gardens, school gardens and farmers’ markets to our tables in less than four years,” suggests Roberts. “A growing percentage of doctors are beginning to real- ize that treating the underlying cause of chronic disease is far better for the individual than managing symptoms. Also, a small percentage of individuals are waking up to the power- ful influence they have over their health. If we all begin now to ask for prevention-focused care and treatments aimed at the root cause of our health problems, we could add mo- mentum,” emphasizes Roberts, whose integrative approach to wellness includes a network of health practitioners to whom she refers patients. “We can also begin demanding that our insurance companies cover costs for prevention. Surely, some forward-thinking companies will want to dis- tinguish themselves by being at the beginning of a trend that makes people well.”
When queried about integrating Traditional Chinese Shifting the Focus
of Health Care Local Health Practitioners Offer Multiple Perspectives to Help Achieve Optimal Wellness by Linda Sechrist
D
espite spending more than twice what most other industrialized nations spend on health care, the U.S. ranks 24 out of 30 such nations in terms of life expec-
tancy. In the Issue Brief on The Prevention and Public Health Fund—which was issued by the American Public Health Association Center for Public Health Policy in June 2012— this is attributed to the fact that our country spends only 3 percent of our healthcare dollars on preventing diseases, as opposed to treating them. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created this mandatory fund to focus on prevention and public health programs. The ACA includes a suite of provisions that have the potential to re- form our nation’s health care system, transforming it from one that treats sickness to one that promotes health and wellness. In doing so, its five-year goal is to turn the government’s $2.9 billion investment in community-based disease prevention activities into an estimated savings of $16.5 billion annually.
The Momentum of Change An eternal optimist, Dr. Carol Roberts, M.D., with the Perl- mutter Health Center, in Naples, has been ever hopeful that a health and wellness paradigm would emerge in health care. “I’m a little optimistic now about several things. Health- care may slowly be moving towards a focus on health and wellness because public health programs slowly trickle down to the individual, just as the movement to eat healthier went from Michelle Obama’s White House garden to community
40 Collier/Lee Counties
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Medicine or ayurvedic medicine with allopathic medicine, Roberts is candid. “In my opinion, you should devote your- self to a system that you feel most comfortable with and try it long enough to observe how it works. If you want to com- bine allopathic with one of these, try combining them one at a time and discuss your progress with your practitioners to make them aware of what you are doing. For certain, if a physician tells you that there is only way to approach your problem, run from the office,” she quips. Christina Carlin, owner of Ayurveda, Massage & Yoga
Institute, in Naples, stresses that the main goal of Ayurveda, a sister science of yoga, is to raise an individual’s awareness of healthier lifestyle options. “When you reach a more con- scious mindset, you naturally question any destructive things that you are doing to yourself or others,” advises Carlin. The flexibility in ayurvedic medicine brings about significant changes, from better eating habits to various forms of exer- cise and meditation.”
Evidence for a New Approach Madeline Ebelini, founder of Integrative Mindfulness, in Bonita Springs, works with a network of health professionals that includes a massage therapist, yoga and t’ai chi teachers and the physicians at SouthWest Institute for Cardiovascular Fitness and Treatment that recommend her mindfulness- based stress reduction (MBSR) classes for their patients. As the most important finding to date regarding the practice of MBSR, Ebelini cites a new study that reports the first evi- dence of specific molecular changes in the body following a period of intensive mindfulness practice. Completed at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, in Spain, the research compared the effects of a day of intensive mind- fulness practice among a group of experienced meditators against that of a group of untrained control subjects that engaged in quiet, non-meditative activities. After eight hours of mindfulness practice, the meditators showed a range of genetic and molecular differences, which in turn correlated with faster physical recovery from a stressful situation. “I thought the most exciting thing was that the changes were observed in genes that are the current targets of anti-inflam- matory and analgesic drugs,” says Ebelini.
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