http://brainblogger.com/2007/08/26/the-kampo-boom-traditional-japanese-phytotherapy-comes-of-age/ Topics from multidimensional biopsychosocial perspectives. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:01:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://brainblogger.com/2007/08/26/the-kampo-boom-traditional-japanese-phytotherapy-comes-of-age/#comment-276126 Thomas Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:01:27 +0000 http://brainblogger.com/2007/08/26/the-kampo-boom-traditional-japanese-phytotherapy-comes-of-age/#comment-276126 Greetings from Japan. Yes, Kampo is a "Japanese invention" that has A LOT OF good things to offer. Yet, being a German acupuncturist with 25 years clnical experience in Japan, I believe there is a (serious) problem. The article states correctly "in October 2000, 72 percent regularly used Kampo medicines". But MANY of these physicians precisely use Kampo, because it is a boom AND big business, without having had much proper training in the relevant concepts of Chinese medicine. In 1996 (I think) the use of "Sho Saiko To" in patients with chronic hepatitis resulted in about 11 deaths. Since then, the notebook published by the company Tsumura - strongly encouraged by the Health Minstry - includes a note written in red about the dangers of Kampo. Yet, these deaths were not due to "dangerous" Kampo medicine. They were the result of physicians trained in western medicine, who prescribed the Kampo drug based on the western medical diagnosis "hepatitis" - completely disregarding the fact, that Kampo is NOT prescribed for specific diseases, but rather symptom patterns. Greetings from Japan.
Yes, Kampo is a “Japanese invention” that has A LOT OF good things to offer. Yet, being a German acupuncturist with 25 years clnical experience in Japan, I believe there is a (serious) problem. The article states correctly “in October 2000, 72 percent regularly used Kampo medicines”. But MANY of these physicians precisely use Kampo, because it is a boom AND big business, without having had much proper training in the relevant concepts of Chinese medicine. In 1996 (I think) the use of “Sho Saiko To” in patients with chronic hepatitis resulted in about 11 deaths. Since then, the notebook published by the company Tsumura – strongly encouraged by the Health Minstry – includes a note written in red about the dangers of Kampo.
Yet, these deaths were not due to “dangerous” Kampo medicine. They were the result of physicians trained in western medicine, who prescribed the Kampo drug based on the western medical diagnosis “hepatitis” – completely disregarding the fact, that Kampo is NOT prescribed for specific diseases, but rather symptom patterns.

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