Recent status of hydrotherapy and balneotherapy with clinical beneficial effects

In the Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and Integrated Medicine (IM), hydrotherapy and balneotherapy have been important treatment. They have several pleiotropic effects, such as thermal effects, buoyancy, hydrostatic pressure, viscous resistance and chemical effects. There is clinical efficacy to various diseases or states, including neck pain, low back pain, knee osteoarthritis, Parkinson disease, and so on. New trial with health promotion strategy with balneotherapy has been reported along World Federation of Hydrotherapy and Climatotherapy

Thermal Therapy for Patients with Heart Disease from the Perspective of Integrative Healthcare

Integrative Medicine (IM) and/or Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) have been developing around the world. Author and colleagues have continued the management of Shikoku division of Integrative Medicine Japan (IMG) for years. One of the treatments of IM and CAM would be thermal therapy, which has categorized into two groups with A Warm-Water Bath (WWB) and Sauna Bath (SB). SB includes dry sauna in Western countries and Waon therapy originated from Japan. SB shows the reduction in cardiac preload and afterload by thermal vasodilation for patients with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF). Thermal therapy would be useful for further development of sauna and IM from the perspective of integrative healthcare

A case of subacute thyroiditis associated with complete occlusion of right coronary artery

Case presentation: A case is a 72-year-old male, and developed fever, sore throat and immigrating neck pain, without shortness of breath (SOB). He showed pulse 96/min, Temp 38.8C, BP 146/90mmHg, respiration and SpO2 normal. Physicals were slight tenderness in thyroid, and laboratory data revealed free T3/T4 10.7pg/mL/5.4ng/dL. He was diagnosed as subacute thyroiditis. ECG showed incomplete right bundle block branch (RBBB) and Holter ECG showed pulse rate 70-144/min and the average was 95.8/min for 24 hours. HbA1c increased from 6.4% to 7.4% for 6 weeks. For the treatment, prednisolone 20mg/day was started and reduced gradually, and thyroid function was normalized. Consecutively, he developed chest discomfort and oppression with unremarkable ECG changes and chest CT showed only the calcification of coronary arteries. Coronary angiography showed occlusion of the right proximal coronary artery (RCA, #2:100%), left anterior descending (LAD, #6:75%, #7:90%). Coronary angioplasty was operated immediately. By placing a drug-eluting stent, RCA was re-opened successfully. His symptoms disappeared, and clinical course was improved. Discussion: Subacute thyroiditis may bring hyperthyroidism and tachycardia, increased metabolism for circulatory system. Then, subacute thyroiditis would give burden and stress for coronary heart function. It is suggested that hyperthyroidism would aggravate the coronary stenosis. We have to consider such complex pathophysiology for the diseased states in the clinical medical practice

粗飼料成分に対する一般分析法と Van Soest 法の比較 : II イネ科およびマメ科粗飼料における比較(農学部門)

前回の試験において生育時期の異る2種のイネ科粗飼料を用いて一般分析法とVan Soest法を比較検討したのに引きつづいて, 今回は各種のイネ科およびマメ科の粗飼料を用いてこの二方法を比較検討した。その結果, イネ科の場合前試験での推測式から得たNDFおよびADFの推測値と実測値の間にかなりの差がみられ草種が異ると誤差が大きくなることがみとめられた。マメ科の場合, 粗繊維からADFの相関はかなり高いものが得られた。マメ科の場合, その栄養的特性を知る上にはVan Soest法による分析に加えて窒素含量を同時に測定することが望しいと考えられた。Eleven grass and eight legume roughages were used to compare the ordinary method and the Van Soest method to estimate nutritional availability of roughages. The Van Soest method was superior to the ordinar method in estimation nutritional availability of carbohydrates in all the species. Especialy, in legume species, however, high correlation was shown with crude fiber and ADF (r=0.926)

Volume Phase Transitions of Slide-Ring Gels

The volume phase transition of slide-ring gels with freely-movable cross-linking junctions was investigated. Ionic chemical gels with fixed cross-linking junctions undergo volume phase transitions when they have higher than the critical degree of ionization. However, the experimentally-observed critical ionization value for slide-ring gels is much higher than theoretical values for chemical gels. This difference indicates that the volume phase transition is significantly suppressed in slide-ring gels. The mesoscale structure at various swollen or shrunken states was also investigated by small angle X-ray scattering. Changes in the scattering patterns with shrinking slide-ring gels suggest microphase separation due to the sliding of cyclic molecules threaded along the axis of the polymer chains, which may suppress the volume phase transition. In addition, slide-ring gels absorbed/desorbed greater than equilibrium volumes in the shrinking/swelling processes and showed slow dynamics; these observations are also related to their sliding properties