U.S. military uses alternative medicine

The U.S. military is known for using super secret codes to identify sensitive projects. The key word here is sensitive. Who would have thought that the US military has a softer side? Project code name: iRest, short for Integrative Restoration, a code name for yoga nidra.

Yoga is one of the newest ‘secret weapons’ in the US Armed Forces. Major Nisha Money, who currently serves as the Chief of Air Force Fitness for the Surgeon General at USAF Headquarters in Washington DC, gave me the scoop. Soldiers suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. within a specialized care program that incorporates the iRest protocol. Major Money stated that she hopes that it will not be long before there is a movement to integrate body-mind-spirit healing modalities that not only serve as treatment interventions for emotional and physical trauma but also play a role in prevention by attenuating the impact of emotional trauma experienced in the battlefield.

As she put it, “Our soldiers are sent into combatant zones physically prepared to fight. It would also be helpful to add components within deployment readiness training programs that build mental strength as well.” Major Money MD, MPH, ABHM, trained in Preventive Medicine with an emphasis in clinical epidemiology and international health has an integrative medicine practice on the side. She’s also boarded by the American Board of Holistic Medicine, certified by UCLA’s Physician’s Medical Acupuncture Program, accomplished in “neurorobics”, and trained in mind-body medicine modalities and yoga nidra (Integrative Restoration - iRest) to help alleviate emotional distress secondary to trauma.

Nisha Money is a different kind of healer, working out of cement government offices, not in hushed, softly lit, treatment rooms more often associated with the movement of subtle energies. On Sunday, June 28th, Major Money will be presenting at the annual conference for International Society for the Studies of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM) to be held from June 26 - July 1, 2009 at the Westin hotel in Westminster, Colorado.

Additionally, side by side with Deepak Chopra and Rustum Roy, Nisha will co-host a dinner and town hall meeting examining the divergence and confluence of consciousness in the community.

For more information on the conference, please go to http://www.issseem.org

Article originally posted by Ode to Sustainlane on June 15, 2009