Chronobiological Approach to Acupuncture Medicine / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

We have taken up biorthythm as an important theory which links Oriental medicine to Western medicine, and analyzed it in an attempt to clarify the uniqueness and undiscovered potential of acupuncture, particularly through the framework of what we call “chronotherapy.”<br>Method:<br>Fifteen dogs were used as experimental animals. Secreted amounts of serum hormones (ACTH, cortisol, prolactin, etc.) were measured every three hours for one whole day (24 hours) and circadian rhythms were analysed. Serum cortisol was then treated as an index of adrenal cortical function, and acupuncture anesthesia was performed during the time zones of hyper- and hyposecretory phases which were determined by periodic regression and harmonic analysis. Correlationships between the susceptibility of acupuncture stimulation and secretory pattern of serum hormones in each time zone were studied.<br>Results:<br>1) Cortisol showed a double-peak secretory pattern, having morning and midnight peaks. ACTH, which exhibited a highly pulsatile secretion at noon, showed a sloping trend thereafter. A consistent pattern of prolactin was recognized in a sleeping phase, although it showed a secretory progress after midnight.<br>2) Electro-acupuncture performed during the time zones where adrenal cortical functions were active and indolent respectively revealed that the adrenal cortical function was activated by an acupuncture stimulation given during the time zone with lowered adrenal cortical function (lower secretory phase) and that the secretory amount was increased. As a result, the validity of clinical theories on “appropriate time, ” “malfunction of biorhythm, ” “weak and strong sitimulations based on the times of organs (entrails), ” etc. which had been emphasized from olden times was confirmed within the scope of animal experiments. It is therefore conceivable that the results currently obtained indicate the uniqueness of acupuncture, whose basic principle is activation of in vivo feedback systems, and usefulness of acupuncture as chronotherapy.