In this technology age, most of us are wired, and many of us stay connected to the outside world for more hours than we care to admit. We have blackberries and cellphones, many have their own blogs and some of us even produce our own podcasts. Whether we are in the car, the grocery store or in a meeting, we're listening to our I-Pods, checking our blackberries or talking on the phone. If you do decide to put your cell phone or blackberry away even for a few hours, you may feel a sense of regret, as it takes a significant of time to catch up on the hundred e-mails that came in and the several voice mails received. The new age 24 hour economy often makes execs and employees feel run down and worn out, but, in America at least, most of us just pop a few pills to feel better and go on our way....
....Except for Katherine Ellison and about ten million other Americans, that is. Like Ellison, many Americans have taken up meditation and yoga to reduce stress and enhance quality of life. Ellison, who had thyroid surgery and brain surgery within three months and broke both arms not long thereafter, dealt with the physical and emotional trauma by meditating. Speaking of the growing popularity of Asian healing and spirituality, in a recent Washington Post article, Ellison writes, "As our big demographic bulge of boomers hits the years when mortality truly starts to sink in, Asian spirituality has suddenly become more mainstream than ever."
Ellison also writes of a woman who, like her, turned to meditation during a time of suffering. Though the woman said that she initially resisted meditation, writing it off as "New Agey" and weird, and concerned about potential brainwashing, her opinion changed after her first experience, when meditating "brought [her] mind and body into the same timezone, [giving her] a sense of wholeness and peace [she'd] never experienced before." She also experienced several other defining moments. During one moment, she recognized the reality of her own mortality and questioned, "So what am I going to do with my life? Am I doing the right thing with the short time I have on Earth?"
Indeed, as the article suggests, meditation, as well as integrative medicine therapies, can serve to help patients cope with illnesses and individuals in good physical health to deal with the daily stresses of life and emotional traumas. Meditation, yoga, massotherapy, reiki, and Therapeutic Touch, for example, are just a few non-traditional (at least in a Western sense) therapies available. I personally have experienced the benefits of these therapies, as I practice yoga to decrease stress and level out energy fields. My mother, a Her-2 positive breast cancer survivor, also turned to reiki and meditation through her Adriamycin/Cytoxan chemotherapy treatments. Still to this day, she cites to these treatments when she discusses her treatment experience, saying that they helped her to cope with the horrifying side effects of chemo and the emotional pain that accompanies a cancer diagnosis.
From a legal perspective, though many integrative medicine therapies are safe and may even be effective, the current legal and regulatory scheme in the United States makes it difficult for patients to gain access to these therapies. Most insurance companies do not provide coverage for integrative therapies. States and medical boards also fail to license and credential complementary and alternative medicine providers in a fashion similar to that of physicians and other providers of conventional medicine. Such legislative recognition, however, could bring increasing credibility to these practices. Traditional Western medicine providers can also face direct liability for referrals to CAM providers. Michael H. Cohen, the leading scholar and authority in the United States on the legal issues facing CAM, provides a table of potential CAM liability grounds on his Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog. For example, clinicians and associations may be liable for referrals to CAM providers on vicarious liability grounds, for patient abandonment, negligent referral or delay of effective conventional medical treatments.
Cohen has worked tirelessly to bring credibility to CAM and integrative medicine therapies and to bring about change in the law in the United States so that these therapies are made available to more individuals. In addition to being an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, he is also the founder of the Institute for Integrative and Energy Medicine.
If you are interested in furthering the development of the Institute, please contact Michael H. Cohen directly.
