This October, President Clinton appointed five new members to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy, including two health professionals with extensive experience in acupuncture and Oriental medicine. Among the new members:
David Bresler, PhD, LAc. Dr. Bresler has been studying acupuncture, guided imagery, and other alternative forms of care for more than a quarter century. In 1973, he founded the UCLA Pain Control Unit, which created one of the first multidisciplinary, university-based chronic pain programs in the United States. He is currently an associate professor of anesthesiology at the UCLA School of Medicine.
Xiao Ming Tian, MD, PhD, RAc. Dr. Tian is the president of the American Association of Chinese Medicine and currently serves as an advisor to the World Health Organization and Pan-American Health Organization on traditional medicine. In 1991, he was the first person appointed a Clinical Consultant of Acupuncture to the National Institutes of Health's medical staff.
In addition to Bresler and Tian, President Clinton also appointed Drs. Veronica Gutierrez and Donald Warren and Ms. Linnea Larson to the commission. The commission's primary objective is to prepare a report to the president that includes recommendations on maximizing the benefits of complementary and alternative medicine.
New Academic Dean at Northwest Institute
Alex Holland, MAc, LAc, has been named Acting Academic Dean at the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NIAOM). A 1985 graduate of the Institute, Holland was originally appointed by the school's president, Robert Shook, and was approved by NIAOM's faculty committee earlier this fall.
"Mr. Holland brings to NIAOM the clinical and administrative experiences needed to restore a renewed energy towards education and training," said Heather McFarlane, chair of the faculty committee.
In his new role, Mr. Holland will work directly with the committee in preparing the school's interim accreditation report. He will also help coordinate a site visit to the Institute from the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine scheduled for spring 2001. He has previously served at the Institute as a faculty member, clinical instructor, academic administrator and curriculum director.
TCM in Space
An experiment co-sponsored by French and Chinese scientists has shown that a traditional Chinese medicine compound promotes the generation of bone cells during space flight. The discovery could help reduce the effects of osteoporosis in astronauts, thus allowing them to remain in space for longer periods of time.
According to Li Yinghui, a scientist from China's National Institute of Space Medicine, six boxes of bone cells treated with a TCM compound were placed in a satellite owned by the European Space Agency (ESA) on a recent space mission. After a 15-day space flight, the satellite was recovered and the cells examined for changes. Analysis of the cells showed that the compound, the ingredients of which were not released for security reasons, was effective in the generation of new bone cells. However, Yinghui noted that additional research should be performed "to determine whether the traditional Chinese medicine works if taken by astronauts."
More experiments between ESA and the Institute are planned for later this year, Yinghui added, with testing of TCM compounds to take place in space and in simulated zero gravity conditions.
PCOM Adds Tai Chi Master to Staff
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine has announced the addition of Herman Kauz, a certified tai chi master and martial arts instructor, to its adjunct teaching staff. Kauz's classes will be offered to PCOM students at no charge to help provide an environment that stimulates academic and personal growth.
Kauz is a direct student of the late Professor Cheng Man-Ching, an internationally known tai chi grand master. He has studied both external and internal martial arts since 1952, and has written several books on tai chi, martial arts and relaxation.
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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