Prospects for Acupuncture Treatment for Chronic Pain / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

In 2021, the Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) for the Management of Chronic Pain was published, and included a section on acupuncture treatment for integrated medicine and chronic headaches. The purpose of this symposium was to discuss the current understanding of the evidence for acupuncture treatment for chronic pain and the expansion of guidelines. As a working group member of the CPG, Dr. Namba Toshimune introduced the process of including acupuncture in the CPG and discussed not only each field of specialty but also the outlook for developing unique CPG for acupuncture. Dr. Kubo presented the status of basic research on acupuncture treatment for pain in recent years, introduced about the effects of acupuncture stimulation on adenosine, orexin, and oxytocin in mice and rats, as well as the specific reactions of acupuncture points to acupuncture stimulation, and emphasized the importance of basic research to establish the effectiveness of acupuncture for chronic pain. Dr. Udo Yukihiro provided a detailed review of clinical research on acupuncture treatment for chronic pain, reporting on the current status of acupuncture treatment methods, stimulation sites, and stimulation methods. Minakawa described the current situation where systematic education for acupuncturists has not been sufficiently implemented and discussed their own acupuncture treatments for patients with chronic pain. We hope that the contents of this symposium will be helpful in clinical practice, research, and education.

Study Report on Mongolian Traditional Medicine / 日本東洋医学雑誌

History of Mongolian medicine could be traced back to 2000 years ago. Mongolian traditional medicine has been built over many years. We traveled Mongolia to visit a hospital and a private clinic where traditional Mongolian medicine is in practice, and visited National University of Medical Sciences. In this paper, we report the current status of traditional medicine in Mongolia. We visited Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences and conversed with the president, vicepresident, and director of the traditional medical department. We visited a clinic where Mongolian traditional medicine is performed and a hospital where mainly traditional therapies and practical development are carried out. In the hospital, they mainly provide acupuncture and moxibustion treatment, cupping therapy, herbal therapy, and thermotherapy. It cannot be denied that moxibustion treatment came from Mongolia, because it is also said that ‘the north' in “Huangdi Neijing Suwen” chapter 12 means Mongolia. However, as there is a background once traditional medicine has been kept away from the national health care system, it is difficult to find a specific medical practice for Mongolian medicine as far as we have viewed the present status of medical practice in Mongolia. Considering that the cultural exchange with Japan is being carried out in many other fields, we expect that a number of new facts will come to light in the near future.