“Focusing on Treating the Spirit(神)”in Acupuncture and Moxibustion:The Dialectical Unity of Regulating the Body and the Spirit

“Focusing on treating the spirit(神)”is an important principle in acupuncture and moxibustion.It is a unique psychosomatic therapy involving the doctor and the patient,which includes regulating the spirit and the body.Traditional Chinese medicine attaches great importance to it.Focusing on treating the spirit is also a component of the standards of medical ethics.Only when doctors have noble medical ethics can they achieve clinical treatment of the mind and give full play to their skills to cure diseases.Focusing on treating the spirit runs through the entire clinical process of acupuncture and moxibustion.Before the treatment,it is necessary to focus on the spirit to distinguish the spirit and qi.During the treatment,attention should be paid to the mind to regulate the spirit and qi.It is the premise of clinical diagnosis and treatment of acupuncture and moxibustion and the key to the curative effect.Focusing on treating the spirit is also in the realm of doctor-patient double treatment,which requires doctor-patient communication before treatment and the preservation of the body and spirit after treatment.Therefore,concentration of the mind is the key to acupuncture and moxibustion treatment.

"Scapular heat penetration"technique of acupuncture in treatment of scapulohumeral periarthritis:An exploratory research

Objective:To observe the clinical effect of"scapular heat penetration"technique of acupuncture in treatment of scapulohumeral periarthritis.Design:It was a single-central randomized controlled trial,the participants,outcome assessors and statisticians were blinded.Setting:The trial was undertaken in Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion,Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine,Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine,from June 2021 to January 2022.Participants:Sixty-seven patients with scalpulohumeral periarthritis were participated.Interventions:In the control group,the routine acupuncture was given,while in the trial group,the"scapular heat penetration"technique of acupuncture was adopted.The intervention was delivered once every two days,3 treatments a week;and one course included 9 treatments.Before the 1st treatment and after the 9th treatment,the symptoms and physical signs were observed and recorded in each group.Outcomes:Primary outcome:the score of visual analogy scale(VAS)before treatment and after treatment completion.Secondary outcomes:the range of movement(ROM)of shoulder joint,the score of Japanese Orthopaedic Association(JOA)of shoulder joint and the infrared thermal imaging temperature around the shoulder.Results:A total of 102 cases were collected,72 cases of them were eligible and 5 cases were withdrawn.Sixty-seven cases were included in analysis.In the within-group comparison,VAS score,ROM and JOA score as well as the shoulder temperature were all ameliorated after 9 treatments in either the trial group or the control group,compared with those before treatment(P<0.05).In the comparison between two groups,after 9 treatments,VAS score in the trial group was lower than that of the control group(P<0.05);and the improvements in ROM and shoulder temperature in the trial group were better than those of the control group(P<0.05).No adverse reactions were found in the two groups.Conclusion:Both the"scapular heat penetration"technique of acupuncture and the conventional acupuncture are effective on scapulohumeral periarthritis.But,regarding the improvements in pain,ROM of shoulder joint,the activity of daily life and shoulder temperature,the"scapular heat penetration"technique of acupuncture is superior to the conventional acupuncture.

The effect of sensation of transmission along meridian acupuncture for chronic nonbacterial prostatitis

Objective:To investigate the short-term efficacy difference between sensation of transmission along meridian acupuncture and non-sensation of transmission along meridian acupuncture in the treatment of chronic nonbacterial prostatitis.Methods:A randomized,controlled,and single-blind clinical study was performed to collect 63 patients with chronic nonbacterial prostatitis who met the inclusion criteria and were randomly assigned to a transmission sensation group(31 patients)and a non-transmission sensation group(32 patients).The two groups of patients took the same acupuncture points.When they were lying down on their backs,Guānyuán(关元 CV4),Zhōngjí(中极 CV3)and Dàhè(大赫 K112)were taken.When they were lying down on their stomachs,Shènshū(肾俞 BL 23),Cìliáo(次髎 BL32)and Huìyáng(会阳 BL35)were taken.Among them,the transmission sensation group was treated with transmission sensation along meridian to apply deep needling to the lower abdomen and lumbosacral acupuncture points with lifting,thrusting,and twirling method,so that the needling sensation was transmitted to the bladder,perineum and urethra.The non-transmission sensation group was treated with non-transmission sensation along meridian,and the acupuncture points were treated with conventional acupuncture until the patient felt soreness and distending etc.and the arrival of qi.Both groups of patients were treated with electro-acupuncture during acupuncture,and the sparse-dense wave(sparse wave 4 Hz,dense wave 20 Hz),and the needle retention continued for 20 min.All patients were treated for 3 times with once every other day,and the treatment lasted for one week.The CV4,CV3 and KI12 were used in the first and third treatments,and the BL23,BL32 and BL35 were used in the second treatment.The National Institute of Health chronic prostatitis syndrome index(NIH-CPSI)and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale(HAMA)were observed,and the clinical efficacies of the patient were observed.Results:After treatment,the NIH-CPSI scores(18.29±1.25,21.56±1.28)and HAMA scores(10.29±1.16,11.25±1.14)in the transmission sensation group and non-transmission sensation group were all lower than the pre-treatment NIH-CPSI score(24.90±1.45,24.94±1.25)and HAMA(14.10±1.53,14.47±1.22)in the transmission sensation group and non-transmission sensation group,the differences were statistically significant(all P<0.05).The difference value between the pre-treatment and post-treatment NIH-CPSI scores of the transmission sensation group(6.61±0.97)was higher than that of the nontransmission sensation group(3.48±0.59),and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).The difference value between the pre-treatment and post-treatment HAMA scores of the transmission sensation group(3.81±0.81)was higher than that of the non-transmission sensation group(2.77±0.54).The total effective rate of the transmission sensation group(35.48%)was higher than that of the nontransmission sensation group(12.50%),and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).Conclusions:Both the method of transmission sensation along meridian and the method of nontransmission sensation along meridian can effectively relieve the clinical symptoms and anxiety symptoms of patients with chronic nonbacterial prostatitis,improve the quality of life,and the method of transmission sensation along meridian had a more advantageous effect.