Safety of 4-week Indirect-moxibustion Therapy at CV4 and CV8

Purpose Moxibustion therapy is a commonly used treatment in Oriental medicine. Here, we provide evidence for the safety of long-term moxibustion therapy. Subjects and design: Forty-five subjects (10 men and 35 women) who complained of chronic fatigue were divided into control (5 men and 15 women) and experimental groups (5 men and 20 women) in a randomized double-blind setting. The experimental group was treated with moxibustion to CV4 and CV8 for 4 weeks (administered three times per week); the control group was exposed to simulated burning of moxibustion. Complete blood counts, blood chemistry, and urinalysis results were analyzed before and after each trial. Results The absolute and relative number of peripheral blood cells did not differ between the pre- and posttreatment measurements of either group. No significant changes in blood chemistry or urinalysis data were observed in either group. Conclusions These results suggest that indirect moxibustion has no effect on blood chemistry or urine and is safe for clinical use. These data could be used as reference data for further moxibustion studies.