ACHS at DoD Worldwide Educational Symposium July 27-31

ACHS Dean of Admissions and Military Education Coordinator Tracey Miller setting up the American College booth at the DoD Worldwide Education Symposium on Sunday, July 26.

The DoD Worldwide Education Symposium brings together all of the major players in voluntary education: Army, Marine Corp, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard.

The 2009 theme, "Educating America's Patriots," focuses on the mission of providing voluntary education opportunities that measure up to the high quality and value that Service members expect and deserve.

ACHS is a military friendly institution and supports voluntary education opportunities. Meet ACHS Director of Military Relations, Kate Harmon, and ACHS Dean of Admissions and Military Education Coordinator, Tracey Miller, at DoD 2009, booth #811.

Check back for more information about the DoD, ACHS military benefits, or ACHS Meet and Greet event opportunities, call (800) 487-8839 or visit: http://www.achs.edu/militaryfunding.aspx?id=1

For more information about ACHS at DoD, visit: http://www.ww09atlanta.com/who-should.html

July 27-31, 2009. Mariott Atlanta Marquis, 265 Peachtree Center Ave., Atlanta, Georgia

ACHS has a new name to celebrate 20th anniversary in the United States

Australasian College of Health Sciences announced today that, effective May 1, it will change its name to American College of Healthcare Sciences to celebrate its 20th year of operations in the United States.

“2009 is our 20th Anniversary of starting operations in the Oregon. To celebrate this history, the College has voted to change its name to reflect its geographical location more accurately and to represent our exciting new plans in the US in the next five years and beyond,” said Senior Vice President Erika Yigzaw.

Australasia is the geographical region of Australia, New Zealand, and the lower South Pacific. ACHS was founded in New Zealand in 1978, after splitting off as the extra mural (or distance learning) department of the South Pacific College of Natural Therapeutics.

ACHS opened its US office in Lake Oswego in 1989 and became a stand-alone institution in 1993. It became a State Licensed Vocational School in 1998 and transitioned to a degree granting Institute of Higher Learning in 2007. It earned accreditation from the DETC in 2002 and was reaccredited in 2008.

“As Australasian College of Health Sciences, we have changed the face of healthcare education in the US, achieving many industry firsts, including first Aromatherapy distance learning programs, first CAM degrees, first online CAM programs, and many more. We have been very attached to the name Australasian and will be sad to say goodbye” said ACHS President and Founder Dorene Petersen, “but in creating our Strategic Plan for 2009 we realized that the name no longer represents the School or our future plans. This name change reflects our thanks to the thousands of American based students and graduates of ACHS who have joined us for their health and wellness education journey.”

Another factor in this decision was market research conducted at a number of trade shows this past year which indicated 98% of visitors thought the School was in Australia.

“We realized this was an issue for students and graduates. We do not want any confusion about the school’s location, approvals, or the training of its instructors as our graduates move into their careers,” said Erika Yigzaw. “Although the name Australasian College had extremely high recognition in the holistic health industry early on, as the CAM industry exploded in popularity and continues to move into the mainstream, name association is increasingly important for our students and graduates.”

Various funding options are available including in-house financing, veterans funding, post-911 GI bill, and private student loans. ACHS’s participation in SOC and other military organizations also precipitated this change.

“We had feedback from our military students and graduates that they were having to explain that they were attending an American college to their clients, friends, and family,” said ACHS Military Liaison Kate Harmon.

Founded in 1978, ACHS is one of the oldest Institutions teaching holistic health, otherwise known as CAM or Complementary Alternative Medicine and offers the only accredited undergraduate and graduate degrees in CAM offered fully online.

Poem by ACHS graduate bashka jacobs

yes you are quite right

sometimes it seems as

if the pharmaceutical world

lies beyond a featureless

black glass of impenetrable

voids disconnected from people

and the raw ingredients that

they isolate and refine from

the herbs that they find

all over the world.


the long ago art of using

a pestle and enriching your

understanding from face to

face contact with your client

seems almost gone

but in secret pockets

all around herbalists

who study with other

herbalists pass hand to

hand knowlege of a drop

of this and a pinch of

that to enrich our ability

to help heal with the

fragrences and potions

and teas.


of course i know the miracle

of anti biotics and what

prednisone can do and can

not do. of course i have seen

thier white pills or colorful

gels help people over a

rock within that they could

not have gone around.


but for me the sweet smell

of herbs boiling in a pot

to be inhaled to make

the breath come easier

brings joy


i use flower remedies

they are my medium of

choice but neat dropper

bottles line the shelves

along with books are in

my office sanctuary

far away from new york

where i was born marie

where you reside

yes hope must spring

eternal thats what it

does afterall.


to marie

somewhere on

the east coast

practicing and

learning her craft.


from the crow making

a healing soup

of lemon grass and lime

leaves with ginger

galangal and making

the air redolent

with

Cinnamon.

By: crow bashka jacobs, ACHS

Debate over the future of NCAAM takes to the blogs

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NCCAM), which was established about 17 years ago and provides some of the best studies about homeopathy, acupuncture, therapeutic touch, and herbal medicine, is under fire from the scientific community.

Why now? Economics. Scientists are using the nation's economic hardships as a ballast for a negative campaign against alternative and complementary medicine modalities. Their argument: With funding scare, why should the National Institutes of Health fund a "pseud0-science."

We'd love to hear your thoughts about the article below. "Pseudo-science" or viable alternative to rising health care costs and effective, educative tool about prevention?? Hmmmm.......... we wonder.

According to "Critics Object to 'Pseudoscience' Center," a March 17 article in the Washington Post:

The impending national discussion about broadening access to health care, improving medical practice and saving money is giving a group of scientists an opening to make a once-unthinkable proposal: Shut down the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.

The notion that the world's best-known medical research agency sponsors studies of homeopathy, acupuncture, therapeutic touch and herbal medicine has always rankled many scientists. That the idea for its creation 17 years ago came from a U.S. senator newly converted to alternative medicine's promise didn't help.

Although NCCAM has a comparatively minuscule budget and although it is a "center" rather than an "institute," making it officially second-class in the NIH pantheon, the principle is what mattered. But as NIH's budget has flattened in recent years, better use for NCCAM's money has also become an issue.

"With a new administration and President Obama's stated goal of moving science to the forefront, now is the time for scientists to start speaking up about issues that concern us," Steven Salzberg, a genome researcher and computational biologist at the University of Maryland, said last week. "One of our concerns is that NIH is funding pseudoscience."

Salzberg suggested that NCCAM be defunded on an electronic bulletin board that the Obama transition team set up to solicit ideas after November's election. The proposal generated 218 comments, most of them in favor, before the bulletin board closed on Jan. 19.

NCCAM has grown steadily since its founding in 1992, largely at the insistence of Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), as the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) with a budget of $2 million. In 1998, NIH director and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus pushed to have all alternative medicine research done through NIH's roughly two dozen institutes, with OAM coordinating, and in some cases paying for, the studies. Harkin parried with legislation that turned OAM into a higher-status "center" (although not a full-fledged "institute"), and boosted its budget from $20 million to $50 million. NCCAM's budget this year is about $122 million.

Research in alternative medicine is done elsewhere at NIH, notably in the National Cancer Institute, whose Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine also has a budget of $122 million.

The entire NIH alternative medicine portfolio is about $300 million a year, out of a total budget of about $29 billion. (NIH will get an additional $10.4 billion in economic stimulus money over the next two years, of which $31 million is expected to go to NCCAM.)

Critics of alternative medicine say the vast majority of studies of homeopathy, acupuncture, therapeutic touch and other treatments based on unconventional understandings of physiology and disease have shown little or no effect. Further, they argue that the field's more-plausible interventions -- such as diet, relaxation, yoga and botanical remedies -- can be studied just as well in other parts of NIH, where they would need to compete head-to-head with conventional research projects.

The critics say that alternative medicine (also known as "complementary" and "integrative" medicine, and disparagingly labeled "woo" by opponents) doesn't need or deserve its own home at NIH.

"What has happened is that the very fact NIH is supporting a study is used to market alternative medicine," said Steven Novella, a neurologist at Yale School of Medicine and editor of the Web site Science-Based Medicine (http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org), where much of the anti-NCCAM discussion is taking place. "It is used to lend an appearance of legitimacy to treatments that are not legitimate."
Beyond the Blogosphere

So far, most of the debate has occurred in the blogosphere. But as health-care reform moves toward center stage, so may this fight.

At a Senate committee hearing on integrative medicine held Feb. 26, Harkin said: "I want to lay down a . . . marker: If we fail to seize this unique opportunity to adopt a pragmatic, integrative approach to health care, then that, too, would constitute a serious failure."

At the hearing, Harkin introduced Berkley W. Bedell, a six-term Democratic congressman from Iowa who retired in 1987 after contracting Lyme disease. Bedell credits alternative therapies for his recovery from that infection and later from prostate cancer. He helped convince the Iowa senator of alternative medicine's promise.

Nevertheless, Harkin said he was somewhat disappointed in NCCAM's work.

"One of the purposes when we drafted that legislation in 1992 . . . was to investigate and validate alternative approaches. Quite frankly, I must say it's fallen short," he told the committee.

"I think quite frankly that in this center, and previously in the office before it, most of its focus has been on disproving things, rather than seeking out and proving things."

Critics say this shows Harkin's lack of understanding of scientific inquiry, which tests hypotheses (with negative results as informative as positive ones) but doesn't intentionally attempt to "validate approaches." NCCAM's current director, Josephine P. Briggs, agrees that hypothesis-testing is the proper function of the center.

"We are not advocates for these modalities," she said last week. "We are trying to bring rigor to their study and make sure the science is objective."

Even so, Harkin was on to something: Most of NCCAM's results have been negative or inconclusive, not positive and encouraging.

For example, a randomized controlled trial of the botanical echinacea published in 2003 found it was ineffective in treating upper respiratory infections (although it did cause more rashes). In a study from last year, neither the Japanese "palm healing" therapy known as reiki, nor sham reiki, reduced the symptoms of fibromyalgia, a chronic pain syndrome. A study in December comparing real and sham acupuncture in 162 cancer patients who'd undergone surgery found no difference in their levels of pain.

At the same time, it's difficult to determine the clinical implications of some of the positive studies.

For example, reiki -- but not sham treatment -- blunted the rise in heart rate, but not the rise in blood pressure, in rats put under stress by loud noise. Therapeutic touch, a different modality, increased the growth of normal bone cells in culture dishes, but decreased the growth of bone cancer cells.

Many NCCAM-funded studies examine not the effectiveness of alternative medicine but its use, and how it affects the interaction of practitioners and patients. The idea that the center is spending lots of money running large clinical trials of such practices as homeopathy and ayurvedic medicine "is a misperception," the director said. She noted that most such proposals lack methodological rigor and aren't approved.

A physician and kidney specialist who never used alternative medicine in her practice, Briggs said "mind-body management for pain control and stress reduction" is a large topic of the research at the moment, with mindfulness, meditation, yoga and tai chi all under study.

"Some of the way these approaches work is through 'positive expectancy,' which is part of a placebo effect," she said.

Indeed, many of NCCAM's critics view complementary medicine as nothing more than the placebo effect dressed up in a dozen different costumes.

Carlo Calabrese, a researcher at the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Ore., one of the country's five naturopathic medical schools, isn't one of them. But even if one were to concede that view, he thinks the field is still worth studying.

Although the overall effect of therapies such as homeopathy and acupuncture may be small, individual response can be large. The route to the placebo effect -- if that's what it mostly is -- also varies in method and efficiency.

"What can be done to generate a better placebo? Why isn't that an interesting and valid area of investigation?" said Calabrese, who was on NCCAM's advisory council from 2004 to 2007. "Here we have a totally harmless intervention that seems to get a better result in some people than others. Why wouldn't you want to study that?

© The Washington Post March 17, 2009: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/16/AR2009031602139.html

Major food safety reforms would be would be gr-r-reat

ACHS Master Herbalist Christina Suarez, owner of The Good Herb Company, led a talk at ACHS Saturday, March 21, about Organic Standards. While outlining the extensive requirements for organic certification, Suarez emphasized the importance of reading food labels to evaluate the health benefits of ingredients. As part of her presentation, Suarez talked about a recent news article in which the CEO of Kellogg calls for a food safety reform program. On principle, it just sounds like a good idea. But, on a practical level, it’s essential because, as Suarez pointed out, many of the foods we have been eating for years are GMO (a genetically modified organism), which many people don’t know.

Here is an excerpt of the article “Kellogg’s CEO calls for major food safety reforms” from the Associated Press, March 18.

“Tony the Tiger's boss says a food safety overhaul would be Gr-r-reat!
The Kellogg Co.’s top official is urging U.S. legislators to revamp the food safety system. The world's biggest cereal maker—its brands include Frosted Flakes—lost $70 million in the recent salmonella outbreak, after recalling seven million cases of peanut butter crackers and cookies.

CEO David Mackay will tell Congress on Thursday [March 19] the company wants food safety placed under a new leader in the Health and Human Services department. He also calls for new requirements that all food companies have written safety plans, annual federal inspections of facilities that make high-risk foods and other reforms.

Mackay’s strong endorsement of major changes could boost President Barack Obama's efforts to overhaul the system. Last week, Obama launched a special review of food safety programs, which are split among several departments and agencies and rely in some cases on decades-old laws. Critics say more funding is needed for inspections and basic research.

"The recent outbreak illustrated that the U.S. food safety system must be strengthened," Mackay said.

"We believe the key is to focus on prevention, so that potential sources of contamination are identified and properly addressed before they become actual food safety problems."

In addition to health prevention and safety, there are several reasons to avoid GMO-grown foods, however used to eating them we are. Here are a few:

1. Sustainability agriculture supports local food growing (like your favorite farmer’s market)
2. Environmental preservation
3. Taste. Non-GMO foods have it!

Click here to read more about Christina Suarez and The Good Herb Company.

To learn more about David Mackay’s presentation to Congress March 19, click here.

What do you know about GMO? Tell us below. Label-reading tips? We want to know those too.

Jobless and stressed? Some offer job-placement assistance

"At Australasian College of Health Sciences, a career change can be stress relieving," Elizabeth Grattan Teater writes in the Sunday, March 15, Learn On special section of the Oregonian.

"The college's new certificate in wellness consulting is already one of its most popular programs. Entrepreneur magazine calls wellness coaching one of the hottest career trends in 2009. The program costs $4,500 and can be completed in as little as four months.

"The holistic nutrition consulting and aromatherapy programs are also in demand.

"Where do graduates work? Some practice in holistic health clinics or develop programs for health care organizations like Kaiser. Some work as managers for nutrition departments in high-end grocery stores. Many are self-employed--creating natural body care products, for example."

"Sometimes when you face losing a job, you start to look at: 'What's important to me?'" says [ACHS President Dorene] Petersen. "Your life takes a turn for the better, and you start to live what you're learning."

Click here to request more information.

To learn more about wellness and nutrition consulting, aromatherapy, and holistic health programs offered by ACHS, go to www.achs.edu or call (800) 48-STUDY.

Click here to read the full-length Oregonian article.

Homeopathy for food allergies: Treatment for Peanut Allergies Shows Promise

A March 15 article in the New York Times, " Treatment for Peanut Allergies Shows Promise," talks about the practical applications of homeopathy. Although the article does not use the term homeopathy specifically, it does describe a study in which the treatment for a peanut allergy "uses doses of peanuts that start as small as one-thousandth of a peanut and eventually increase to about 15 peanuts a day."

The article then goes on to describe how in a pilot study at Duke University and Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, "33 children with documented peanut allergy have received the daily therapy, which is given as a powder sprinkled on food. Most of the children are tolerating the therapy without developing allergic reactions, and five stopped the treatment after two and a half years because they could now tolerate peanuts in their regular diet. But four children dropped out because they could not tolerate the treatment."

The article cautions that this specific treatment for peanut (and other food-related allergies) is not ready for home use, yet homeopathics have been in the U.S. since the 19th century, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Homeopathy is based on the principle of "like cures like," and involves, "giving extremely small doses of substances that produce characteristic symptoms of illness in healthy people when given in larger doses," (NCCAM).

Three main concepts of homeopathy include:

1. Homeopathy stimulates the body's defense mechanisms and processes to prevent/treat illness.

2. Treatment involves giving very small doses of substances called remedies that, according to homeopathy, would produce the same or similar symptoms of illness in healthy people if they were given in larger doses.

3. Treatment in homeopathy is individualized (tailored to each person). Homeopathic practitioners select remedies according to a total picture of the patient, including not only symptoms but lifestyle, emotional and mental states, and other factors.

Homeopathy training is often completed as part of a naturopathic training, and individual courses can be taken to adjunct to another holistic health practice, such as holistic health practitioner or nutritionist. In addition, with accredited holistic health training, there is growing opportunity to work in the complementary alternative medicine field, to provide whole person care.

For more information about homeopathy training, go to: http://www.achs.edu/course-desc.aspx?pid=24&id=4

For more information about studies involving peanut treatments for peanut food allergies, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/health/16peanuts.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=peanut&st=cse

To read more about homeopathy, visit the NCCAM website at: http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/

March is National Nutrition Month

According to the American Heart Association, making wise dietary choices keeps your heart healthy. This month, make a commitment to learn more about cardiovascular health. It may sound difficult, but it's not. Heart health is not about one big, overwhelming choice. It's about the small choices you make throughout your day.

Here are a few simple choices from the AHA website to help get you moving towards a happier, healthier you...

1. Use up at least as many calories as you take in.

Start by knowing how many calories you should be eating and drinking to maintain your weight. Don’t eat more calories than you know you can burn up every day. Increase the amount and intensity of your physical activity to match the number of calories you take in. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week or—best of all—at least 30 minutes every day.

2. Eat a variety of nutritious foods from all the food groups.

Nutrient-rich foods have vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients but are lower in calories. To get the nutrients you need, choose foods like vegetables, fruits, whole-grain products and fat-free or low-fat dairy products most often.

3. Eat less of the nutrient-poor foods.

The right number of calories to eat each day is based on your age and physical activity level and whether you're trying to gain, lose or maintain your weight. As you make daily food choices, base your eating pattern on these recommendations:

• Choose lean meats and poultry without skin and prepare them without added saturated and trans fat.
• Select fat-free, 1 percent fat, and low-fat dairy products.
• Cut back on foods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to reduce trans fat in your diet.
• Cut back on foods high in dietary cholesterol. Aim to eat less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol each day.
• Cut back on beverages and foods with added sugars.
• Choose and prepare foods with little or no salt. Aim to eat less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day.
• If you drink alcohol, drink in moderation. That means one drink per day if you’re a man.
• Keep an eye on portion size.

If you have heart-healthy tips or recipes of your own, we'd love it if you'd share. The more we know about making healthy choices, the better. Thanks!

For more information, visit the American Heart Association website at: http://www.americanheart.org

JJ Virgin & Associates is Hiring World Class Health Coaches

Calling all ACHS grads...trained health coaches needed by JJ Virgin and Associates.

JJ Virgin, is a 25 year veteran of the health and fitness industry, and has worked in nearly every aspect of the business, including numerous network television appearances as a nutritionist, fitness expert and health show host, including and E! Modern Girl’s Guide to Life, NBC’s ivillage Live and Extreme Makeover, where she was part of The Extreme Team on the show’s season finale. She was also a Nutritionist on The Dr. Phil Show for two seasons, assisting the contestants of the Dr. Phil Ultimate Weight Loss Challenge with their nutrition challenges. She recently filmed two pilots for ABC for the international hit show, You Are What You Eat.

Today, JJ Virgin integrates her educational background of nutrition, exercise physiology, psychology, functional medicine and laboratory evaluation into her work as a nutritionist and fitness expert, writer, professional speaker, and television and radio personality.

The Job...

JJ Virgin and Associates is looking to add part-time health coaches to our growing business. Work in tandem with National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP) President and health expert JJ Virgin and our Director of Health Coaching, Miriam Zacharias, utilizing a holistic point of view to provide health coaching, counseling, and consultation to our clients on a variety of health conditions. Our ideal candidates will be highly organized, demonstrate superior and proactive communication skills, and convey professionalism in working with our high-caliber clients.

Our Health Coaches must be very comfortable in a virtual coaching environment, and be well-versed in telephone and computer communication protocols. We expect all Health Coaches to maintain professional membership in the National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP) and to pass the board certification in holistic nutrition exam within 6 months of hiring.

Minimum Skills and qualifications include a Bachelor's degree in health education, health science, food nutrition, dietetics, fitness or related field and at last 1 year experience + Masters in a Health related discipline OR equivalent experience working with clients or patients in a health setting as a RN, nutritionist or fitness professional. You may be located anywhere within the U.S., and be able to work independently with limited direction or supervision.

For more information on this opportunity, please send along your resume and cover letter to Miriam Zacharias at mirzacharias@jjvirgin.com.

Check out JJ Virgin's new website, www.healthprovt.com, an online virtual training site for health care professionals.

Protect CAM and Health Freedom: HealthRevolutionPetition.org

Health freedom is one of the primary challenges faced by the U.S. today. Though we aren't all suited for frontline politics, the health freedom fight does not have to be all or nothing. There are many ways we can influence, and accomplish, change from our homes and from within our communities. Such as:

1. Ask your employer about natural medicine insurance alternatives.

2. Honor and protect your personal health first.

3. Be a grassroots promoter: Scour your community for the services you want. If they don't exist, ask for them. If they do exist, help to promote natural medicine and CAM services, and the longevity of the businesses that provide them.

4. Support community wellness education.

5. Familiarize yourself with health freedom laws in your state.

6. Help HealthRevolutionPetition.org to reach their goal of 100,000 signatures.

HealthRevolutionPetition.org is a new, grassroots petition that demands revolutionary changes to the health care system in America. It includes reforms of the FDA, drug company advertising, school lunch programs, coverage of natural therapies, and much more. See it and sign it online at HealthRevolutionPetition.org.

Should the FDA have more regulation over dietary supplements?

Following the release March 2, 2009, by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) of a report on the oversight and regulation of dietary supplements (FDA Should Take Further Actions to Improve Oversight and Consumer Understanding), the Natural Products Association (NPA) released the following statement from Executive Director and CEO David Seckman.

"The Natural Products Association appreciates having the opportunity to be included in the GAO's review of dietary supplement regulation, particularly regarding the recent implementation of adverse event reporting and good manufacturing practices. Our initial impressions regarding the four key recommendations of the report are as follows.

"Contrary to opinions stated in the report, the FDA already has a great deal of information about individual dietary supplement products and their manufacturers. The dietary supplement industry has cooperated by registering all manufacturing facilities under bioterrorism regulations that went into effect more than five years ago. Additionally, the NPA is currently working with the government to create a database of all dietary supplement labels to augment this information.

"We also take issue with the implication that the FDA has limited power to remove products from the marketplace. In fact, although the agency has had scant reason to do so, it has exercised its ability to take products off the shelves it deemed a health risk.

"While we supported legislation to establish mandatory adverse event reporting for dietary supplements and over-the-counter drugs, we still believe that reporting should be limited to incidents that are serious. If the FDA's resources are already stretched, as the report indicates, then adding to this burden by mandating that any complaint be dealt with by the agency does not make sense.

"We support further guidance clarifying how the FDA determines when an ingredient is considered 'new' to the marketplace and what evidence is needed to document safety. Likewise, we are in favor of the agency clarifying when it believes products should be marketed as conventional foods versus dietary supplements.

"One of the fundamental principles of DSHEA [Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994] is providing consumers with more information so that they can make informed decisions to maintain and improve their health. So we are in agreement that the FDA should work with stakeholder groups to educate consumers about the safety, efficacy and labeling of dietary supplements.

"There is little scientific data regarding underreporting of adverse events and the data that are cited are not specific to dietary supplements, but represent all FDA-regulated products, including pharmaceuticals, a category that accounts for more than 460,000 reports annually.

"As we told the GAO, we believe regulations governing the manufacturing of dietary supplements enhance the FDA's ability to ensure the safety and purity of these products. These long-awaited regulations, more than 12 years in the making, were greeted with enthusiasm from industry. Likewise, the industry supported the law establishing mandatory adverse event reporting for dietary supplements. However, we disagree with some aspects of how the FDA has implemented this law. Specifically, we told the GAO the following:

1. The changes to dietary supplement regulation exceed the mandate of the law, especially in regarding to prefatory warning language on product labels.

2. The substantial added expenses to dietary supplement manufacturers to redesign and replace their product labels due to the AER law, upwards of $200 million according to the FDA's own estimates, should have been proposed through a formal rulemaking process, not a guidance. Additionally, the FDA is not allowing adequate time for manufacturers to re-label their products in this case, only one year. Previous regulations of this magnitude have allowed manufacturers a reasonable three years to implement label changes.

We are also concerned about the availability of adverse event reports submitted to the agency and how they will be reported to the public . This has yet to be adequately addressed by the FDA.

"As we have in the past, the association supports adequate funding for the FDA to do its job in regulating dietary supplements. This includes fully implementing the law, DSHEA, and taking appropriate enforcement action against those who break it."

Gwyneth Paltrow shares seven-day detox on her site goop.com

The February 22 New York Times featured an article in the Style section about a relatively new website called Goop, nourish the inner aspect.

The originator of the site is Gwyneth Paltrow. Although most known for her work as a movie actress—and more recently for her marriage to musician Chris Martin from Coldplay—Paltrow launched Goop.com last September to provide readers with short, blog-style entries about positive thoughts, parenting anecdotes, and healthy living tips, to name a few categories.

But perhaps most interesting and useful for the holistic health practitioner is an entry posted under the “Make” category called “Detox.” Here Paltrow tells her readers that: “You can detox easily and effectively while you continue to eat as long as you are cutting out the foods and other substances that interfere with the detoxification process. Make sure you check with your doctor before you start any detox. Drink A LOT of water.” All sound advice.

Paltrow also includes a user-friendly seven-day meal plan for detox, including recipes for dishes like Salad with Carrot and Ginger Dressing, Detox Teriyaki Chicken, and Steamed Salmon and Greens. All of the recipes include nutrient-rich foods easily prepared in 30 minutes or less, including downloadable PDFs to store in your dietary toolbox or holistic health library.

For the full recipes, and more information from Paltrow’s personal doctor, go to: www.goop.com.

Tested a recipe? Would you recommend it? Tell us what you think.

Have a response to the site in general, share with the community. We look forward to hearing from you.

Photo © LA Times: latimesblogs.latimes.com

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

Oregonian A&E Features ACHS and Lavender UPick

The A&E in the Friday Oregonian featured a delightful article about the College urban herb garden and our lavender u-pick. you can see an online version here http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/121563871737280.xml&coll=7

Be sure to go to page two to read the full story!