Is Pollakiuria Attributable to the Cold?:
Some days ago, I had an opportunity to have acupuncture treatment by my acupuncture mentor. Receiving treatment as a patient teaches me a lot as an acupuncture clinician myself. To be honest, I was treated for pollakiuria (frequent urination). For some time, I had been using the bathroom as often as 20 times a day. This was unusual but I had no sensation of residual urine and the amount of urine passed on each trip was as usual. When I told my mentor about this, he began to laugh like a nasty small child, putting his hand over his mouth.
In Oriental medicine, pollakiuria or frequent urination is considered a symptom of the weakening of the kidneys due to aging. Regaining his serious expression, my mentor offered to see what was causing the problem. He felt my pulse carefully and said, “The right kidney seems not to be functioning well.” His judgment was based on the knowledge that the energy emanating from the right kidney was not strong enough, giving rise to excessive sensitivity to the cold. Thus, the pulse revealed to him the condition of my kidneys, which is a kind of barometer to check if the body is affected by the cold. Then I realized that my urination problem came from the high sensitivity to the cold.

Disruption of Balance Between Upper and Lower Halves:
He checked my back, abdomen and some major acupuncture points and said, “Here’s the origin of your problem.” It is a pair of points called “Tensu” in Oriental medicine (two points, each of which is located horizontally, on the right and left, about 4.5 cm away from the ambilicus).
. My mentor applied the needle to the left point and said, “You have been rather busy these days, haven’t you?” Actually, in the week immediately before the urination problem came up, I had attended classes on two full days in the correspondence course that I’m taking now. The load of my clinical work was on the increase, too. Soon after the treatment was finished, I fell into a sound sleep, evidence of liberation from tension. Mental tension can be equated to a traffic gridlock, causing an obstruction in the flow of energy. Eliminating the tension helps the energy flow back to normal and recovers the healthy balance of bodily functions.
Of course, aging is involved in the urination frequency, but in my case the excessive work pressure and mental stress affected the normal function of the kidneys, thus causing imbalance in their organic functions. This phenomenon, which is often seen in the menopausal period, is called “Joujitsu/Kakyo” in Oriental medicine, meaning excessive energy in the top half and lack of the same in the lower half of the body. In other words, the weakening of the kidney function (related to the lower half) and the resultant excessive energy in the upper half (related to the functions of the liver and autonomic nervous system, etc.) are frequently observed in the menopausal period.

Allowing Oneself to Relax:
The meridian, or acupuncture point, which is called “Tensu” as mentioned above, has various meanings, but in the book written by my mentor and titled “A Commentary on Meridian Points,” the author says, “The pair of points called ‘Tensu’ plays a very important role, located in a position that divides upper and lower halves . . . In it resides our soul. It has a very close relationship with the liver and may exacerbate physical problems, if carelessly tampered with.”
At the end of the treatment, he said to me, “It is advisable to allow yourself to relax a bit sometimes.” This suggestion from my mentor surprised me, because I had really been fired up and single-mindedly dashing ahead for some time. By examining the condition of my urination frequency, he saw through my whole life. This was surprising indeed, and at the same time made me feel grateful to him. After the treatment, as I was watching him treating his other patients, he said in a small voice to me that I might have loose bowels for a time. This surprised me again, because I had indeed been having constipation for a while. Then, as he predicted, my urination problem disappeared suddenly.

Holistic Approach:
I love the expression which my mentor often uses: “The holistic medical approach.”
It means a diagnostic approach that focuses not only on the part of the body that “aches” but also on some other aspects as well, such as the patient’s lifestyle, his or her character which underlies it, and the causative facts tracing back to and beyond his or her parents and grandparents. This process enhances the chance of successfully detecting the cause of physical problems or predicting the illness that may befall in the future. It is an extremely hard challenge to most clinicians. Hokushin-kai, under the leadership of my mentor Rempu Fujimoto, testifies to the wonders of Oriental medicine.