Saw palmetto extract (SPE) is approved as a medicine for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in some European countries, and is also available as a healthy food product in Japan. Numerous pharmacological actions of SPE have been proposed, including 5α-reductase inhibition, and antiandrogenic, antiproliferative, antiinflammatory and antiedema effects. Furthermore, the clinical studies have shown that irritative and obstructive symptoms of BPH are alleviated by SPE. However, none of pharmacological effects of SPE has ever convincingly been shown to be therapeutically relevant in vivo. α₁-Adrenoceptor antagonists and muscarinic cholinoceptor antagonists are commonly used in the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms in patients with BPH and overactive bladder (OAB). Thus, such improvement of voiding symptoms by SPE might be expected to arise from significant antagonism of α₁-adrenoceptors and muscarinic cholinoceptors in the lower urinary tract because SPE contains many constituents. The present study was undertaken to clarify pharmacological effects of SPE on urodynamic functions and autonomic receptors in the lower urinary tract. SPE may improve urodynamic symptoms in hyperactive bladders of acetic acid-infused rats by increasing bladder capacity and prolonging the micturition interval. It is notable that hyperactive rather than normal bladder was three-fold more sensitive to SPE. SPE exerted significant binding activities of α₁-adrenergic, muscarinic and 1,4-dihydropyridine (DHP) calcium channel antagonist receptors in the rat lower urinary tract. Furthermore, SPE also showed significant binding activities of prostatic α₁-adrenergic and bladder muscarinic receptor in humans. Repeated oral administration of SPE showed inhibitory tendency against significant increase of number of α₁-adrenergic receptor in testosterone-induced hypertrophied prostates of rats. Moreover, repeated oral administration of SPE did not influence activities of hepatic drug enzymes and blood biochemical parameters in rats. The present study may contribute significantly to the further understanding of pharmacological effects of SPE in the treatment of patients with BPH and OAB.

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There are few scientific papers about the effectiveness of the laughter of the patients, even laughter is essential to human communication. Cultural values of people acknowledge laughter as good medicine, although the black humor is sometimes risky strategy for the depressed patient. The most patient has his own serious problem which prevent him to laugh. Laughter in complementary and alternative medicine means to offer the atmosphere and environment where depressed patient can be educated smile and laugher to improve psycho-physiological status.
Current review of laughter was done and grouped into three main themes: (1) medical aspect of laughter, (2) laughter as one of the alternative medicine, which relieve stress, care and heal the patient and (3) the laughing therapist who enhancing laughing to the patients suffered from mental status. There are some supported paper of a connection between sense of humor and self-reported physical health. More research is required to determine interrelationships between sense of humor and well-being. This study contribute the value and significance of laughter to support people in their learning journey.

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Recently, the number of cancer patients using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) hasu been increasing world wide. Many hospitals in China have been using integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine (ITCWM, the use of both western and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) together) for treatment or prevention of cancer, and considerable progress has been made. The present study investigated and systematically reviewed previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted to verify the effects of ITCWM on cancer in China, from a database of Chinese literature. Papers published in Chinese scientific journals were searched using the database provided by the National Science and Technology Library (NSTL, http://www.nstl.gov.cn), China. On the basis of a limited search strategy, 14 reports of RCTs were identified and reviewed. Almost all of these RCTs reported better results with the use of ITCWM than with western medicine alone. In order to promote evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine (EBCAM) in Japan, it will be necessary to collect and evaluate the scientific content of many clinical studies of CAM performed in China and other countries to establish a database. In the future, there will be a need to develop and establish methods such as meta-analysis for scientific evaluation of CAM.

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We investigated the effects of low-intensity brief exercise on lymphocyte functions and plasma cytokine concentrations. Six young sedentary women performed 30-min walking exercise (6 km/h, 50–65% HR max) per day for 3 weeks. Each subject’s peripheral blood was sampled before training, 1 week and 3 weeks after training, and analyzed for natural killer (NK) cell activity, T cell proliferation activity, granzyme B, interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-6, IL-10, IL-12p40 and interferon.γ (IFN-γ). Lymphocyte functions did not change significantly following training, but plasma concentrations of IL-12p40 decreased significantly. These results suggest that cytokine balance towards significant Th1>Th2 is induced by low-intensity training.

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The macrophages exist in whole body tissues and maintain health condition and/or protect various diseases through appropriate their activations. We hypothesized that these macrophages formed network and this putative macrophages communication was termed a macrophage-network. Then to improve and/or maintain health status as far as possible, we focused on the some dietary-experienced Gram-negative bacteria with long experience of food production. We found a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as macrophage-activating substances from water extract of wheat flour. This named it IP-PA1, immunopotentiator of Pantoea agglomerans which is the symbiotic Gram-negative bacteria of wheat.
While LPS is known as the strongest substance to activate macrophages, many people have prejudice against LPS as the toxin especially through intravenous route. Thus, nobody develop LPS as the medical drugs. Recently, the biological significance of LPS has been recognized as the regulator of homeostasis through signal transduction of TLR-4 in the body.
To apply the excellent function of LPS or LPS-containing materials for social health care, it is essential to investigate the basic science for the analysis of individual health maintenance system reevaluating biological significance of LPS based on the accumulation of scientific information about usefulness of LPS. To achieve these purposes, cooperation system with many specialists in different fields (university, industry, and government) should be needed.
Thus, we established an alliance composed of the, non profit organization (NPO) mainly for conduct of clinical trial with products containing LPS and evaluation of the various products in terms of both quality and quantity of LPS and its function, and university-led venture company mainly for transferring intellectual properties and for development and supply of new functional materials containing LPS derived from dietary-experienced Gram-negative bacteria including IP-PA1. In this manuscript, we introduce our concept for maintaining homeostasis based on the macrophage-network and processes in development of the product containing IP-PA1 which is a material from dietary-experienced Gram-negative bacteria to be applicable to health food.

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Wrong:Laughter, therapist, healing environment
Right:Laughter, NK cell, Happiness, Laughter therapist, Patch Adams, Japan Society of Healing Environment

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Wrong:Kyoko TAKU^1,*, Keizo UMEGAKI¹, Hiroki TANABE², Wen CHEN³, Jing-wang TAN⁴, Shaw WATANABE¹
Right:Kyoko TAKU^1,*, Keizo UMEGAKI¹, Hiroki TANABE², Wen CHEN³, Jing-wang TAN^3,4, Shaw WATANABE⁵

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Wrong:Kyoko TAKU¹, Keizo UMEGAKI¹, Hiroki TANABE², Wen CHEN³, Jing-wang TAN⁴, Shaw WATANABE¹
Right:Kyoko TAKU¹, Keizo UMEGAKI¹, Hiroki TANABE², Wen CHEN³, Jing-wang TAN^3,4, Shaw WATANABE⁵

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Wrong:Recently, the number of cancer patients using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) hasu been increasing world wide.
Right:Recently, the number of cancer patients using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been increasing worldwide.

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