What is acupuncture and moxibustion medicine?
The World Federation of Acupuncture-Moxibustion Societies
WFAS Houston 2014 Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine Conference
Japan Tokyo
Seino Acupuncture and Orthopedics Clinic Director of the clinic
Meiji Acupuncture and Moxibustion University a visiting professor
Juntendo University Medical Department a research student
Mitsunori Seino
【Introduction】
In 2007, WHO set out definitions of traditional medicine, Chinese medicine, Oriental medicine, traditional Japanese medicine (kampo), Korean medicine, and others, but did not discuss the meanings of the term ‘medicine’ itself. No definition has yet been given for acupuncture and moxibustion medicine. I would like to consider what acupuncture and moxibustion medicine actually is.
【Main Text】
In China, acupuncture and moxibustion therapy had been passed down as traditional medical arts; however, this lore had been transmitted only in terms of developing arbitrary theories of yin-yang and the five elements, and thus the analytical methods employed up to Qing dynasty can scarcely be described as ‘medicine’. Today, the analytical methods that comprise the core of medicine are based on modern medicine. Acupuncture and moxibustion medicine should be regarded as the academic discipline involving the accumulated results of analyses and the studies of the physical phenomena that occur as a result of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy, on the basis of the methodologies employed in modern medicine.
【Discussion】
The traditional medical care in Asia is based on the concepts that the ‘mind’ (heart/spirit) governs the ‘body’, and that disorders initially arise in the kokoro, resulting of disease in the body.
【Conclusion】
Acupuncture and moxibustion therapy is medical care that aims to correct imbalances between the ‘mind’ and ‘body’. ‘Acupuncture and moxibustion medicine can be regarded as the academic discipline of providing a scientific underpinning for the empirical medicine of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy using the analytical methods of modern medicine’.