CC Staffers Finish Fellowship Focusing on Medicine for the Mind, Body and Spirit
EPISODE #15
Uploaded: April 16, 2009
Running Time: 4:05
SCHMALFELDT: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.
There are some answers to the health problems that have plagued mankind that aren’t found with the discovery of a new medication, the development of a new treatment, or the use of state-of-the-art medical equipment. Sometimes, the answers to modern medical dilemmas can be found where the ancients first looked – in nature and even in the human spirit. With a renewed emphasis on integrative medicine in the health care community, one is tempted to say that “everything old is new again.” An interest in finding ways to integrate ancient medical knowledge into modern clinical research and treatment recently led two NIH Clinical Center staffers to complete the Bravewell Associate Fellowship in Integrative Medicine -- a prestigious two year program that focuses on healing the body, the mind, and the human spirit.
Dr. Gwen Wallen is chief of the research and practice development service in Nursing and Patient Services at the Clinical Center. She grew up in Latin America where she experienced different cultures and different ways of healing – including self-healing.
WALLEN: As a person that believes that we’re all made up of more than just our own physiology, I’d always had an interest in mind, body and spiritual wellness, both for my own life and my family’s life.
SCHMALFELDT: Dr. Jay Shah, senior staff physiatrist at the Clinical Center’s Rehabilitation Medicine Department, saw a chance to witness alternative methods of healing put into practice.
SHAH: One of my areas of interest is musculoskeletal pain. There are a lot of ways of evaluating and treating pain because, ultimately, it’s a symptom. One of the things that the course did was to emphasize the integrative aspects of pain management.
SCHMALFELDT: The program, which was offered through the University of Arizona Medical School’s integrative medicine program, included a thousand hours of instruction in biologically-based therapies, such as supplements and botanicals; mind-body therapies like meditation, breath-work and progressive muscle relaxation among others. Participants were exposed to various “whole system” therapies like traditional Chinese and Indian medicine.
Dr. Wallen believes that not only should more medical professionals be exposed to integrative medicine, their patients are ready for it. She said it represents the best of all worlds.
WALLEN: The thing that I think intrigues me the most about it, is that you’re not picking one or the other. You’re using the best of what Eastern and Western medicine have to offer, so you’re not asking someone to give up one or the other.
SCHMALFELDT: Dr. Shah agrees.
SHAH: Absolutely. If you look at the history of NCCAM, first it was the Office of Alternative Medicine, then they had a center – the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine – in many ways, the public has driven this. But from our perspective as clinician-scientists, while we recognize the public is hungry for this, we need to look at what works, what doesn’t work, and try to understand it and then how to integrate it into our daily practice.
SCHMALFELDT: The Bravewell Collaborative, which sponsors the fellowship, is a community of philanthropists dedicated to the advancement of integrative medicine, emphasizing healing of the mind, body and community. And for more information about the NIH Clinical Center, including news about the medical research going on here every day, log on to http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov. From America’s Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I’m Bill Schmalfeldt at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
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