Abstract
Japanese Oriental (Kampo) medicine has been widely used to treat fibromyalgia. In Kampo medicine, the determination of therapy is based on “Sho” (diagnosis of Kampo medicine). However there have not been sufficient studies of the “Sho” in fibromyalgia. We therefore investigated the “Sho” in fibromyalgia by assessing the “Sho” in 27 patients with fibromyalgia: 20 females and 7 males, mean age 52.9±15.6 (27 to 89). The result showed 3 patients with “Jissho” (hyperfunction of body energy), 15 patients with “Kyojitsukansho” (medium of hyperfunction/hypofunction of body energy) and 9 patients with “Kyosho” (hypofunction of body energy). All patients showed “Kikyo” (deficiency of “Ki” (vital energy)), “Kiutsu” (insufficient circulation of “Ki” and “Ki” stasis in an organism)”, and “Oketsu” (insufficient blood-circulation and blood stasis). The “Oketsu” score of the 15 patients using Terasawa’s criteria were 27.0～67.0, mean score 43.5±10.1. Nine of the 15 patients showed severe “Oketsu”, which was indicated by a total score of more than 40 points. This finding indicated an intimate correlation with fibromyalgia and“Oketsu”.Several reports showed the presence of abnormal microcirculation in fibromyalgia. Abnormal microcirculation is considered to be related to “Oketsu”. Therefore, we considered that “Oketsu” is an important pathological condition to investigate and treat with fibromyalgia.
