hydrostatic pressure and buoyancy during water immersion. Therefore, we investigated the effect of water immersion up to the neck at thermoneutral temperature on hemostatic activity.
Nine healthy men aged 22 to 34 were immersed up to the neck in the standing position in thermoneutral water (34.0±0.5°C) for two hours. The heart rate decreased immediately after starting water immersion and remained low during the immersion. Hematocrit values (Ht) of the blood samples taken from the ante-cubital vein decreased by 3.4% in average. The decrease in Ht was more prominent in the blood samples taken from the earlobe (4.0%), suggesting that hemodilution due to fluid shift was stronger in the upper part of the body. The time until euglobulin clot lysis shortened immediately after starting the immersion. Although fibrinolytic activity was enhanced, the concentration of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) antigen in the blood decreased gradually during the immersion and tended to return to the original level 30 minutes after immersion. A larger decrease in the concentration of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) antigen in the blood was observed immediately after starting the immersion, and it remained low for 30 minutes after immersion. An increase in fibrinolytic activity due to the decrease in PAI-1, not in t-PA, was observed during water immersion at thermoneutral temperature and the activation of fibrinolytic system without activation of the coaguration system was also observed.

Poor circulation is considered to be a cause of stiff shoulders, but there have been no studies on deep hemodynamics and the subjective estimation/palpation of stiff shoulders. We evaluated the relationship between deep hemodynamics and the degree of the subjective estimation/palpation of stiff shoulders by near-infrared spectrophotometry.
The subjects were 146 patients who visited our center and 23 healthy volunteers. Deep hemodynamics (tissue oxygen saturation: StO₂, total hemoglobin concentration: total Hb) was measured in the scapular region of the bilateral shoulders using a deep hemodynamics measurement system (PSA-IIIN, Biomedical Science), and its relationship with the severity of the subjective estimation of stiff shoulders (5-grade rating) and that of palpation (4-grade rating) was evaluated. Deep hemodynamic values were affected by the body mass index (BMI) that is highly correlated with subcutaneous fat thickness. Therefore, analysis was performed in 70 patients and 8 healthy volunteers with BMI of 20-24 that does not affect hemodynamic values. Compared with the healthy volunteers, patients who reported marked shoulder stiffness showed a significant decrease in total Hb, and that who reported shoulder stiffness showed a significant decrease in StO₂. On the other hand, compared with the healthy volunteers, patients with marked shoulder stiffness observed by palpation showed significant decreases in both StO₂ and total Hb; the decreases were more marked with more marked stiffness. These results suggested that deep hemodynamics is a diagnostic parameter of stiff shoulders.

We investigated the difference between muscle-EAT and nerve-EAT basically and clinically. A basic study was performed on healthy adult males. The skin blood flow, deep-tissue temperature, deep hemodynamics, heart rate, and deep-pain threshold were adopted as indexes, and they were compared for a total of three groups: the muscle stimulation-EA group, nerve stimulation-EA group and control group (no stimulation). An acupuncture needle was inserted into the gastrocnemius muscle for muscle stimulation-EA and another needle into the tibial nerve in the femoral region for nerve stimulation-EA. Electric current was then applied at 1Hz for 15 minutes after the flexibility of the foot joint was conformed. Each index was measured after it became stable and was recorded from 10 minutes before starting stimulation until 20 minutes after ending stimulation.
A clinical study was performed on 41 patients with cervical radiculopathy. Muscle-EAT was applied to the patients as the first choice. Cases graded five points or less in pain score (10-point method) after one month were included in the muscle-EAT group. Cases graded six points or more were subjected to nerve-EAT and were included in the nerve-EAT group. The therapeutic results in these two groups were examined for a period of three months at intervals of one month based on the pain score and the evaluation criteria for the results of treatment of cervical radiculopathy.
As a result, we found that the skin blood flow significantly increased on the stimulated side in both the muscle stimulation-EA and nerve stimulation-EA group. The increase was greater in the nerve stimulation group than in the muscle stimulation group. The deep-tissue temperature rose significantly on the stimulated side in the nerve stimulation-EA group. Regarding the deep hemodynamics, deoxy Hb decreased significantly in the nerve stimulation-EA group. No difference was found in heart rate between the two groups. The deep-pain threshold was significantly raised by nerve stimulation.
Patients with cervical radiculopathy who did not respond to continuous muscle-EAT for one month were subjected to nerve-EAT. After three months (two months after changing to nerve-EAT), similar improvements were found in both groups. Significant improvement of paresthesia was obtained with nerve-EAT.
These results suggested that the nerve-EAT influences the peripheral circulation and the deep pain threshold more effectively, enhancing the clinical efficacy.

The effect of electroacupuncture (EA) stimulation on tissue circulation in the human ocular fundus (choroidal blood flow) was studied in 11 adult healthy volunteers (6 males and 5 females, age 31.5±5.7y) who had no physical or ocular disease. Using the laser speckle method, normalized blur (NB) values, a quantitative index for tissue blood flow, were measured over an area of choroid between the macula and the optic nerve papilla with no discrete visible vessel. The EA stimulation was applied between BL 10 and GB 20 and between GB 21 and SI 13 on the right side for 15 minutes at 1Hz with an intensity which cause slight muscle contraction. The NB value and intraocular pressure (IOP) in both side eyes, blood pressure (BP) and pulse rate (PR) were measured at baseline time, immediately after EA, and every 5 minutes after EA up to 15 minutes. These procedures were repeated on the same subjects as a control trial on another day. The NB value of choroid on the stimulated side significantly increased following EA stimulation compared with the control value, while that in the unstimulated side showed no significant change. No significant change was observed in BP, IOP or ocular perfusion pressure throughout the experimental period.

We evaluated the clinical effect of acupuncture treatment on 21 patients with Arteriosclerosis Obliterans (ASO). Severity of ASO was grade I in one case, II in 17 cases, III in two cases, and IV in one case (Fontaine classification). Mainly low-frequency electroacupuncture was applied to inpatients two to four times per week and to outpatients, once or twice a week. Effects on claudication distance (ICD), pain, coldness, and Ankle Brachial Pressure Index (ABPI) were assessed on inpatients by comparing the status before starting treatment with that before the acupuncture treatment at the 17th visit. We also assessed the thermograph and plasma calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) of the lower extremities.
Improved warmth, increased intermittent limping distance, and relief of pain during walking were observed in patients of grade I and II (Fontaine classification of severity). No improvement of symptoms was observed in patients of grade III and IV. No change in ABPI was observed in any patient. Surface temperatures in the peripheral extremities were significantly elevated from 15 minutes after insertion of the needles until 15 minutes after removal. A significant increase in plasma CGRP was observed immediately after the treatment.
These findings suggest that acupuncture treatment may be effective for some symptoms of grade I and II ASO and that improvement of peripheral circulation via vascular dilatation may be involved in the mechanism of action.

1) The historical development to date of the systems of medical education and medical licensure were reviewed, and the quantitative and qualitative evolution of medical schools was divided into 7 stages.2) In the early Meiji era, persons who had already practiced medicine could apply to receive a medical license. Until the Taisho era, medical licenses were granted either to graduates of medical universities and relevant special schools or to those who passed the national examination. Thus, the criteria for medical license were not uniform during this period.3) Before the end of World War II, medical schools aimed to improve the quality of medical education so that their graduates could receive medical licenses without taking the national examination and to raise their status to the level of universities. However, because the types of medical schools during this period varied and included imperial universities, colleges, and specialty schools, the quality of medical education also varied.4) After World War II, the introduction of the state examination for the license to practice medicine and a new university system standardized medical education to guarantee its quality.5) The quantitative expansion of the medical education occurred mainly in the 12 years after 1919, in the 7 years after 1939 and during the war, and in the 10 years after 1970, and, except for the years of violent change before 1887, the number of medical schools has otherwise remained stable.