Last year I worked as part of a team to produce a book on the work of Dr. Hiroshi Nagata, MD. I had earlier read an article about his work in the “North American Journal of Oriental Medicine” (www.najom.org). This work involved many hours of unpaid editing of the book. I volunteered because I find his ideas and his story compelling and, beyond that, helpful to my patients.
Dr. Nagata was trained as a neurosurgeon and indeed worked as one for many years before he came to a turning point in his life. He wanted to learn a different type of intervention for his patients, one that included home-based treatments they could do on their own to augment the treatments they received from him. He was tired of the rather limited results he was seeing with the interventions available to him.
He started to read various books in the search for an idea of what he might do for his patients. He came across a book by Dr. Minoru Fukuda that mentioned a type of fingernail-squeezing massage as a home therapy for Parkinson’s disease patients. That got him thinking.
Dr. Fukuda had also come to a similar turning point in his medical career and had started to use shiraku (micro-bloodletting) on his patients, in addition to this nail massage. He was reporting impressive clinical results that surprised Dr. Nagata and encouraged him to further investigate other modalities. He was not so interested in dealing with the blood aspect of shiraku, and he wondered if this doctor’s results were perhaps attributable to the momentary pain of the technique and not to the actual flow of blood. This, together with the Fukuda book, got him investigating the outcomes when a slight ouch response was elicited on key acupoints.
He started with the Fukuda nail massage idea. He asked one of his Parkinson’s disease patients to squeeze his fingernails every day. To his surprise the patient came back in a week reporting significant symptom improvement. This encouraged Dr. Nagata to pursue this therapy further. Over time, instead of using finger pressure on the nails, he had patients use a slightly pointed tool, a bit like a metal toothpick, to stimulate the jing-well, points of the hand. Some patients at home indeed did use toothpicks for this home therapy. He eventually came to add some points on the face and on the top of the head to his basic protocol. These areas were to be stimulated every day at home in a simple procedure that takes only a few minutes, i.e., patient compliance is rather good in his clinic. The treatments Dr. Nagata himself gives in his clinic bring in more sophistication. He uses a dermatome concept to determine where to stimulate on the body in addition to the hands, face, and head.
Dr. Nagata refers to his technique as PNST. This stands for Prickling Neuro-Stimulation Technique. He uses the word prickling (chiku-chiku in Japanese) to convey that there should be a slight ouch response to this pressure on the various points. His reasoning in this, as opposed to the exceedingly light touch of a teishin in most techniques, is based in his profound understanding of the autonomic nervous system. For the response he desires the light touch does not suffice.
When I first heard of his work my thought went to the Ling Shu and Nan Jing. In the Ling Shu Chapter I we encounter the “Nine Classical Needles,” two of which were used only on the surface of the skin, i.e., it is not an entirely new idea really that Dr. Nagata hit upon. In Nan Jing Chapter 68 we read that jing-well points when treated can release “fullness below the heart.” This phrase refers to the epigastric area. Additionally, in the Jia Yi Jing we learn that jing-well points are used for chronic disease. I then thought of how in the Yamamoto New Scalp Acupuncture style (YNSA) this epigastric area is where the various brain zones are located. I wondered if perhaps that was why patients with nervous system diseases were helped by Dr. Nagata’s treatment style (remember, he is a neurologist)? If Dr. Yamamoto is correct in locating this zone here and if the Nan Jing is correct that jing-well points target this area, then it stands to reason that Dr. Nagata would encounter some success in bringing changes to the brain.
Dr. Nagata also counsels his patients on common sense lifestyle practices. He tells them what to eat, how to stay warm year-round, and how to exercise reasonably at home. His records of this type of intervention number now well over 100,000. His top student, who is an acupuncturist, has more than double that many. This makes it difficult to claim then that this is a technique that has not been put to the test. Dr. Nagata holds frequent seminars in Japan and has a number of books published there. His students also report his approach to be a helpful one.
One reason I am fascinated by Dr. Nagata’s success is that what he has people do at home seems so unimpressive—simply giving a slight ouch stimulation on the fingers, face and scalp. One would not expect much from this type of intervention, but I do not doubt his claims. I feel there is something important here for us all to investigate. The environment is increasingly unhealthy, the climate unstable, and food quality continues to degenerate; we need all the tools we can get our hands on to help our patients.
Another reason I am drawn to Dr. Nagata’s work is that I find it fascinating that a neurosurgeon left the prestige and financial security of his position to pursue this low-tech, alternative style of healing. It was such an enormous risk. He sees many patients now and has his seminars and books to generate income as well, but there was no guarantee in the beginning that things would work out as they did. Surgeons are the gods of the medical world and neurosurgeons are the highest gods of all. Dr. Nagata gave that all up to pursue PNST. And he didn’t even brand PNST with his own name as many would have. There is something about this story and Dr. Nagata’s courage that I just love.
The late Bob Duggan, one of the earliest pioneers of acupuncture in the US, made a point at a talk in 1995 that has stuck with me ever since. He said that whoever wanted to practice healthcare in the next millennium (we are in it now) would have to be first of all an educator. This is how I see Dr. Nagata and his work: He is a health coach to his patients more than he fulfills the standard image of a doctor. He teaches his patients skills that help them take a measure of their health into their own hands—quite literally.
Dr. Nagata’s book is now available on Amazon for $17.95: Heal Yourself with PNST: A personal guide to better health
Kind regards all around,
Bob Quinn, DAOM, L.Ac.