ACHS now offers six graduate certificates for specialized CAM training

July 23, 2009--The American College of Healthcare Sciences (ACHS) has launched six new graduate certificate programs in the field of complementary alternative medicine (CAM). These new certificates impart graduate-level specialized training with less time and financial commitment found in the more traditional master’s program. ACHS graduate certificates provide healthcare professionals with more in-depth knowledge of holistic health and wellness protocols and the ability to better serve the health needs of their communities.

ACHS graduate certificates require 12 credits of study, or four 16-week courses for completion, and are available in the fastest growing integrative healthcare modalities. ACHS graduate certificates include: Graduate Certificate in Nutrition, Graduate Certificate in Anatomy and Physiology, Graduate Certificate in Complementary Alternative Medicine, Graduate Certificate in Aromatherapy, Graduate Certificate in Herbal Medicine, and Graduate Certificate in Botanical Safety.

Today, more and more people are turning to preventative care as a solution to rising healthcare costs. The healthcare industry needs professionals trained in holistic health and wellness protocols, as well as botanical safety and drug and supplement interactions. With an ACHS graduate certificate, healthcare professionals can:

• Enhance their employability and job growth with each specialized certificate.
• Train to meet the growing demand for educated and trusted CAM professionals.
• Learn botanical safety.
• Increase ancillary services offered, thereby increasing clients and income.
• Educate others about wellness and complementary alternative medicine.

Students who enroll in a graduate certificate program will benefit from the same amenities as ACHS Masters of Science in Complementary Alternative Medicine students, including access to the extensive Natural Standards and Natural Medicines databases, full text, online journal resources; instructors who are industry experts; highly interactive online classes and instructor-led discussions; and training from the industry-leader in accredited, online holistic health education.

The ACHS graduate certificate programs are open to new students, as well as current ACHS students, and can be completed while pursuing a Masters of Science in Complementary Alternative Medicine. For more information and detailed course descriptions, visit www.achs.edu or call ACHS Admissions at (800) 487-8839.

American College of Healthcare Sciences is the only accredited, fully online college offering degrees, diplomas, and career-training certificates in complementary alternative medicine. Founded in 1978, ACHS is committed to exceptional online education and is recognized as an industry leader in holistic health education worldwide. For more information about ACHS programs and community wellness events, visit www.achs.edu, call (800) 487-8839, or stop by the College campus located at 5940 SW Hood Ave., Portland OR 97239.

Prince Charle's New Detox Product Toxic?

According to a press release posted March 23 by the American Botanical Council:

On Friday, March 12, ABCNews.com’s Health section published a story on the controversy surrounding detoxification now brewing in the United Kingdom. The American Botanical Council’s Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal is extensively quoted in the article.

The controversy is related to the launch of a new line of herbal products by Duchy Originals, a company that promotes organic and sustainable food production, founded by the Prince of Wales in 1990.^1,2 The new herb line, Duchy Herbals, was launched in January 2009.² So far Duchy Herbals includes an Echinacea-relief tincture (containing the root of Echinacea purpurea), a Hyperi-lift tincture (containing St. John’s wort, Hypericum perforatum), and a Detox tincture containing artichoke (Cynara scolymus) leaf and dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) root.

The ABC News article was stimulated by an article in the UK containing criticism by Prof. Edzard Ernst, MD, PhD, a widely-cited author of clinical trials and systematic reviews on complementary and alternative medicine modalities, of a detox product.

For the sake of perspective, it is constructive to know that the Echinacea-relief and Hyperi-lift tinctures are the first herbal tinctures produced in the United Kingdom to be registered under the Traditional Herbal Products Directive (THMPD), a recent regulation applying to all European states.² The THMPD allows herbal products to be registered under medicines law. To earn a license a company must submit a complete file to the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) containing extensive evidence of a product’s traditional use, safety, and quality.

However, the detox tincture requires no such licensing from MHRA because it is classified as a food supplement. The “detox” product is intended to aid people in the removal of toxins from their bodies. [...]

The article quotes Blumenthal and Dr. Lee as follows:

Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the Austin, Texas-based herbal medicine think-tank American Botanical Council, said that part of the thrust behind the detox movement is the idea that the food supply and environment of today expose people to higher levels of chemicals and pollutants than in the past.

"Many people—rationally or irrationally, correctly or not—believe strongly that they must detoxify their bodies to give themselves that extra edge to get rid of [these chemicals]," he said. "There is probably a healthy and rational basis for some of this, though some people take it a bit too far."

And Dr. Roberta Lee, vice chair of the Department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, said detoxification as a concept may be getting an undeservedly bad rap.

"Detoxification is a natural process that occurs in the body, though it is not labeled as such in the medical profession," she said. "The idea that detox is a silly notion, I think, is a fallacy."

Blumenthal and Lee were further quoted in the article which can be accessed in full here.

References

¹ Childs D. Prince Charles’ herbal products stir controversy. ABCNews.com. March 13, 2009. Available at http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WellnessNews/story?id=7071267&page=1. Accessed March 16, 2009.
² Duchy Originals encourages consumers to adopt an integrated approach to healthcare with launch of duchy herbals [press release]. East Twickenham, London, England: Duchy Originals. January 22, 2009.

© 2009 American Botanical Council: http://cms.herbalgram.org/press/2009/PrinceCharlesDetox.html

Juice therapy: spring cleaning from the inside out

Before you plant a new spring garden, you prepare the soil. You make sure the soil is healthy, full of nutrients, aerated, well hydrated, and so on. Well, just as we prepare our gardens for the optimal harvest, our bodies benefit from a little spring clean up, and clean out too.

Juice therapy—or juicing—is an all natural, easy-to-use, and affordable way to flush leftover wastes sitting sedentary in your body, dragging you down. Juice therapy helps to flush these toxins from the body, which improves major body functions, as well as overall vitality, energy, healthy skin, and heart health, to name a few benefits.

Here are some common juicing fruits and vegetables, and their potential functions.

Apple: general cleanser, fights infection, and stimulates digestion
Apricot: blood builder, constipation, and skin problems
Lemon: gout, arthritis, laxative, and sore throats (always dilute)
Cabbage: obesity, antiseptic, duodenal ulcers, and constipation
Celery: all arthritic disorders, builds blood, and diuretic

Juice is a relatively mild cleanse and can be done at home daily. One 8-oz glass would be a healthy addition to the daily diet. Why juice? First—when made into juices, fruits and vegetables have concentrated amounts of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants. Second—juicing increases the bioavailability of these nutrients. (Bioavailability is the rate at which a substance, in this case the health properties of the juiced fruits and vegetables, are absorbed by the body. In general, juiced fruits and veggies are absorbed by the body at a faster rate than when eaten whole or cooked.)

Juice fresh. Don’t juice, then store for later consumption. Doing this can lead to a loss of minerals, vitamins, and enzymes. You can make juices from fruit combinations or vegetable combinations, but do not mix fruit and vegetables. The combination of fruit and vegetables impairs digestion and limit the assimilation of nutrients.

For more information about a holistic approach to nutrition, CLICK HERE.

Obama Calls for Health Care Reform in 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN)--President Obama pledged Tuesday night to cure Americans from what he called "the crushing cost of health care," saying the country could not afford to put health-care reform on hold.

President Obama tells Congress Tuesday night: "I have no illusions this will be an easy process."

"This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes," Obama said in his speech to a joint session of Congress.

Obama pointed to the increasing number of uninsured and rapidly rising health-care premiums, which he said was one reason small business closed their doors and corporations moved overseas.

Obama's prescription for health-care reform included making "the largest investment ever" in preventive care, rooting out Medicare fraud and investing in electronic health records and new technology in an effort to reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy and save lives.

"I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process," the president said, adding that he was scheduling a gathering next week of "businesses and workers, doctors and health-care providers, Democrats and Republicans."

"The cost of health care has weighed down our economy and our conscience long enough. So let there be no doubt, health-care reform cannot wait, it must not wait and it will not wait another year," Obama said to a standing ovation.

The president also said Americans would see a cure for cancer "in our time." Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, died of ovarian and uterine cancer at 52.

Obama made health-care reform a central theme of his presidential campaign and promised not only to achieve universal health care in his first term, but also to cut the average family's health care health-care costs by $2,500.

In his speech Tuesday, he placed health-care reform alongside education and energy reforms as central pillars of his recovery plan.

An estimated 45.7 million Americans are uninsured, and for those with coverage, and health-care costs have been rising four times faster than wages, Obama said.

The average cost of family health-care coverage more than doubled from 1999 to 2008, from $1,543 to $3,354, according to a report by the Institute on Medicine released Tuesday.

During his speech, Obama touted changes in the health-care system already passed in his month-old administration as part of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"Already, we have done more to advance the cause of health-care reform in the last 30 days than we have in the last decade," he said. "When it was days old, this Congress passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for 11 million American children whose parents work full-time."

Signed into law on February 17, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also includes $87 billion to bolster state Medicaid programs and offers a 65 percent subsidy for nine months to help the unemployed pay for their COBRA coverage.

COBRA allows the unemployed to pick up the payments and continue the health insurance coverage they had with their former employer. The subsidy would help an estimated seven million Americans, according to a congressional estimate.

The president's health-care message was applauded by Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a national organization for health care consumers.

"President Obama is absolutely correct that the nation's economy and the federal budget deficit cannot be fixed without meaningful health-care reform," Pollack said in a statement.

© 2009 CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/24/obama.health.care/

Aromatherapy Can Help PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop after experiencing a traumatic event. Typically, this event threatens serious physical danger or involves physical violence. Following this experience, it would not be out of the ordinary for someone to feel scared, confused or angry. However, if these feelings continue long-term and become disruptive to your daily activities, you may be suffering from PTSD.

In a given year, about 7.7 million American adults suffer from PTSD. Although it was first brought to public attention in relation to war veterans, PTSD can result from common events, such as a car accident, natural disaster, or personal assault.

It is estimated that among veterans, the rate of PTSD is somewhere between 14 percent and 33 percent. Not every person who experiences a traumatic event will experience PTSD, and not every Soldier will either, but being aware of possible symptoms and stressors could help with treatment and prevention.

In the past, PTSD has commonly been treated with pharmaceuticals or some type of mood management therapy. Today, information about alternative treatments is becoming more widespread and research has substantiated the historical use of aromatherapy for depression. Why not for PTSD?

Aromatherapy means: the use of aromas for their healing properties. The documented use of essential oils goes back to Egyptian times, where herbs were burnt in public squares to purify the air. Today we know that lemon essential oil, for example, can be used to lift mild depression. We also know that aromatherapy is a natural, less invasive treatment for chronic afflictions. And compared to most pharmaceuticals, aromatherapy is typically less expensive and more accessible.

Many people with PTSD get better over time, but about 1 out of 3 experience PTSD as a recurring challenge. Use of aromatherapy has many advantages in these cases. If used correctly, they have minimal to no adverse effects when used over time. Aromatherapy is also a healthy alternative for those opposed to long-term use of prescription drugs, and essential oils, when diluted and applied to the skin (or inhaled), can be absorbed into the bloodstream for almost immediate results.

Essential oils are distilled directly from plants. The term “essential” is applied to these oils because they contain the fragrant part of the plant. Essential oils are powerful and concentrated. Many should not be applied to the skin in their undiluted form. Rather, essential oils should be diluted with almond or apricot oil, which lend additional nutrient and antioxidant health benefits.

Aromatherapy expert, Dorene Petersen, President of the Australasian College of Health Sciences, said her college store carries organic certified oils because “it’s important to have the highest quality oils available. Essential oils are extracted from plants, which absorb toxins in their environment. Certified organic essential oils are free of contaminants and pesticides; a purer oil means greater health benefits.”

When treating chronic challenges like PTSD, a consistent routine is important. The recommended solution is a combination of wellness protocols such as holistic nutrition and aromatherapy. A balanced, natural foods diet is the greatest tool we have to maintain healthy physical and psychological functions. When regularly added into the diet, aromatic herb plants that contain essential oils will boost immunity, circulation, and metabolism, among other things. For example, chamomile, which has been found to soothe low levels of stress and depression, can be made into a tea, and geranium, which is commonly used to stabilize emotions, can replace vanilla in baking recipes.

To complement a healthy diet, here are some suggestions for simple, yet effective uses of aromatherapy at home. First, undiluted essential oils can quickly be diffused into the air on a room-by-room basis. Second, you can drop essential oils directly into a relaxing bath or foot soak. (Some oils are more potent than others; until you know how the oil will react with your system, less is more.) Or, try replacing commercial cleaners and air fresheners with essential oils and sprinkling a few drops in and around drains, trashcans, and pillowcases.

Before using aromatherapy as a PTSD protocol, consult with a Registered Aromatherapist, which can be located through the Aromatherapy Registration Council Web site: www. aromatherapycouncil.org.

The Australasian College of Health Sciences is the only DETC-accredited, fully online college offering continuing education, certificate, diploma, and degree programs in complementary alternative medicine with aromatherapy and holistic health majors. For more information about aromatherapy and the college, visit www.achs.edu.

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© 2009 Article originally appeared in the February edition of Military Spouse Magazine