As regular readers of this blog know, my interest in holistic holistic health and wellness has grown over the past year. As a student of energy medicine, aromatherapy, Reiki, and general principles of holistic health, I've come to realize that, if we want to change our lives for the better, we can't be looking at just one isolated slice of our life for the answers. We are whole, complex human beings, and to create positive change in our lives, we need to treat ourselves as such and address the challenges we face on many different levels.
This growing interest led me last week to the Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public, put together by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. I left the Summit inspired by the discussion and the possibilities for all of us together to build a society that fosters holistic health and honors each and every one of its members as a whole and complete human being.
To continue the discussion that started there, and extend it to those who were unable to join us, I have invited several friends who are leading the effort here in the Washington, DC area to offer their thoughts and perspectives on the Summit here on my blog.
Below are the guest posts:
Lucrezia Mangione argues that we are part of a sea change in health care and there is room for all at the table in Creating the Culture of Wellness.
Daphne White reports on groundbreaking Senate testimonies by Mehmet Oz, Dean Ornish, Andrew Weil, and Mark Hyman, and on Sen. Harkin's moving address to the IOM Summit. Daphne calls upon all CAM practitioners to "put in sweat equity" to make sure that integrative health care is really part of the health care reform.
And Izabella Tabarovsky (yes, that's me) chimed in with some takeaways concerning what we, as CAM practitioners, can do to make the new, emerging paradigm a reality.
I have also just added a post on Dr. Mehmet Oz's remarks at the event and may be adding more as I go through my notes.
In the meantime, the full webcast of the conference is now available online, so you can watch the entire event or the parts that interest you the most from the comfort of your own home.
What are your thoughts on the subject? Please share your comments under any of the posts that have caught your attention. Let's all join in the revolution that's taking place in the way we as a society view and create health and wellness!
Holistic healing is rightfully earning respect in the medical community. I have seen my own health increase due to the benefits of holistic healing. Try it out if you are even slightly interested, it will definitely surprise you.
Posted by: Holistic Healer | March 04, 2009 at 06:10 PM
Holistic Healer - thank for your comment, and thanks for stopping by. I agree with you completely. I think that as more and more people discover the benefits of an integrative approach to health, they will increasingly demand it from their doctors. The medical community will have no other choice but respond.
Posted by: Izabella Tabarovsky | March 05, 2009 at 11:43 AM