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August, 2009 - VOL. 8, NO. 4 | |
August, 2009 |
| The Path Ahead: The Bountiful Resource of Books |
| Joseph Pizzorno, ND |
| On May 27, one of the pioneers who created integrative medicine, Abram Hoffer, MD, passed away at the age of 92 after a short illness. Dr Hoffer codiscovered the first effective lipid-lowering agent, niacin, and was also the first to recognize its value for acute schizophrenia, coining the term orthomolecular psychiatry. For those of us blessed to live near him in the Northwest, he was an inspiration for decades. We will publish a full tribute to this great Canadian physician in an upcoming issue. I am also very pleased to be able to report that, as part of its Masters in Functional Medicine historic series, the Institute for Functional Medicine videotaped an hour-long interview with Dr Hoffer. It is an inspirational viewing experience for anyone wanting to better understand the giants who courageously, and at great personal cost, sought truth for their patients rather than the comfort of conformity.
Resources
One of the great benefits of being the editor in chief of IMCJ is the many interesting topics I get to write and read about. Another benefit is the many interesting books and textbooks sent to me for review. Somehow, this task always seems a lower priority than the latest topic of interest. However, the stack on my desk is now pretty deep and I feel guilty every time I look at it. Hopefully, you will find this exercise in personal therapy of value as I review books of potential benefit to practitioners. In the next issue, I plan to get caught up on consumer books.
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August, 2009 - VOL. 8, NO. 4 | |
August, 2009 |
| Industry News and Insights: Focus, Money, and Policy: Conventions vs the CAM World |
| John Weeks |
| While Barack Obama is working hard to make a dent in the problems facing the US medical system, his efforts at this time show no overt movement toward a more wellness-oriented and preventive approach, according to Wayne Jonas, MD, former director of the NIH Office of Alternative Medicine, predecessor to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).1 Jonas, one of integrative healthcare's top advocates in Washington, DC, notes that Obama’s convening of the White House Forum on Health Reform and establishment of the White House Office of Health Reform highlight the commitment of the Administration to address the growing healthcare crisis.
Yet, he notes, while Obama speaks of the need to address costs and routinely references the importance of an investment in prevention, “what is often lost is the fact that what is meant by prevention is not always clear.” Jonas also adds that early disease testing, a type of prevention that is typically recommended, is dependent on the medical system to deliver. The problem, he says, is that “true prevention and health promotion require something different from just access to current services. A new vision of health and disease based on the primary components of health flourishing is required.”
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August, 2009 - VOL. 8, NO. 4 | |
August, 2009 |
| When CAHCIM Met ACCAHC (at the NARCCIM) |
| Bill Benda, MD |
| In the increasingly complex and forever-changing realm of healthcare, we often find ourselves channeling our mental energies toward those duties that require immediate attention: the patient in front of us, the office behind, paperwork that waits. With our attention thus engaged, structures and events that affect our lives in a more peripheral manner usually pass through our consciousness without really taking root—we know at some level that they are important, but their impact is usually felt more in retrospect than in reality. Examples within our integrative field may include passage of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), the guidelines created by the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy (WHCCAMP), and clinical research funded through the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health (NCCAM/NIH). We can hardly keep track of the acronyms, much less the content and context of their impact upon our daily existence.
There are, however, 2 organizations and 1 tri-annual conference that are having an increasingly potent influence upon our livelihood, not to mention the lives of our patients. Each of these 3 has its own history, its own personality, and its own potential to affect the practice and politics of healthcare in the coming decades. The 2 organizations met officially at 1 conference for the first time on May 11th of this year in Minneapolis, Minnesota, imparting yet another nudge to the shift occurring within our current healthcare paradigm.
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August, 2009 - VOL. 8, NO. 4 | |
August, 2009 |
| Cardiovascular Benefits of Soy Supplements |
| Jörg Grünwald, PhD; Lars M. Høie, MD; Heike Stier, PhD |
| Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most frequent cause of death in Western industrialized nations. The probability of CVD is directly related to blood cholesterol levels, among several other factors such as hypertension, smoking, malnutrition, obesity, and stress. It is well known that changes in lifestyle, including physical activity and dietary changes such as reduction in the consumption of saturated fat, can reduce blood cholesterol levels. In such cases, dietary soy-protein supplementation, for which cholesterol-lowering properties have been shown in many clinical studies, is useful to postpone the need for cholesterol-lowering medication such as statins.
In this review, we will summarize numerous clinical studies conducted with soy-protein supplementation in various formulations that exhibit clear low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol-lowering effects. To get more homogeneous results, we summarized only clinical studies conducted with soy-protein supplements containing the same isolated soy proteins, cotyledon fibers, and phospholipids: Nutri 5, Abalon, and Abacor (all by Nutri Pharma ASA, Norway), which have shown clear cholesterol-lowering efficacy. Furthermore, these studies demonstrate that homocysteine, an independent CVD risk factor, is also reduced by soy-protein supplementation. Differences between studies showing clear LDL-lowering effects for soy protein and those that do not are discussed, as well as possible mechanisms of action for soy-protein supplementation on blood cholesterol levels.
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August, 2009 - VOL. 8, NO. 4 | |
August, 2009 |
| Organ Reserve and Healthy Aging, Part II: Improving Organ Function |
| John Neustadt, ND; Steve Pieczenik, MD, PhD |
| Organs are thought to have a certain capacity to withstand perturbations and return to homeostasis, a concept that has been termed “organ reserve.” In a Part I of this article (IMCJ 2008;7.3:50-52), we discussed the idea of organ reserve and evaluated evidence for its existence. Having established a basis for the concept, in this article we evaluate strategies for increasing organ function to promote health and decrease age-related disease. The discussion was narrowed to the 2 most prevalent conditions: cardiac failure and sarcopenia (age-related reduction in skeletal muscle mass in the elderly). Clinical trials on botanical medicines, nutritional strategies, and hormone-replacement therapy provide data that diseases typically considered irreversible can be treated and organ function restored. Clinical trials show that Hawthorne (Crataegus spp.) effectively restores cardiac function in stages I and II heart failure and that amino acid therapy and testosterone (for men only) can increase muscle mass in sarcopenia. More clinically useful than the strict definition of organ reserve is the development of a clinical sense that organ function can be promoted and that the diseases and morbidities associated with aging are not necessarily inevitable. |
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August, 2009 - VOL. 8, NO. 4 | |
August, 2009 |
| Preconception Counseling: Helping Patients Plan for the Future |
| Erica B Oberg, ND, MPH |
| Preconception planning presents an excellent opportunity to engage both women and men in proactive health promotion. As more and more families delay pregnancy until later in life and plan parenthood deliberately, the need for preconception counseling is increasing. This article reviews topics of interest to integrative family medicine providers including aspects of medical history, nutrient deficiencies, and environmental exposures including heavy metals and ionizing radiation. Both female and male factors are discussed. |
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August, 2009 - VOL. 8, NO. 4 | |
August, 2009 |
| Patient Handout: Preconception Planning |
| Erica B Oberg, ND, MPH |
| Congratulations on choosing to take a proactive approach to starting a family! Ideally, your preconception planning should begin at least 3 months before trying to conceive; however, it’s never too late to begin to adopt healthful habits. Use this list during discussions with your health provider(s) and as a checklist when you get home. |
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August, 2009 - VOL. 8, NO. 4 | |
August, 2009 |
| Viewpoints: The Team Approach to Healthcare: An Interview With Wellness Coach Sharon Benedict |
| Kimberly Lord Stewart |
| Physicians no longer need be alone in their quest to help patients with major lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation, weight loss, fitness goals, and dietary changes. Wellness coaches can play a supportive role in an integrative health team to encourage and motivate patients toward permanent change. IMCJ asked Sharon Benedict, a wellness coach in San Antonio, Texas, to share her insights.
IMCJ: While many people have heard of job coaches and even life coaches, wellness coaching is a new subject that has particular relevance to healthcare practitioners. What is a wellness coach?
Ms Benedict: A wellness coach is a proactive advocate and ally for the client. Since wellness involves many lifestyle factors, wellness coaching engages the client’s whole life. A wellness coach is a professional ally that stands with the client as she commits to making significant lifestyle changes.
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August, 2009 - VOL. 8, NO. 4 | |
August, 2009 |
| Preparing Patients for Proper Sun Exposure |
| Joel Kreisberg, DC |
| The times of extended, unprotected sunbathing on the beach have long-since passed. The current hyper-media focus, with many years of messages about the increased incidence of skin cancers and the dangers of overexposure to the damaging rays of the sun, has created the dominant perspective to simply avoid the sun. However, recent headlines about decreases in vitamin D levels throughout our population require health professionals and their patients to rethink our relationship with the sun, which is our greatest natural source of vitamin D. Headlines such as “Vitamin D Often Low in Mothers and in Newborns,”1 “Vitamin D Levels Low Among People in U.S., Particularly Those With Darker Skin, Study Finds”2 and “Insufficient Vitamin D Levels in Americans”3 have become increasingly commonplace. Several of these headlines are based on research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine by Adit A. Ginde, MD, MPH.*
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August, 2009 - VOL. 8, NO. 4 | |
August, 2009 |
| BackTalk: Consorting with the Enemy |
| Bill Benda, MD |
| In this issue, you will find my embryonic endeavor as a historical investigative reporter, a piece entitled “When CAHCIM Met ACCAHC at the NARCCIM.” Should you not wish to browse through the entirety of those 3000 words (although you really should), I will summarize the primary point in less than a paragraph. The Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine (CAHCIM), consisting of integrative programs from 42 conventional North American medical schools, recently sat down for the first time to meet with the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC), which represents educational institutions, accrediting agencies, and certification/testing organizations of all accredited complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) professions. This inaugural event took place at the second North American Research Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine (NARCCIM) this past May. I had hoped to attend to both observe and record this potentially historic event. Alas, it was not to be, as my request was politely declined to preserve the privacy of this organizational first date. |
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