Our Mission
The North American Journal of Oriental Medicine (NAJOM) is a non-profit worldwide forum for the promotion and development of Japanese approaches to Oriental medicine. Our goal is to facilitate networking among practitioners and inspire them to deepen their knowledge and refine their skills.
How NAJOM carries out its mission
We publish both paper and PDF versions of the journal, with all articles available in both English and Japanese. As an international and multi-disciplinary publication, NAJOM does not uphold a particular approach or viewpoint, but our aim is to foster the growth and refinement of Oriental medicine grounded in skilled touch. With due respect for all traditions and perspectives of Oriental medicine, NAJOM pursues this aim by highlighting the theories and practices of traditional Japanese medicine, including Japanese acupuncture and moxibustion, kampo (herbology), shiatsu, anma, and do-in, which emphasize the vital role of touch in healing.
Having developed over more than a thousand years, traditional Japanese medicine is an amalgamation of numerous approaches, innovations, and interpretations. Now practiced around the world, it continues to evolve to suit the unique environment and needs of each region. NAJOM seeks to contribute to the development of Oriental medicine in North America by making more information available on traditional Japanese practices and how they are being applied today.
November 2024 Issue Editorial
Our Virtuosos of Pain Treatment
Treating musculoskeletal disorders and pain is often considered the more pedestrian, less virtuoso, aspect of our clinical practice, in contrast to the diagnosis and treatment of internal diseases. This is a hierarchy of prestige that prevails in both Eastern and Western medicine.
It may be true that more training and subtler diagnostic methods are required to identify and resolve deeply rooted organ diseases, and that most musculoskeletal disorders are not as life threatening as internal ones. But ultimately, as our Eastern medicine teaches us, there is no divide. Yang turns to yin, and yin to yang. Internal disorders can be felt as musculoskeletal pain, and can cause musculoskeletal dysfunction. Likewise, musculoskeletal dysfunction can present as an “organ” symptom, or can lead to one.
In either case, our patients come to us on a spectrum of suffering, between edginess and agony, frustration and fear. Our role is to take their pain seriously, to meet it with all the skill, compassion, and humility we can muster.
In presenting us with an avalanche of submissions that will overflow into our next issue, our contributors this issue demonstrate how seriously they take pain as a primary (and nearly universal) symptom among patients. Drawing from a multitude of traditional Japanese treatment styles, each has something to offer all of us – beginning with a clear place to start. Our contributors are not just writers, but teachers, every one. And so, we have step-by-step strategies for identifying root causes; we have ancient theories and new science, ancient treatment tools and modifications on them, and procedures that are spelled out, illustrated, and supported with case studies.
Leading the way is Peter Eckman. An acupuncturist for half a century, he has taught and been taught by teachers from around the world, written books, and is an MD with a doctorate in physiology. Few could know more about the treatment of pain, and yet, now 80, he shares a story in which he is a patient, a student, and a teacher. He is setting an example for all of us, and we look forward to more of his insights in future issues.
Leading the way in another fashion is Oran Kivity, firstly in an article co-authored with Merlin Young, offering a “New Model for Understanding Moxibustion” – a clear explication of recent research into transient receptor potential ion channels (TRPs). And, in a second article, Kivity introduces a “new-to-NAJOM” technology, the inclusion in his text of a QR code, giving us instant access to three videos demonstrating his already innovative approach to treating pain with the Ontake Method. With one computer keystroke, he has launched our worldwide network – practitioners of an ancient medicine – into a new era of learning, growing, and being together.
On another networking front, as you, our readers, may recall, in May 2024 as a follow-up to our spring and summer themes (What is an Acu/moxapoint? and What is a Meridian?), we emailed you a 17-question confidential survey, inviting responses that would offer an “inside view” of our respective clinical approaches, with the aim of generating a wider conversation about how we practice. Our first question, for example, was “How would you name/summarize your main treatment style (and main modalities)?” Question 2: “An acupoint is…” and, Question 11 was “How would you compare the reactions created by needles, moxa, non-insertion tools, shiatsu, and others?”
We received enthusiastic and fascinating responses from practitioners and esteemed teachers alike, and of course, we can’t wait to share them with all of you. So, in the coming month, we will begin to feature portions of this Q&A content on our NAJOM website. We will advise you when it first appears, and then, we hope you will stay tuned in. Special thanks go to Kat Ao, Guy Traiber, and Brent Ackerman for their efforts in this important project.
And now, please consider our theme for our NAJOM 93/March 2025 Issue: “New Revelations” (Deadline: January 1, 2025). Please share a case or a point in your career, when, as a student, practitioner or teacher, a light bulb went on in your understanding of a method or an approach, or how it all works, or when you created something new to resolve a problem. It will be helpful if you can be specific about what you learned or created, and perhaps offer any clinical suggestions, or theoretical and philosophical views that can be applied in our practices or that can help us in our own moments of doubt.
Best wishes,
Cheryl Coull, editor
