The Power of Moxibustion / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

At the symposium, "The Power of Moxibustion", four panelists discussed the mechanism, clinical effectiveness, and current conception of moxibustion in Japan with an aim to explore the potential role of moxibustion in the future. <BR>Mika Ohta noted that a bioinformatics approach could select basic research for the effectiveness of moxibustion. She also reported an example result of bioinformatic analysis focusing on the "heat"which can be produced by moxibustion and it can predict the mechanism of moxibustion. <BR>Keiko Tsujiuchi, an acupuncture and moxibustion practitioner, has been promoting moxibustion since 1980s.She has engaged in clinical research on obstetrics and reported a variety of favorable outcomes from using moxibustion in that field. <BR>Motoko Otsuka presented Ehime's cultural inheritance of moxibustion as a "healing tradition."She reported cases in which the patients received important interventions from moxibustion for their life, measured by chronological analysis, by introducing clinical practice including acupuncture and moxibustion treatment in the Acupuncture and Moxibustion Care Unit, East Asian Traditional Medicine, Ehime Prefectural Central Hospital, and instruction in self-moxibustion at the Perinatal Medical Center for mother and child health. <BR>Sachiko Y. Itaya, from the United States, reported activities and results of Moxafrica, which is using direct Moxibustion as an adjunctive treatment for tuberculosis in South Africa and Uganda. She emphasized that the role of moxibustion could be expanded much further as shown by the achievements of Moxafrica.

Analysis of stress proteins ioduced by acupuncture stimulation / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

We show here that stress proteins (Mr 70K, 85K and 100K) were induced by both electroacupuncture and moxibustion.<br>Rats (Wister strain, male, 250g) were cauterized with moxa on the hip, and the subcutaneous and intramuscular temperatures of the hip were kept at 45°C and at 39-40°C for 15 minutes. While, another group of rats were electrically stimulated for 15min inserting acupuncture needles as electrodes into the muscle of the hips in the depth of 1cm and using current pulse acupuncture system (5Hz, 3-5mA). Both groups of rats were sacrificed under deep anesthesia and the muscular tissues were excised 3 hours after the stimulations. The proteins extracted from the homogenized and centrifuged tissues in the two groups of rats and control rats were analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoreses. The heat shock proteins with molecular weight of 70000 (Mr 70K, hsp 70), 85000 (Mr 85K, hsp 85) and 100000 (Mr 100K, hsp 100) were detected in the rats stimulated by moxibustion. The stress proteins of molecular mass 70000, 85000 and 100000 similar to hsps induced by moxibustion were found in the rats stimulated by electroacupuncture.