Healthy Texans 2010 CAM

Several months ago I was asked to be on a panel discussing Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) at a health conference in Irving, Texas. It was to be a three-day conference targeting health-care professionals, including physicians, nurses, dieticians, nutritionists, researchers, instructors, and all others directly involved in the healthcare field. The theme for the event was entitled "Effective Approaches for Solving Health Challenges in Minority and Under-Served Populations."
The presentations on the first and second days of the conference dealt with conventional health issues such as cancer, infectious diseases, including HIV, access to healthcare, dental issues, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, etc. I was not able to attend the first two days of the conference, but from all accounts, the expert speakers who addressed the various topics were top-notch presenters. According to Wileen Hogan, with the Denton County Health Dept., and one of the conference co-chairs, there were about 400 attendees overall, and the event was deemed a success. Juan Carlos Reynoso, with Public Health Services of the City of Irving, and the conference chairperson, was instrumental in putting the conference together. Cindy Don, with the Office of Minority Health, and another of the co-chairs, also helped to insure that things moved along. Carla Roberson with the DeHaro-Saldivar Health Center, Parkland Health & Hospital System, Dallas, also helped coordinate the event. There were many more individuals responsible for the success of the conference that I was not aware of, or that I did not have the pleasure to meet, but that were still part of the overall team. I applaud their hard work and long hours that brought the conference to fruition.
The panel of presenters of CAM on the third day included Gilbert Ramirez, PhD, panel moderator and opening and closing speaker. Dr Ramirez is the Chair of Leadership Studies at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, and former member of the advisory board for the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine at the NIH. His expertise is in research synthesis and meta-analysis and he has published systematic reviews on St. John’s Wort, homeopathy, garlic, and milk thistle. He has presented at several conferences on complimentary medicine topics in general, and in particular, the use of prickly pear cactus among the Latino population for treatment of Type II diabetes.
Our first speaker was Lance A. Rasbridge, PhD. Dr Rasbridge is a medical anthropologist, and coordinates the Refugee Outreach Program for Parkland Hospital, providing public health screening and primary care to all newly-arrived refugees and asylees in Dallas County. He has authored or co-authored numerous papers, book chapters, and a website on refugees and health, particularly focusing on educating the medical community about Southeast Asian traditional beliefs and practices. He serves on several boards, including Refugee Services of North Texas and the Center for Survivors of Torture, and also coordinates the Cambodia Outreach program, establishing health and development programs inside Cambodia. Having lived, worked, and studied in Southeast Asia, Indo-China, South Korea, and Japan, I enjoyed hearing about his work.
Following Dr. Rasbridge was Richard Robinson, PhD. Dr. Robinson was born and raised in Texas. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and earned a degree in clinical psychology. He then went on to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical center at Dallas where he earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. At UT Southwestern, Dr. Robinson researched several areas in health psychology. He began to study several alternative medicine techniques, including imagery and hypnosis. Dr. Robinson is now faculty at UT Southwestern and has been working for several years on an NIH funded study that examines the effects of acupuncture. His presentation was also quite interesting.
Our next speaker was Mr. Makio Nishida. Mr. Nishida earned a Bachelor of Arts and a black belt degree from Japan. He has been a practitioner of martial and Chinese arts for 50 years, and has received over 300 awards, including state and national championships. He has been teaching since 1974, and is a master instructor and operates his own school, where he teaches Japanese-style Karate, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, self-defense, and Cardio-Kickboxing. Master Nishida teaches techniques that aid in physical and emotional well-being. He has assisted the University of North Texas Graduate School of Health and Sciences, the Bureau of Federal Prisons, and many other schools and organizations. Routinely, physicians send patients to Mr. Nishida, to help them overcome an illness or condition through Tai Chi or Qi Gong. Mr. Nishida’s presentation was enjoyed by all of us in attendance.
The next presenter was John Cush, MD. He is currently the Chief of the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Medical Director of the Arthritis Center of Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, and is a Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. His accomplishments are many and varied. He has authored nearly 70 publications on a variety of topics including rheumatoid arthritis, RA immunopathogenesis, drug-induced lupus, spondyloarthropathies, immunotherapy, and adult-onset Still’s disease. Dr. Cush spoke on alternative and complimentary therapies for arthritis. His presentation included a number of products and supplements currently used to treat arthritis, and their relative effectiveness. Dr. Cush’s information, like most of the others, needed much more time to present, but due to time constraints, was delivered succinctly.
I followed Dr. Cush with a presentation on herbal medicine among the Hispanic population of South Texas. The information was well received. There is definitely an interest in traditional herbal medicine and how it can be incorporated into conventional healthcare.
Tanya Edwards, MD, our final speaker, spoke on incorporating new healing practices into mainstream medicine. Dr. Edwards is Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where she is a member of the Family Medicine Residency Faculty at University Hospitals of Cleveland. Dr Edwards directed the Year 1-2 Curriculum for the Primary Care Track at CWRU for three years before stopping to devote her efforts to complimentary medicine teaching and research. She is currently Coordinator of Complimentary and Alternative Medical Education for the Department of Family Medicine at CWRU. Dr Edward’s talk was particularly exciting to me, since she spoke of the work going on at CWRU and of the many CAM classes being offered to her medical students. I would love to hear more of the same from every other medical school in the US.
I feel confident that we could have spent even more time discussing CAM issues, and look forward to the next conference. Based on the comments and response from both the panel members and audience, there is much interest in CAM. A large percentage of patients use alternative therapies, with or without their caregiver’s knowledge. Patients want more healthcare options, and CAM can offer them those choices. However, until the healthcare system begins to broaden its scope of care, patients will continue to treat themselves concurrently, or seek alternative services, outside of conventional medicine.
That will cover things for this month. As always, consult with your physician before using any herbal remedy. For questions or comments on this column, I can be reached via e-mail at glorioso@netscorp.net. For more information on herbal medicine in South Texas, go to www.laredos.com and click on "The Medicine Man" column or the "Medicine Man Archives" for a collection of previous articles