Research Article The Traditional Kampo Medicine Tokishakuyakusan Increases Ocular Blood Flow in Healthy Subjects Shin Takayama, 1,2 Yukihiro Shiga, 3 Taiki Kokubun, 3 Hideyuki Konno, 3 Noriko Himori, 3 Morin Ryu, 3 Takehiro Numata, 4 Soichiro Kaneko, 4 Hitoshi Kuroda, 5 Junichi Tanaka, 2 Seiki Kanemura, 2 Tadashi Ishii, 2 Nobuo Yaegashi, 4 and Toru Nakazawa 3 1 Comprehensive Education Center for Community Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-Machi, Aoba Ward, Sendai City 980-8575, Japan 2 Department of Education and Support for Community Medicine, Tohoku University Hospital, 1-1 Seiryo-Machi, Aoba Ward, Sendai City 980-8574, Japan 3 Department of Ophthalmology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo-Machi, Aoba Ward, Sendai City 980-8574, Japan 4 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo-Machi, Aoba Ward, Sendai City 980-8574, Japan 5 Division of General Medicine, Saitama Medical Center, Jichi Medical University, 1-847 Amanumacho, Omiya Ward, Saitama City 330-8503, Japan Correspondence should be addressed to Shin Takayama; tatahara1492@gmail.com Received 21 February 2014; Accepted 22 March 2014; Published 24 April 2014 Academic Editor: Wei Jia Copyright © 2014 Shin Takayama et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. he aim of this study was to examine the efects of oral administration of kampo medical formulas on ocular blood low (OBF). A crossover protocol was used to randomly administer ive grams of yokukansan, tokishakuyakusan (TSS), keishibukuryogan, or hachimijiogan to 13 healthy blinded subjects (mean age: 37.3 ± 12.3 years). he mean blur rate, a quantitative OBF index obtained with laser speckle lowgraphy, was measured at the optic nerve head before and 30 minutes ater administration. Blood pressure (BP) and intraocular pressure (IOP) were also recorded. No signiicant changes were observed in mean BP or IOP ater the administration of any of the kampo medical formulas. here was a signiicant increase in OBF 30 minutes ater administration of TSS (100% to 103.6 ± 6.9%,  < 0.01). Next, TSS was administered to 19 healthy subjects (mean age: 32.0 ± 11.0 years) and OBF was measured before and 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes ater administration. Plain water was used as a control. OBF increased signiicantly ater TSS administration compared to control ( < 0.01) and also increased from 30 to 60 minutes ater administration compared to baseline ( < 0.05). hese results suggest that TSS can increase OBF without afecting BP or IOP in healthy subjects. 1. Introduction Ocular blood low (OBF) abnormalities have been reported to play an important role in the pathogenesis of many ocular diseases, including glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy [1– 4]. An understanding of these abnormalities is therefore of critical importance in determining the pathophysiological features of these diseases and inding novel treatments. Japanese kampo medicine has a history spanning more than 1500 years. Kampo medical formulas have been used to treat a variety of physical illnesses and diseases [5], including ocular conditions such as dry eye, blurred vision, decreased visual acuity, and visual ield defects [6]. However, the clinical eicacy of kampo medicine has traditionally been evaluated with subjective assessments of symptoms, and there is little quantitative information on the efects of kampo medical Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2014, Article ID 586857, 8 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/586857