…people listen.


When Andrew Weil speaks, people listen:

Dr. Andrew Weil, author and founder of the University of Arizona’s Integrative Medicine Program, will speak on nutrition, fitness, and mind-body wellness during lunch at a forum Sept. 29.
The Healthier Aging Health and Wellness Forum, sponsored by Pima Council on Aging and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., is 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the YWCA of Tucson Leadership Center, 525 N. Bonita Ave. Giffords will make opening and closing remarks.
Cost is $25 per person and includes a continental breakfast and lunch. Seating is limited to 250 people.
Deadline to register is noon Sept. 26. To register, go to www.pcoa.org or call PCOA, 258-5066, between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., weekdays.

Integrative medicine rocks in Toledo:

Two keynote speakers will address integrative medicine during the community event, “Wellness Across the Age Spectrum,” from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 25 at the Toledo Hospital Education Center Auditorium, 2113 Hughes Drive at the north end of campus off ProMedica Parkway.
The free, public event is sponsored by ProMedica Health System. This year’s theme, integrative medicine, emphasizes the therapeutic relationship between patients and their doctors, using various conventional and alternative therapies.
Dr. Mounir Elkhatib, director of The Great Lakes Center for Integrative Medicine and a clinical associate professor at the University of Toledo College of Medicine, will discuss “The Mediterranean Diet.” Elkhatib, formerly with Sylvania Internists, is a longtime advocate of alternative therapies, including herbal supplements.
Dr. Richard Flanigan, preventive cardiologist and assistant clinical professor of cardiology at the University of Colorado Health Science Center, will present “The Language of Healing.” Flanigan co-authored the book, “Longevity Made Simple,” with his daughter, Dr. Kate Flanigan Sawyer, which offers information and advice for living a healthier life based on clinical experience and scientific research.
Audience members will have the opportunity ask questions if time permits.
“The intent of the conference is to help people understand more about integrative medicine, and that integrative is defined as healing-oriented medicine that takes into account the whole person — body, mind and spirit, including all aspects of lifestyle,” said Judy Gonia, ProMedica director of continuing medical education.
In its fifth year, the annual event features wellness-oriented themes such as “Reconnecting with Your Wild Food Heritage.” While Gonia’s department focuses on education for the physicians and some of the allied health professions, the “Wellness Across the Age Spectrum” series addresses issues important to nonprofessionals as well, using evidence-based research to educate through “layman’s language.”
“What we try to do is once or twice a year, we bring in a speaker who is unique,” she added. “It may have a focus not only for medical people but also for the community. We try to do a presentation in the evening for the community as a community service.”
ProMedica requests that guests make reservations Sept. 22. For more information, call (419) 291-7901 or e-mail carrie.niemic@promedica.org.

Integrative medicine gets a seminar in Pennsylvania:

What if there were one method that could prevent and treat depression, stave off dementia and Alzheimer’s, manage stress, reduce diabetes, lower blood pressure, increase muscle coordination, boost reaction time, increase strength, reduce the chance of coronary artery disease and osteoporosis and it could be done in 30 minutes a day?
In this groundbreaking seminar, Ted Cibik, PhD, ND, DMQ (China) will reveal how mind meets muscle and where ancient knowledge greets cutting edge science. This 3-day health investment held in Leechburg, PA on October 3rd, 4th and 5th at the Inner Strength Campus will reveal to you how mind and body cannot be separated anymore for a healthy, peaceful, fulfilling, pain free life.
“All healing (mental, physical, emotional or spiritual) can be seen as an energy medicine. It takes energy to heal from a cut, to allow a healthy cell to multiply, or to heal from trauma and transcend. The mind is the director of this energy. In order to heal completely or to reach optimal health and longevity, one must learn to become fully aware of thought patterns and give the mind precise instructions on how to invest its energy,” Dr. Cibik said.
Dr. Cibik combines this understanding with unique physical movement patterns that are literally “moving meditation” to allow the brain to sequence this information more quickly.
“There are many western interpretations of meditation that believe that all meditation is empty of thought and feeling — that the mind is a blank slate,” Dr. Cibik said. “Quite the contrary, this unique integrative approach looks to develop and enhance many emotional states — such as compassion and love — all the while resolving others such as abandonment, rejection, betrayal, anger and fear.”
Additionally, Dr. Cibik’s meditation practice can lead to enhanced immune system function, mental clarity and Alzheimer’s prevention. Meditation has been shown to even alter the expression of genes — offering help to people suffering from infertility to the ability to terminate pain.
Class size is limited — pre-register early. Tuition is $499. For more information about “The Power of the Mind to Heal” or other seminars, please visit http://www.inner-strength.org.
You must register by calling 724-845-1041.
About Inner Strength, Inc. and Dr. Ted J. Cibik:
Inner Strength, Inc. is one of the most progressive educators and clinics in the country utilizing integrative mind-body-spirit medicine for individuals and corporate training. Dr. Cibik has been a leading researcher and presenter for over 20 years. He is the author of Air Passages, Surviving Asthma Naturally and Armageddon of the Mind. Please visit http://www.tedcibik.com for more information.

Stress relief hits corporations big-time:

Quantum Intech, Inc., and its subsidiary HeartMath LLC, the leader in scientifically based stress reduction and performance boosting technologies, today announced the release of HeartMath’s emWave(R) PC Stress Relief System connected to HealthVault, Microsoft’s consumer health platform. The connected system provides consumers and corporations with online data for overall fitness assessments, the ability to integrate physician’s office sessions with patient’s home sessions, integrated progress review of stored sessions, and backup storage and synchronization of session information from multiple computers for employers and employees.
HeartMath’s emWave PC is a unique, award-winning PC-based system that features heart rhythm feedback. The emWave PC program has become the stress intervention tool of choice for many corporate wellness programs and healthcare providers worldwide. With emWave PC, users quickly learn essential self-regulation and emotional management skills that increase their internal awareness of when the stress response starts as well as how to shift out of stress the moment it arises, resulting in improved overall health, performance and productivity.
Bruce Cryer, President and CEO, HeartMath LLC, said, “Business and healthcare organizations come to us for our unique, scientifically based stress reducing and performance enhancing solutions which give their employees and patients increased control over their personal health, and have been proven to measurably improve health metrics and significantly increase performance. By leveraging the Microsoft HealthVault platform, we are excited that our emWave PC Stress Relief System will provide employers and employees with enhanced functionality and significant value.”
“HeartMath programs have resulted in significant positive outcomes for numerous healthcare systems and corporations. These results include reducing staff turnover from thirty-six percent to five percent for two hundred fifty staff members trained at Duke University Health Systems (emergency services),” said Catherine Calarco, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for HeartMath. “In addition, corporations have recognized significant improvements in motivation and productivity as well as reduced levels of depression, anxiety and fatigue. Through the HealthVault platform, it is now easier for organizations to readily access the HeartMath program data and achieve these positive outcomes for more people.”
“HeartMath has been true innovators in the development of scientifically based stress reduction and performance enhancing technologies. The connection with HealthVault provides a unique, practical application for organizations,” said James R. Mault, MD, a key figure behind Microsoft’s innovative HealthVault. “Through a cooperative effort, we will enable employers and employees to accomplish the wellness and performance goals they have set while providing them with the opportunity to collect, act on and share their health data with people they trust.”
HealthVault is a free Web-based platform designed to put people in control of their health data. It helps them collect, store and share health information with family members and participating healthcare providers, and it provides people with a choice of third-party applications and devices to help them manage things such as fitness, diet and health. HealthVault also provides a privacy- and security-enhanced foundation on which a broad ecosystem of providers — from medical providers and health and wellness device manufactures to health associations — can build innovative new health and wellness management solutions to help put people in control of their and their family’s health.
About Quantum Intech, Inc.
Quantum Intech researches, develops and licenses emotion-interactive technology to reduce stress and anxiety, improve health and wellness, and increase performance. Quantum Intech’s first patented product, the Freeze-Framer(R), monitors and provides real-time feedback on coherence levels. Quantum Intech has the exclusive worldwide licensing rights to intellectual property developed by the nonprofit Institute of HeartMath.
About HeartMath(R)
HeartMath LLC, a subsidiary of Quantum Intech, Inc., is a cutting-edge performance company providing a range of unique services, products, and technology to improve health and well-being, while dramatically reducing stress and boosting performance and productivity. For more than 17 years HeartMath clinical studies have demonstrated the critical link between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s compelling solutions for stress relief have been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, Preventive Cardiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. HeartMath’s organizational clients include Duke Medicine, Stanford Business School, Stanford Hospital, Mayo Health System, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Sutter Health, the Gottman Institute, Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine, Kaiser Permanente, BP, Cisco Systems, Boeing and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals around the world.
HeartMath is the first recipient of the American Institute of Stress (AIS) Award for Distinction and Innovation. This award is granted to products and services that have been formally evaluated and validated as effective by AIS.
*Product and company names herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
SOURCE: HeartMath LLC

A book announces CAM and integrative medicine approaches to cancer care:

When David Servan-Schreiber, a dedicated scientist and doctor, was diagnosed with brain cancer, his life changed. Confronting what medicine knows about the illness and the little-known workings of his body’s natural cancerfighting capacities, and marshaling his own will to live, Servan-Schreiber found himself on a fifteenyear journey from disease and relapse into scientific exploration and, finally, to health. Combining memoir, concise explanation of what makes cancer cells thrive and what inhibits them, and drawing on both conventional and alternative ways to slow and prevent cancer, Anticancer is revolutionary. It is a moving story of a doctor’s inner and outer search for balance; radical in its discussion of the environment, lifestyle, and trauma; and compelling and cautionary in its proposal that cancer cells lie dormant in all of us-and that we all must care for the “terrain” in which they exist. Advocating a sea change in the way we understand and confront cancer, Anticancer is a radical synthesis of science and personal experience, an inspiring personal journey, and certainly a guide to “a new way of life.”
Anticancer tells us,
* Why the traditional Western diet creates the conditions for disease and how to develop a science-based anticancer diet
* How and why sugar and stress feed cancer and ways to achieve life balance and good nutrition to combat it
* Why the effects of helplessness and unhealed wounds affect our ability to restore health How to reap the benefits of exercise, yoga, and meditation
* How to minimize environmental toxins
* How to find the right blend of traditional and alternative health care
Author Bio
DAVID SERVAN-SCHREIBER, MD, PhD, is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and co-founder of the Center for Integrative Medicine. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Paris, France.

An integrative medicine doc joins a new clinic:

GAINESVILLE – Sara Jampala, M.D., recently joined the Longstreet Clinic, P.C.’s Department of Internal Medicine.
Jampala received her medical degree at Rangaraya Medical College and completed her Internal Medicine residency at Christ Hospital and Medical Center, University of Illinois. She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and previously served as a clinical instructor at Emory University School of Medicine and Morehouse School of Medicine.
Jampala’s expressed interests include diabetes management, integrative medicine and preventative health.
TLC Internists are experienced in the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of most medical conditions that commonly arise from late adolescence through the geriatric years.

A New York paper brings integrative medicine to its readers’ attention:

Some medical professionals have begun to embrace the concept of integrative medicine. “Integrative” means they draw treatment recommendations from the best of conventional medicine, like drugs or surgery, together with complementary or alternative approaches to medicine, known as CAM. These are procedures such as acupuncture or meditation or herbal remedies.
However, most doctors don’t know enough about specific CAM therapies and therefore aren’t willing to integrate them. That frustrates patients and creates a communications disconnect.
We need a way to both be honest with our providers and to feel as if our interest isn’t just being dismissed. Some providers have no interest in learning more. No matter what you say or do, they won’t engage in the conversation. If that happens, and you are adamant about trying an alternative therapy, then you’ll need to decide whether it’s time to find a new, integrative doctor.

Do’s and don’ts of alternative medicine receive exploration:

The broad spectrum of alternative medicine encompasses healing processes that have roots in religion, spirituality, metaphysics or are untried or don’t belong to Western medical traditions.
There are times when these alternative medicine practices are adapted and used by Western medicine. This usually happens after an alternative medicine practice has been tried, tested and proved to work.
There probably isn’t any other alternative healing process that put Western medicinal practitioners in such a bind. They struggle with the validity of the claims made by different manufacturers of these herbal supplements. Doctors want to make sure that you are taking something that is going to help you and not hurt you. As much as we don’t want to admit it, there are companies out there that just want to get our money, and then we are victims of fraud. Proof that it is working is the influx of herbal remedies and supplements on the market. There has to be a way for consumers to be protected.
The best way to protect yourself from fraud is to check if the product has the stamp of approval from a validating agency that you can trust. There are two such organizations that have made it their job to check and validate alternative medicine – United States Pharmacopoeia and NSF International. You are advised never to buy any alternative medicine that does not have the stamp of these organizations. There is no point in taking the risk. If the product does not have the stamp then it implies that it did not conform to the standards set by these organizations and you could become a victim of fraud.