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Home Welcome to AlterMed Research
Foundation Register or Learn More - July 12-14, 2013 Colorado Integrative Medicine Conference: focus on mind-body medicine and lifestyle management in beautiful Estes Park, Colorado AlterMed Research Foundation's Mission Be
a change agent, through research and education, to achieve full
integration of evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine
into conventional healthcare so all people can enjoy optimum wellness. We
bridge evidence-based Complementary & Alternative Medicine
(CAM) to
conventional medicine by promoting quality research and education. With
our world-renowned advisory board with both
CAM and conventional
research review as well as clinical expertise -
we ensure quality CAM research is conducted,
peer-reviewed,
and meeting highest conventional research standards whenever
possible;
thus enabling more proven medical options to
be discovered for cancer and chronic illness.
We also
host quality evidence-based medical conferences for physicians, nurses,
allied professionals, students, and the public. AlterMed's
Accomplishments AlterMed
Research Foundation
was formed in May of 2006 to address the under-funding issue for CAM
research and education. Over the past years,
AlterMed has
successfully trained Northern Colorado medical residents in CAM topics.
AlterMed
initiated and hosted the first very successful Colorado Integrative
Medicine
Conference (cIMc): focus on mind-body medicine in 2009. The cIMc
2011 conference was even bigger and better. Both the research and
education
portion
of our
mission are
on-track. For the research portion of our mission, we awarded a
grant to Dr. Melissa Rosenkranz out of Richard Davidson, PhD's lab to
support Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction research with asthma
patients. In December of 2011, we have opened doors at the
University
of Colorado to enable CAM research studies through their Mentored
Scholarly Activity for medical students and through the CU Cancer
Research Summer Fellowship Program - see more information under the
Research Funding tab. Why Fund Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Research? Have you known or do you know someone you love with a chronic illness or cancer? If yes, have you seen, heard of, or experienced the suffering? Would you like to figure out a way to alleviate or prevent human suffering due to these degenerative illnesses? When conventional medicine is ineffective in treating cancer and chronic illness, more patients and their families are evaluating and using complementary and alternative medicine on their own without the support of conventional medical communities and insurance companies. This can be a very lonely and scary process without yielding very good odds. AlterMed's founder has been there, can attest to this experience, and deeply desires that someday conventional physicians and insurance companies will have the quality research results they need to help and support patients with effective alternatives. Thus, to increase proven medical options, it makes sense to scientifically research CAM where conventional medicine is ineffective. Why
not leave it to the government or the pharmaceutical
companies to fund this research? According to the American Cancer Society 2007 cancer statistics, cancer accounts for 1 out of 4 deaths in the US. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention - chronic illness accounts for 70% of all deaths in the U.S. Have you known or do you know someone with chronic illness or cancer? If yes, then you know that depending on the type of disease, conventional medicine is often inadequate to address it and yet alternative medicine claims abound on cures and treatments. To increase proven medical options, it makes sense to evaluate alternative medicines where conventional medicine is ineffective or offers no hope. According to NIH NCCAM, two-thirds of Americans use some form of CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) each year. Today, chronic illness and cancer patients along with their families search on the Internet for alternative treatments without much conventional support. In our mainstream medical infrastructure, who has the role to help the patients and their families sort out the wheat from the chaff on alternative medicine? Mainstream medical doctors and insurance rely on quality research studies when making recommendations and reimbursements respectively; once a CAM treatment is proven, then it is integrated with mainstream medicine. However, the progress of finding effective CAM treatment via research is very slow because only 1% of NIH biomedical research funding is allocated to CAM research. There is also little funding support from the pharmaceutical companies because researching natural supplements that cannot be patented does not allow these commercial entities to recoup their costs. United States healthcare (western medicine) is driven by a strong pharmaceutical approach, which other countries around the world tend to model and has been working reasonably well for many acute and other diseases; however, holistic & preventative approaches, which can benefit so many human beings, fall by the way side because the research funding is severely lacking in these areas. From the NIH NCCAM reports covering the last 10 years, we have learned that quality CAM research designs and the number of experienced CAM researchers are severely lacking; thus NCCAM is continually focused on training as one of their objectives. The perception of poor CAM research quality is common among the conventional medical and insurance industries; this view is further validated with NCCAM findings. To our donors, AlterMed Research Foundation provides a layer of CAM expert review by world-renowned (including reviewers & contributors for top-tier international journals, such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, Lancet, & the New England Journal of Medicine) CAM international advisory board to ensure that any funding targeted for quality research will leverage current CAM review expert knowledge base as well as meet mainstream research standards. How You Can Help to Steer Human Health toward Wellness by Bridging evidence-based CAM to Conventional Health Care We
solicit your support to help us raise more funding to promote
integrative medicine research and education to address cancer and
chronic illness because every human's untreatable illness diminishes us
in some way as a whole. On the research front, we are
especially
focused on mind-body medicine in addition to other CAM
areas. On
the
education front, we invite you to partner (as a sponsor,
exhibitor, attendee, and/or volunteer) with AlterMed to create
the
next
successful evidence-based Colorado Integrative Medicine Conference
(cIMc 2013:
focus on mind-body medicine and lifestyle management) for
health
professionals. W To
donate, volunteer, attend a fundraiser, contact us, or to learn more -
please click on the
corresponding tabs on this page. Thank you for your support to
bridge complementary and
alternative medicine to conventional medicine so we can together
increase credible medical options to manage, treat, and prevent human
chronic illness and cancer. Know
someone who would enjoy some peace &
relaxation via a short meditation? Click
HERE to hear a FREE
one-minute clip. Please
join Lindsay Ball as she takes you on a journey from the sea scape to a
wooded forest, creating a calming and relaxed environment allowing you
to feel the oneness within. Allow her
voice to melt away your stress and aid you in creating a better
tomorrow through focused, meditative awareness. This
short meditation (~5 minutes) is great for anyone who needs a relief
from stress, is
looking for ways to raise the vibration of the planet, or furthering
their journey of well-being. Music created by Alice Chang. Like us on  MeetUp - If you are in Northern Colorado and interested in bridging Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Conventional Medicine and network with an open mind, join us at MeetUp for AlterMed Colorado Networking for Boulder and Denver Chapters. If you are interested to start a Chapter in your area for AlterMed, contact info@AlterMedResearch.org |
