A scientific study of the principle of healing by qigong

Qigong which has spread all over the world as a method of treating or preventing diseases and promoting health is one of the fields of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and has been established on the same fundamental theory or the same principle of clinical effects as acupuncture and herbal medicine. There is no exaggeration to say that the questions such as 'what is qi?' or 'what is qigong?' might be the same as to ask 'what are human beings?' Thus, considering qigong as a “medicine of qi' in a broad sense, we tried to reveal the mechanism of clinical effects in TCM including qigong through scientific approach.

Subjects were 200 persons in total, consisting of healthy adult volunteers and patients with various diseases. Methods such as examination of the literature, neuroscience, nuclear medicine, image technology and metric medicine were used for scientific approach to principle of clinical effects of qigong to perform comprehensive analysis and discussion.

The following results were obtained:

(l) Examination of the literature such as. among others. The yellow Emperor's Cannon of Internal Medicine revealed that “Mind control' is the fundamental principle of qigong and acupuncture therapy. Mind control is the key concept of TCM, which suggests that it is the most important element for clinical effectiveness of therapy to control functions of the brain as the center of the inner qi both in the mental and physical aspects.

(2) Aiming at scientification of mind control. the effect of acupuncture stimulation on the cerebral functions was analyzed by using EEG topography and positron CT ( PET ). Changes in EEG topogram caused by acupuncture stimulation could be observed all over the cortex, though they were prominent in the area from the frontal lobe to the parietal lobe. Positron CT images indicated that acupuncture stimulation temporarily activated from the paleocortex to the neocortex. affecting a wide range of the cranial nerve cells including A10 nerve .

(3) Considering mind control as a multidimensional phenomenon pattern involving complicated factors, we performed multivariate analysis of complaints of patients with chronic pain to establish a theoretical model common to pain control and mind control. It indicated that this theoretical model of mind control was not only the principle of healing of TCM including qigong but also a fundamental principle of recovery from illness of religious therapy.