• Integrative Medicine Research
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.60-66
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• 2014

Background: Medically unexplained symptoms (MUSs) are common in primary care. Atpresent, there are no proven, comprehensive treatments available in primary care forpatients with MUSs. However, MUS has parallels with "subhealth" or Mibyeong from tradi-tional East-Asian medicine, and thus, Mibyeong interventions could be effective in treatingMUS. Unfortunately, studies on Mibyeong and its intervention methods are relatively rare.Methods: We administered a web-based survey to 17,279 Korean medicine (KM) practitionersregistered with the Association of Korean Medicine. The response rate was 4.9% (n = 849).Based on the responses received, we assessed how much they agreed with concepts relatedto Mibyeong on a 7-point scale from "do not agree" to "strongly agree." Respondents werealso asked to indicate how frequently they encountered various subtypes and patterns ofMibyeong, and how frequently they use listed intervention methods.Results: Data from 818 respondents were analyzed after excluding those with no clinicalexperience. On average, respondents were male general practitioners aged between 30 yearsand 49 years, working or living in metropolitan areas such as Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi-do. Responses did not differ by demographics. Respondents generally thought that Mibyeongreferred to subjective or borderline findings without certain disease, and that Mibyeong hasvarious subtypes and patterns. Subtypes included fatigue, pain, and digestion problems; pat-terns were either deficiencies (e.g., qi, blood, and yin deficiency) or stagnations (e.g., liver qidepression and qi stagnation). Decoction was the most frequently used type of interventionfor Mibyeong of all items listed, followed by acupuncture and moxibustion. Patient educa-tion was also recommended, suggesting healthy eating, promoting healthy environment,and exercise.Conclusion: We were able to provide preliminary results on KM practitioners' recognition ofand interventions for Mibyeong, but further research is needed to develop a detailed defi-nition of Mibyeong and its myriad subtypes and patterns, and evaluations of the efficacy ofMibyeong interventions.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.64-74
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• 2014

Objectives This study aimed to evaluate reliability of questionnaire when self reporting questionnaire created by Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine was applied to Vietnamese. Methods This study began to collect 135 Vietnamese patients questionnaires collaborated with National Hospital of Traditional Medicine located in Hanoi, Vietnam from March to August 2013. All participants for this study filled out the questionnaires respectively. After initial survey finished, additional survey was performed on the same questionnaires used at the beginning eight weeks later. In order to evaluate internal coherence in terms of questionnaires of classification, Cronbach's alpha and Cohen's kappa was measured. Results After analysis of 78 questions collected, less than 0.4 in Kappa was achieved by 21(26.9%) out of 78 questions, 0.4 to 0.75 Kappa by 49(62.8%) and 0.75 over in 5(6.5%) questions, respectively. More than 0.6 Cronbach's alpha was defined from 41 out of 78 questions connected with internal coherence of character, digestion, perspiration, excrement, urine, cold and heat. Conclusions The questionnaire has credibility according to values of Kappa and Cronbach's alpha. Therefore, Sasang Constitution questionnaire can be applied to Sasang Diagnosis. In order to increase usefulness, questions in questionnaire should be revised and validity study must be performed afterwards.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.146-155
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• 2014

Objectives In Sasang Constitutional medicine(SCM), it is an important factor to assess the degree of cold/heat and healthy status. We purposed to check the agreement among the experts on the assessment of cold/heat and healthy status. Methods Six SCM experts and 10 healthy volunteers were recruited for this study. The SCM experts had an interviewed with each volunteer in the similar condition like that of the actual clinic. And then the expert evaluated each volunteer's cold/heat and healthy status. Intraclass correlation coefficient(ICC) was used to measure the interrater reliability and interrater agreement among the experts. Results Two volunteers are excluded due to the missing data, therefore eight persons' data (3 males and 5 females) were included in our analysis. The mean of age and BMI are 21.73(${\pm}2.32$) and 29.63(${\pm}4.66$), respectively. In health status, cold status and heat status, the ICC was 0.789, 0.904, 0.925, respectively. Conclusions We found that the assessment of cold/heat and healthy status was continued reliable among SCM experts. The assessment of cold/heat status was more consistent than the assessment of healthy status.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.1611-1618
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• 2007

In this study we investigated the effect of medical history on the incidence of stroke in Korean population. 217 stroke patients were enrolled as a case group. 160 non-stroke patients and 146 normal and non-stroke patients were enrolled as a control and a normal group, respectively, from Jul. 2005 to Mar. 2007. Stroke patients were hospitalized within 2 weeks after the onset of stroke. Medical history was gathered by interviewing each patient. Clinical data were analyzed using SAS software (ver 9.1). Hypertension and diabetes mellitus (DM) were statistically significant in a case group when compared with control and normal groups. Other parameters, such as transient ischemic attack, hyperlipidemia, ischemic heart disease, facial palsy, migraine, and hypochondria, did not show any statistical significance. The same association pattern was observed in the ischemic stroke patients of case group. On the other hand, hemorrhagic stroke patients of case group showed a significant difference in DM when compared with other subject groups. More efficient therapeutic strategy should be considered for patients with medical history, especially hypertensin and DM, to reduce the stroke incidence in Korean population.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.13 no.2 s.20
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• pp.65-69
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• 2007

Background and Purpose : The purpose of this case-control study was to show the relationship between risk factors(past medical history, BMI, WHR, smoking, drinking), warning signs(dyscinesia, sightless, dysarthria, sensory disorder, numbness, blephalospasm, facial spasm, tension) and the incidence of stroke in korean adults. Methods : 455 stroke patients were enrolled as the case group and 180 non-stroke patients as control group from Oct. 2005 to Feb. 2006. Patients were hospitalized within 2 weeks after the onset of stroke. Obesity were defined as $BMI{\geq}25kg/m2$, $WHR{\geq}0.9$ in male and $WHR{\geq}0.8$ in female. Risk factors and warning signs were obtained from personal interview. The analysis of the data was done by chi-square test. Fisher's exact test and test-sample t-test. Results : The percentage of current smokers(or current drinkers) of case group is higher significantly than that of control group. The past medical history of risk factors were found to be transient ischemic attack(p=0.0698), facial palsy(p=0.4061), hypertension(p<0.0001), hyperlipidemia(p=0.1484), DM(p<0.0001), ischemic heart disease(p=0.0093), migraine(p=0.0014) and hypochondria(p=0.2370). $WHR{\geq}0.9$ in male had a 6.696 (3.711-12.082) odds ratio, $WHR{\geq}0.8$ in female had a 1.567 (0.659-3.726) odds ratio. $BMI{\geq}25kg/m2$ had a 2.017(1.263-3.222). The dyscinesia and sensory disorder of warning signs were found to be statistical difference between case and control group. Conclusions : According to the above results, it was found that smoking, drinking, BMI, WHR, hypertension, DM, ischemic heart disease, migraine affected to the incidence of stroke.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Oriental Medical Informatics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.21-46
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• 2008

Though modern medicine has taken rapid strides, varieties of intractable maladies and diseases go on increasing more and more. And so medical technologies and academic achievements related to diagnoses and prognoses are being carried on. As the progress of genetics, all sorts of diseases have proved to be hereditary. This makes efficient use of the prevention of diseases. According to Sasang-Constitution medicine, each person inherently possesses a unique constitution different from that of any other person. The shapes and sizes, temperaments and characters of people have enormous variations that must affect our health and happiness. Without understanding our particular constitution, we must fall into poor health and disease. The food and exercise that are good for one person's constitution may not be good for another. No standardized medicine can adequately deal with our individual variations. Only a system that can discern our different constitutional types has this capacity. This paper is to study Life-Regulating Science that has taken firm root in our culture from time immemorial, so that I suggest the methods of diagnoses and prognoses by using Life-Regulating Science. In the medical texts, psychological imbalances of Eum-Yang and Five Phases generate all kinds of diseases. Accordingly visceral manifestation and diseases as a future possibility may be known by the Four Pillars.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.246-255
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate the reliability and validity of the questionnaire of pattern identification (PI) in traditional chinese medicine (TCM), through the systematic review of china national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI) database. We searched the articles related with reliability and validity of the questionnaire of PI and published from January 1994 to December 2013. Seventeen questionnaires were analyzed in this study. The twelve (70.6%) questionnaires were developed on the base of specific disease, and five (29.4%) ones were developed on the base of non-specific disease. Three of PI questionnaires showed low inter-item consistency reliability. Exploratory factor analysis of construct validity, content validity, and criterion validity analysis were commonly used on the assessment of validity, but none of them was analysed at the same study. There was only one questionnaire of the ischemic stroke that examined the sensitivity and specificity of both training and test groups in spite of the absence of a gold standard.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Tobacco Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2000

The feeding preference of cigarette beetles, Lasioderma serricorne F., was tested using various leaf litters. The number of the trapped L. serricome was 45.25$\pm$10.44 at flue-cured leaf tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum L., 23.50$\pm$6.0 at chinese juniper, Juniperus chinensis L., 1l.75$\pm$4.99 at oak, Qqercus acutissiuma C., and 1l.50$\pm$2.52 at rice-straw, (Oryza. sativa L.). The response of oviposition was 93.20$\pm$26.22 at flue-cured leaf tobacco, 53.60$\pm$11.82 at chinese juniper, 48.20$\pm$20.90 at oriental arborvitae, Thuja orientalis L., 31.80$\pm$18.10 at cherry-tree, Prunus serrulata var. spontanea M., and 29.40$\pm$13.7 at rice-straw. However, the oviposition was respectively low at gingko, Ginkgo biloba L.,(5.40$\pm$2.97), turf grass, Zoysia japonica S., (5.20$\pm$13.7), and oak (3.00$\pm$l.41). The augmentation was maximum at chinese juniper (27.33$\pm$19.44 of emerged adults) followed by Magnolia obovata (8.50$\pm$9.33). Fifty percent of the tested species leaf litters including cherry-tree did not show any augmentation. The adult activities after hibernation were primarily found in May and June at Kwangju and Suwon, and in April at Chungju. The field activity of L. serricome at Suwon was mostly lower than that at other places, except in August at Chungju. The first appearance of L. serricome was observed earlier at Chungju and Kwangju than at Suwon, and the frequency of insect appearance was high in July, August, and September. L. serricome could hibernate by feeding on many kinds of plant leaf litters and it's population could be maintained in the open field in Korea.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1247-1260
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• 2009

This dissertation aims to study the five tastes in the Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine. Medicinals as well as Foods are classified by the five tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and pungent, which can be tasted by the tongue. With the development of the theory dealing with the medicinal properties, some flavors are summarized out of clinical actions of medicinals, therefore, there is a little difference between the flavors of medicinal herbs and the tastes got by tongue. Each taste acts on or has direct influence on a specific vital organ, and each of which has different physiologic actions. Taste also has a long-term or post digestive effect on the body and its metabolism. When each taste is consumed in moderation, it benefits the corresponding organ. Over-indulgence in any taste harms the organ and creates imbalance among the five vital organ systems. The Korean medicinal herbs with same flavor mostly possess similar actions while the medicinal herbs with different flavors show different actions in the treatment, which are shown as follows. Sour has absorbing, consolidating and astringent actions and acts on the liver. Bitter has the actions of drying or resolving dampness, purging and lowering and acts on the heart. Sweet has the nourishing, harmonizing and moistening actions and acts on the spleen. Pungent has an action of dispersing and promoting circulation of gi and blood and acts on the lungs. Salty has the effects of softening hard nodes or masses and promoting defecation, etc and acts on the kidneys. The five organ systems control and support each other. Proper coordination only exists when there is no one organ stronger or weaker than the rest. Since the five tastes have direct influences on the five organs, the diet we take should have a good combination of the five tastes in order to promote internal balance and harmony. They control our well-being and create dietary balance. Excessive consumption of any of these could result in adverse effects. In a word, when the properties of the five tastes respectively are distinguished, their natures and flavors cannot be separately considered. I think the harmonization of food and medicinals should be stressed on good nutritional diet to maintain good health. The traditional belief that food and medicine share the same origin is a part of Korean medicine tradition.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.111-119
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• 2009

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanism and effect of moxa bucket moxibustion, to be used as the quantitative data through the measurement of temperature, and to grasp the thermodynamic characteristics of moxa bucket moxibustion. Methods : We have selected the moxa bucket moxibustion. We have made a comparative study of the thermodynamic characteristics of moxa bucket moxibustion. We have examined combustion times, temperatures, temperature gradients in each period during a combustion of moxa bucket moxibustion made by oak wood. Results : 1. We could design the moxa bucket moxibustion so that it has $57.6^{\circ}C$ maximum temperature with 7g weight and 10mm height, if we use more weight of moxa or lower height of moxa, we can observe relatively elevated maximum temperature. We observed the maximum temperature following the measuring position of moxa bucket and we could see higher temperature at the center of the moxa bucket and lower temperature at the side of the moxa bucket. 2. We could design the moxa bucket moxibustion with 5g moxa and 10mm height so that it has 0.12 $1^{\circ}C/sec$ of maximum temperature gradient, and it has relatively high temperature gradient at lower weight and height condition. 3. We could design the moxa bucket moxibustion with 7g moxa and 15mm height so that it has 4,135sec of the longest effective temperature combustion time. If we use more weight of moxa or higher height of moxa, we can observe relatively extended effective temperature combustion time. Conclusions : We observed the longest effective combustion time following the measuring position of moxa bucket. We can see a higher temperature at the center of the moxa bucket and a lower temperature at the side of the moxa bucket.