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November 22, 2018

Group Visits Spotlight: Acupuncture Access/Income Up at Integrative Center & Call for Papers

From 30,000 feet – where I sit – it’s easy to proclaim all the reasons why group visits are a terrific fit for the values and practice of integrative health and medicine. Docere. What better format than groups? Adults learn better interactively. Groups are mediums for taking power in oneself and changing lifestyle. Now a presentation through the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health (“the Consortium”) offers data on how group visits both expanded access and increased revenues in integrative health services. Meantime, peer-reviewed journal JACM has announced that it is developing an entire Special Focused Issue on Innovation in Group-Delivered Services.
November 21, 2018

Bad News Breeds Good News: National Academy’s Top Recognition of Integrative Health Since 2009 Summit

At one point over the past three years of robust expansion of dialogue related to chronic pain care I received a somewhat panicky email from an integrative care advocate. He was concerned that by me speaking of the “opportunity” for integrative health produced by the US’ enthrallment with opioids that his field would be tainted as “opportunists.” Fact is, the dialogue over right use of “non-pharmacologic” practices and practitioners in chronic pain treatment has provoked a quantum opening in many quarters. This article shares an invitation to a December 4-5 workshop at from the National Academy Medicine (NAM) – the most robust inclusion of integrative health there since the 2009 Summit. Also included: another positive development at NAM, and first notes of advances at AIPM’s recent Integrative Pain Care Policy Congress. The bad news of the opioid crisis is proving very good for opening needed dialogue.
November 16, 2018

Finding Balance: What’s New and Not Yet Reported Re Growth in Yoga/Meditation Use

Newton’s third law of motion is that for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Just so, as the world seems increasingly to be coming apart at its seams, US adults are turning to centering practices such as meditation and yoga. Such are the findings of a new report from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and the CDC. From 2012-2017, meditation use jumped from 4% to 14% and yoga from 9.5% to 14%. Similar significant increases were found in children. What the researchers did not yet report are deeper data the CDC survey gleaned that will cast light on the meaning of such practices.
November 16, 2018

Unscientific Consumer Beliefs in Cancer Alternatives Are Why Mainstream Needs Integrative Oncology

The raw data are stark. 40% of US adults in a recent poll believe that “cancer can be solely cured through alternative remedies.” Of young people aged 18-35, the percentage pushes up to nearly half, at 47%. Remarkably, 38% of family members and other caregivers to people with cancer agree. And 22% of cancer survivors do.  These beliefs – a shocking contrast to a 2017 study that found that choosing alternatives increases risk of death 2.5 times – are a central reason that the cancer establishment needs integrative and naturopathic oncologists.