Author(s)

Kenji Kawakita^1*, Yong-Suk Kim², Nobuo Yamaguchi³, Xiao-Pin Lin⁴, Matsuo Arai⁴, Naomi Takazawa⁴, Shan-Yu Su⁵

¹Department of Physiology, Meiji University of Integrative Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
²Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion, (Brain & Neurological Disorders and Pain), Kangnam Korean Hospital, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.
³Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa, Japan.
⁴Ishikawa Natural Medicinal Products Research Center, Kanazawa, Japan.
⁵School of Post-Baccalaureate Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung City.

Acupuncture therapy had established in China and it distributed among Asian countries and developed in each country as traditional medicine. In this project we compared the procedures and effects of traditional acupuncture therapies in China, Korea and Japan by using 10 healthy young male volunteers with written informed consent. Total white cell counts, leukocyte subsets and noradrenalin contents were used as outcomes. Three well trained traditional acupuncture therapists were chosen and they treated the same subjects at random order with intervals of at least two months. Each acupuncturist made his diagnosis and points selection for potentiate vital conditions. Clearly different procedures and point selections were used among three traditional acupuncture therapies on the same subject and the obtained changes of outcome measures also differed. Although variations of data were quite large, these results clearly demonstrated that acupuncture therapies have developed among three countries in unique manner.

Acupuncture, Total Leukocyte, Leukocyte Subset, Emotional Hormone, QOL, Comparison Among Chinese, Korean and Japanese Traditional Acupuncture

Kawakita, K. , Kim, Y. , Yamaguchi, N. , Lin, X. , Arai, M. , Takazawa, N. and Su, S. (2015) Multiple Comparisons of Traditional Acupuncture Therapies of Japan, Korea and China—A Preliminary Report of Three Countries’ Acupuncture (TCA) Project. Open Journal of Immunology, 5, 79-89. doi: 10.4236/oji.2015.53009.