New Conventional Treatment for Uterine Fibroids

Interventional Radiology: Zapping Uterine Fibroids With Heat from High-Energy Sound Waves

ScienceDaily (Mar. 15, 2010) — There's a new interventional radiology tool showing promise in the treatment of uterine fibroids: magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS), a minimally invasive treatment that uses high-energy ultrasound waves to generate heat at a specific point to destroy uterine fibroid tissue and relieve symptoms. A study of more than 100 patients shows that women can get lasting relief from uterine fibroid-related symptoms with MRgFUS -- thus avoiding myomectomy, the surgical removal of uterine fibroids, or hysterectomy, major abdominal surgery to remove the uterus, say researchers at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 35th Annual Scientific Meeting in Tampa, Fla.

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Cost effective estrogen dominance test and solutions!

This is a link that tells you how to order this test and how to calculate whether or not your estrogen levels are problematic and how to improve them if so.

Estrogen Dominance Test

Healthcare workforce was amended so that it now officially includes, “licensed complementary and alternative medicine providers and integrative health

The health care reform bill has passed and many people will be celebrating that, finally, the United States will work to assure every citizen health insurance that cannot be canceled because you change your job, because you get sick, or for any other reason.

Those of us who believe in preventive health care, integrated health care, functional medicine, and complementary and alternative medicine have special reasons to celebrate. This bill has provisions that explicitly support these approaches to health care. One of these is the creation of a National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council, which I testified about before the Senate last February.

The Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC) was created in 2002 and has been quietly working on Capitol Hill to bring about the kinds of changes in health care that we all want. Last month, I was in New York presenting at the Integrative Healthcare Symposium and I was on a panel with IHPC’s executive director, Dr. Janet Kahn. When I heard her describe what IHPC has been doing about health care reform and the things that are lying quietly in this bill, I got very excited about their work and what is to come in 2010.

Dr. Kahn explained 3 major aspects of this bill that IHPC helped shape.

1. Due to Kahn’s work with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the definition of the healthcare workforce was amended so that it now officially includes, “licensed complementary and alternative medicine providers and integrative healthcare practitioners.”

2. IHPC was a collaborator on the creation of the Wellness Initiative for the Nation (WIN), a document that prompted the inclusion of the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council that I mentioned above. Truly remarkable.

3. And third, IHPC worked hard to have the Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research in the bill. This will allow functional medicine approaches to be evaluated toe to toe with conventional medicine.

And there will be more. As Kahn so clearly told the audience in New York, this health care reform bill is just the beginning. It contains toeholds from which we climb toward what we really want – a nation that really understands how to help people live healthy lives and that supports the availability of many different pathways to healing.

I often say that I practice functional medicine because it tackles and fixes the underlying causes of health problems and doesn’t paper over the symptoms as so much of conventional medicine does. That is exactly IHPC’s approach to health care reform. IHPC is about reforming the very architecture of American health care.

Mark Hyman, M.D.

join our Online Action Network
http://capwiz.com/ihpc/mlm/signup/?ignore_cookie=1

By joining IHPC’s Online Action Network you will receive regular updates from IHPC, and will be provided opportunities to take action on important healthcare policy when it matters most.

Winter Classes

The long nights of Winter are upon us. Today is the coldest day I can remember in Maryland for a long, long time! The following classes are offered to aid you in increasing your health and happiness. Movement, introspection, earth wisdom, relational support and self empowerment are important ways to become and stay connected to your inner wisdom and inherent health.
All of the following classes will be held at Body & Soul Healing Arts, 22201 Davis Mill Road, Germantown, Maryland 20876. Pre-registration is required. Please contact me to register. Hope you can join us!

SPIRITUAL BELEDE
Ongoing Thursdays beginning January 21 at 11:30a.m. Six one and one half hour sessions. $120 for the series, $25 per class. Class size limited to four participants.
Every Spiritual Belly Dance class is both different and the same. All classes taught in this way include the basic vocabulary of belly dance movements that can be learned anywhere-hip circles, hip drops, shimmies, etc. All of these movements generally come from distinct energy sources. For example hip circles and figure eights are second chakra movements; shoulder shimmies come from the heart...However, beyond these movements, the energy of any one given day is unique. In fact, every minute of every day comes with a different energy. Spiritual Belly Dance teaches the student to notice and furthermore control these energetic differences and then to blend them into traditional dancing techniques.
The intended final result of all of this teaching is to help women to be stronger, healthier, and happier in all aspects of life, not only dancing. Please bring a hip scarf and veil if you have them!


DREAM GROUP
Ongoing Thursdays beginning January 21 at 1pm. Six two-hour sessions. $180 for the series, $35 per session. Limited to eight participants.
Gather with us to share your dreams and explore their meaning in a structured, yet intimate environment. The messages in our dreams are gifts from our soul. We will work to understand the language they are speaking to help guide us through our journey through life.
We will meet for six Thursdays beginning January 21th and ending February 25th, 2010. The group will have the option to continue ongoing meetings. Commitment to attendance of each weeks gathering is strongly encouraged.


WINTER HERBAL SUPPORT
Saturday, January 30, 2-4 pm Fee: $30. Limited to 8 participants.
Learn how to nurture your body during the winter season. We will discuss which herbs and foods to use to fight infections, stifle symptoms and rebuild health. Learn how to make and use tinctures and cook with herbs to keep healthy! Angela has been an herbalist for over nine years. She grows, wild-crafts and makes herbal products using her plant allies. Come join us learn to live in harmony with nature’s gifts!

PREGNANT BODY CARE FOR COUPLES
Saturday, February 13, 2-4 pm Fee: $40. Limited to three couples.
Come and learn what you can do for yourself or your partner to help ease discomforts that often develop as your body grows ripe. I will show you gentle massage techniques, suggest products to use, and have on hand, as well as movements that help your baby position correctly. My intention is to lovingly support, prepare and empower you in your birthing experience. Bring your questions and see where they lead us!


HEAL THE UTERUS (Hands on Health the Maya Way )
Saturday, April 17, 2010, 9 a.m.- 6 p.m. Fee: $120, Limited to 8 participants.
Discover the wisdom of Maya traditional healing in recovering and maintaining the health of your reproductive, digestive and urinary systems. This work is helpful to so many “female” concerns. During this class you will learn about Dr. Rosita Arvigo, her apprenticeship with Don Elijio Panti and other healers from Belize. You will learn the fundamentals of anatomy and physiology as it relates to the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Massage (ATMAM), and of course, to specific health issues. I will teach you Maya Abdominal Massage (MAM) for your own Self Care. We will also identify situations in which practicing MAM would be contraindicated. If time permits we will experience a guided meditation, and discuss other modalities such as diet, lifestyle, herbs that support MAM.
To register please send a check for $30 to Angela Ferri, 3710 Poffenberger Road, Jefferson, MD 21755

Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Massage Self Care Training

This class is a prerequisite for professional training as a practitioner of the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Massage...

Dates of training are:
Friday, Nov. 13, 2009, 2p.m. until 6p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 14, 10 a.m. until 6pm
Sunday, Nov. 15, 10 a.m. until 5p.m.
at Body & Soul Healing Arts, 22201 Davis Mill Road, Germantown, Maryland 20886

Phone:	2402772826
Email:	angelaferri@comcast.net

Description

Dr. Rosita Arvigo’s Techniques of Maya Abdominal Massage are based on an ancient Mayan healing method: applying external manipulation to the abdomen to facilitate blood and lymph flow, nerve conduction and Qi, (or Chu-lel, as it is know to the Mayan people) movement throughout the body. Maya Abdominal Massage (MAM) helps reposition reproductive organs thereby reducing symptoms of a displaced uterus or swollen prostate, which may manifest as fibroids, endometriosis, infertility, low back pain, painful menses, IBS, acid reflux, constipation, incontinence, prolapsed uterus and bladder, and over 30 other symptoms. It is helpful after abdominal surgeries such as hysterectomy, cesarean births and exploratory surgeries.

This two and a half day workshop will teach the participant about the anatomy and physiology of normal abdominal organs and structures, and what happens when they become imbalanced. Signs, symptoms, causes and the related pathologies will be included in this program. This modality incorporates a holistic approach to health care which includes massage, nutritional considerations, guided meditation, emotional and spiritual healing, as well as herbal healing remedies. Dr. Arvigo believes that with any natural healing technique, these areas must be addressed simultaneously to promote optimal health.

Completion of this program will qualify the participant to perform the abdominal massage on themselves ONLY, and will prepare the licensed practitioner to go on to
Professional Training with Dr. Rosita Arvigo, DN.


Continuing Education Credits for Level 1 Self Care Training

The Arvigo Institute is approved by:

The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) as a continuing education Approved Provider for 17.5 CE hours;

19.8 contact hours by the American Holistic Nurses Association which is accredited as an approver of continuing education in nursing by the American Nurses credentialing Centers Commission on Accreditation;

16 contact hours for the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council.

Prerequisites:
Anyone may register for this class.
No prior training or licensing is required.
To inquire about scheduled classes click on www.arvigomassage.com
Registration must be submitted through the Arvigo Institute at: www.arvigomassage.com

What do you FEEL when you watch this?

Here is a video by MoveOn.org and R.E.M.

http://pol.moveon.org/healthcare_cantwait/?id=17196-7739238-zb8OP1x&t=2

Why I Am a Conservative on Health Care Reform

by Dr. Andrew Weil

I appeared on Larry King Live Wednesday night to discuss health care reform with a panel of respected, high-profile physicians. I sounded the themes I wrote about in The Wrong Diagnosis: that Americans must change the content of health care, not just access to it, or we'll remain among the unhealthiest people in the developed world, and the costs will sink us.

Bill Frist, a physician and former Senate Republican majority leader from Tennessee, responded with what has become the conservative line: that "we do have the best health care" and what Americans principally need is "insurance reform" rather than improved health care practices. Later in the program were video clips of what host Wolf Blitzer termed "conservatives" disrupting town hall meetings on health care reform. Clearly, the prospect of change in health care is highly emotional and disturbs many people.

But here's my question: Since when is it conservative to embrace new, overpriced, corrupt systems, like the health-destroying and ruinously expensive protocols of much of modern medicine? "Conservative" has several meanings, but two central ones are "favoring traditional views and values," and "avoiding excess."

I hold that nothing could be more wild, unconstrained, and downright liberal than the path medicine has taken in just the last 20 years -- an unprecedented bacchanalia of excess and contempt for traditional American values.

Pharmaceuticals, once just one of many therapeutic modalities, are now synonymous with medical care; more than half of all insured Americans are taking prescription medicines for chronic health problems. Medical journals, formerly bastions of objectivity, are today often ghostwritten shills for moneyed interests. And physicians, once free to make healing their only goal, must now obey the dictates of lawyers and stockholders by ordering endless tests and dangerous, dubious surgeries for even minor conditions.

While billions of dollars are shunted into very few pockets via such abuses, insurance premiums skyrocket, leaving 47 million Americans with no coverage. The result of medicine's libertine spree? The relief agency Remote Area Medical, established to bring health care to rural parts of third-world nations, now sends 60 percent of its missions to U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, California and Knoxville, Tennessee.

By contrast, integrative medicine (IM), the system we teach at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson (and that is taught at more than 40 other medical schools nationwide including Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic) is profoundly conservative in at least three ways:

1. It is philosophically conservative in that it aims to restore core values of medicine that were strong in the past, such as a reverence for the healing power of nature and the importance of the therapist-patient relationship.

2. It is medically conservative in stressing prevention and advocating lesser rather than greater intervention -- the least invasive, least harmful, least expensive treatments that the circumstances of illness demand. IM practitioners always observe the Hippocratic precept of "First, do no harm," relying in simpler interventions whenever possible and turning to more drastic ones only when the former fail to produce desired outcomes.

3. It is fiscally conservative in its willingness to look beyond the blinders of high-tech medicine to identify inexpensive therapies that may be useful and in its insistence that they be held to the same standard for clinical- and cost-effectiveness in well-designed outcomes trials.

I urge Senator Frist and all Americans to join me and thousands of physicians and patients in demanding a return to sensible, sustainable, conservative values in medicine. The liberals have had their day.

Andrew Weil, MD, is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and the editorial director of www.DrWeil.com. Follow Dr. Weil on Twitter. Become a fan on Facebook.