YNSA: Yamamoto Neue Schadelakupunktur

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Media reviews YNSA: Yamamoto Neue Schädelakupunktur Toshikatsu Yamamoto, Helene Yamamoto, Michiko Margaret Yamamoto Hardback, 242 pages, price: 64.00 Verlag für Ganzheitliche Medizin Dr Erich Wühr, Kötzing, Bavaria; 2005 www.vgm.holmed.de ISBN 3-927344-66-4 An earlier edition of this book has been translated as: Yamamoto T, Yamamoto H. Yamamoto New Scalp Acupuncture. Tokyo: Axel Springer Japan Publishing; 1998. ISBN 4-89589-169-0. This edition is currently available from the Redwing Book Company at $159.95. For most acupuncture practitioners, scalp acupuncture of whatever sort is a minor part of their practice, if they use it at all. So far, very few in the UK use the ‘Yamamoto New Scalp Acupuncture’ (YNSA) method. According to the authors of this book, YNSA is easy to learn, rapid in execution, and can give quick results. It should therefore appeal to the busy doctor. It can also be used in veterinary practice. Dr Yamamoto (MD, PhD), born in 1929 in southern Japan, discovered his method of scalp acupuncture fortuitously in the early 1970s after finding that acupuncture alone could be as effective as nerve blocks with xylocaine. He first presented his approach at a meeting of the Japanese Ryodoraku Society in Osaka in 1973. Like Paul Nogier’s auricular acupuncture, YNSA is a somatotopic, anatomy-based system. Like Nogier, Yamamoto started with a simple set of basic points, selection for treatment depending on their relative tenderness to palpation. As he developed his system, he gradually added further sets of points and correspondences. These bear no relationship to the lines and areas of Chinese scalp acupuncture, nor to such Western systems as Henry Head’s ‘maxima’ associated with visceral pathology. Like both Nogier and Yoshio Nakatani (originator of the Ryodoraku method), he has integrated several aspects of acupuncture energetics in his approach as well. For instance, in the temporal area and around the ear, he has posited a grid of 48 ‘Y-points’, corresponding to the 12 meridians of acupuncture

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in Yin, weak Yin, Yang and weak Yang zones. These are to be used if the basic points do not give satisfactory results. He has also adapted Japanese abdominal diagnosis to fit his system, and has added a further array of points around the neck, again with correspondences to the meridians. Both abdomen and neck are palpated for tenderness to confirm the effect of YNSA treatment. More recently, Dr Yamamoto has added 12 parasaggital ‘cranial nerve points’, again corresponding to the 12 acupuncture meridians. In this book he also includes further examples of somatotopy, on the skull, along the spine, on the anterior ribcage, and even over the pubic bone (in its location, the latter bears comparison with Buchheit’s ‘vaginal acupuncture’). Dr Yamamoto starts by using points ipsilateral to the problem, or those on the most tender side, but also checks local and contralateral points as well. He cautions that if Kidney or Liver points or areas are particularly tender, treating them may be a priority. He also states that using needles unnecessarily may be counterproductive (although it is unclear whether this is just a matter of overstimulation, or really dependent on which points are needled). In addition to needling, which may be uncomfortable on the scalp (although the periosteum is not needled in YNSA), Dr Yamamoto mentions the use of electroacupuncture, TENS, laser, magnets and even homoeopathic point injection. However, no rationale is given as to why 5-15Hz should be used for EA, and no parameters are detailed for either laser or TENS. He states that laser is not as effective as needling, and that magnets are only really of use for uncomplicated cases. Overall, this book is clear, simple and well presented, with many good illustrations. It includes a foreword by Jochen Gleditsch (another well known proponent of somatotopy) and a contribution from Hartmut Heine on the anatomy of YNSA points. The selection of ‘Studies and statistics’ at the end of the book is useful, although disappointing in that no controlled studies are included. Presentation in some instances is very skimpy indeed, as in the single Ryodoraku chart showing improvement in electrical meridian measurements with YNSA (as Natakani was well aware, changes in autonomic balance might follow stimulation at virtually any acupoint!). This may reinforce the view that results are nonspecific rather than following Dr Yamamoto’s

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Media reviews particular theories of how his method works. The index is also frustratingly minimal. For example, ‘electrostimulation’ only occurs once, although it is usefully mentioned several times in the text. Clearly Dr Yamamoto is a charismatic teacher and practitioner. His method has beguiling simplicity, he enjoys presenting both it and himself, and his family is involved in carrying his message to the world. His system is basically one of needling tender points, and then checking for tenderness at other reflex areas (abdomen and/or neck) to guide further treatment. However, I have a problem with systems that purport to be all-encompassing, as in YNSA where one-for-one correspondences are posited between meridians, points on the neck and/or abdomen, points on the skull, cranial nerves, and so forth. In this, YNSA resembles applied kinesiology. The superstructure of concepts Dr Yamamoto has added to his basic method may make him and potential converts to his methods more comfortable, but it is not essential. He developed it from his own ideas and experience, and it could well have been developed in very different ways by people with

other backgrounds and predilictions. Dr Yamamoto himself seems to emphasise diagnosis only because symptomatic improvements may occur without resolution of an underlying problem (infection or cancer, for example). Is it actually essential to his treatment? There is a tendency to create increasingly complex systems in many branches of complementary medicine, and particularly acupuncture. Once the physical body becomes a topos for the exploration of ideas, anything becomes possible. As in Nogier’s auriculomedicine and Reinhold Voll’s EAV, for example, there are possibilities for medicament testing in YNSA. Thus it is one of those methods that, apparently objective and straightforward, is in fact dependent on the interaction between body and idea, practitioner and patient, the to-and-fro of intervention and assessment that is at the core of acupuncture. For those acupuncture practitioners interested in somatotopy or already practising YNSA, this is a useful book. However, as with any acupuncture method, it cannot substitute for proper training.

Acuware 1.0 Xiaoming Jin

1. The main part of the program considers the ‘14 channels’ and extra points. Simply click over a channel and it is displayed over colourful muscle and bone anatomy. Moving the cursor over the points list for that channel highlights the point in red. Clicking over the named point brings up a cross-section anatomical slice showing the needle in situ. Labelling of the important local structures can be switched off if desired. Alongside the cross-section is a text box showing a summary of the point location, indications for use and prescriptions, and needling technique. 2. ‘Body regions’ shows all the acupuncture points contained in six broad areas of the body from head and neck down to the foot region. Again, extensive use is made of ‘mouse over’ to highlight and select regions. Clicking over a specific point brings up the cross-section

Interactive Point Location software (CD-ROM and download) Price: US $148 Available from www.bestomd.com/software/ acuware_1.0.html This is an anatomical acupuncture point locator program with a difference. The exact course of needling is demonstrated using detailed anatomical cross sections derived from the Visible Human Project from the National Library of Medicine in America. The installation wizard ensured trouble free setup of the program into a folder of 107MB. The main menu gives four choices:

David F Mayor

ACUPUNCTURE IN MEDICINE 2006;24(3):142-144. www.medical-acupuncture.co.uk/aimintro.htm

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YNSA: Yamamoto Neue Schadelakupunktur David F Mayor Acupunct Med 2006 24: 142-143

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