From Cartoons to Cancer and CHI and Cold this December 6, 2009

As much as as the Internet is a wonderful tool for providing news, I enjoy reading the news in a paper that is delivered to the door.  I don't enjoy having the papers to recycle or the ink that inevitablly rubs off somewhere to clean up, but I think there's something wonderful about the newspaper, particularly on Sundays.  I remember as a child being so excited to read the comics, and in those days on Sunday evening a Denver radio station would have a guy read them -- it's literally the second thing I remember about learning to read.  Today I was enjoying the Parade magazine that comes in our paper and looked to the CartoonParade section and saw a cartoon by David Sipress that made me laugh: Two women are walking along a city street and one says to the other "Between message, Pilates, yoga, the gym, tai chi, and therapy, I don't have any time for myself."  On the opposite page, "StayHealthy" by Dr. Ranit Mishori's column is titled 'Do Alternative Cancer Therapies Work?' and I found her statistics confirming numbers I've gathered related to Lumigrate.com --  "70% of cancer patients use complimentary and alternative (CAM) medical therapies, according to a study in the journal Cancer.  The therapies may include acupuncture, meditation, supplements, hypnosis, and homeopathy -- as well as prayer and religion, which many experts consider CAM therapies.  Most patients learn about such treatments through the Internet, articles, or word of mouth.  A British study found that scientific evidence ranks only fifthy among reasons people turn to unconventional medicine."  She goes on to report that people are seeking not 'cures', but adjuncts to traditional radiation or chemotherapies. 

I'd JUST had this conversation with Christopher Lepisto, ND at the Integrative Medicine Center of Western Colorado yesterday while having a quick lunch during a uniting event of the Collective Health Initiatives.  While watching Dr. Oz the other day, he had a nice segment about cancer and how our current lifestyle affects whether we keep the always-present cancer cells from becoming problematic.  I've suddently this year become immersed in stories around me about cancer and thought it might be something to start discussing with Lumigrate.com.  "Integrative Medicine" as Lumigrate 'is about' offers many tools for reducing your chances of having cancer.  With the recent changes in guidelines related to some testing measures as well, it seems it is a topic on many people's minds right now. 

Naturally, it's wonderful when we see 'the granddaddy' organizations such as the American Cancer Society release a book as they have recently (Complete Guide to Complementary and Alternative Cancer Therapies), as it validates and reflects well upon the progressive thinking of this "new" way of thinking about medicine.  But when you study integrative medicine, at least as I have in my time working with the IMC here in Grand Junction, you'll see that it's actually a return to our roots and our past.  "Scientific medicine" or what we might think of as 'Western medicine" or "allopathic medicine" is now seen by a majority of people as just one piece of what is available to us.  Hopefully the bills in our governments continue to reflect this shift as well, and allow more alternative and complimentary providers' reimbursement from insurances for services. 

I'm happy to say that the cold I experienced this week was dramatically improved after an afternoon at The IMC with the CHI group -- we're going to be opening up a section on Lumigrate.com about his local group.  Started by Cindy Schmidt, a physical therapist new to the Grand Valley in recent years, who said yesterday she just wanted to see what would happen if she got all the interesting, progressive-thinking, health providers together, which has happened in 2009 very successfully.  As I've said before, there is an interesting burgeoning of progressive health thinkers here in recent times, maybe tracking back longer than many of us have really thought much about.  It's a very special place, as was evidenced yesterday.  My thanks, as every day, to the people who have worked so hard to make The Integrative Medicine Center of Western Colorado 'happen' and 'be', so that we could be there yesterday with CHI.  (Again, more about that soon!). 

Link to The Integrative Medicine Center of Western Colorado (read more about Dr. Lepsto):  www.imcwc.com

Link to Parade, which I have for YEARS found to be an excellent source for people EVERYWHERE to learn about health -- it's up to US to learn about US (and our health) as is our crede here at Lumigrate: www.parade.com