American College of Healthcare Sciences (ACHS) Launches New Website

American College of Healthcare Sciences (ACHS) has officially launched its brand-new, redesigned website.

“This exciting project has been in the works for some time, and we are proud of all of the hard work and effort that has gone into this incredible new website,” says ACHS President Dorene Petersen.

ACHS’s new website features several student-focused enhancements, specifically streamlined navigation of online Student Services tools including secure classroom login, the ACHS Media Channel streaming College-wide social media, and quick access to the ACHS FAQ Knowledgebase, fully searchable and accessible 24/7.

The ACHS website remains at www.achs.edu and incorporates a fresh appearance and simplified navigation, which will appeal to website visitors from the holistic health and wellness community at-large. Program and course information is quickly available via the website homepage, as are College announcements and industry specific news and event listings. The new site also includes more accessible information about military education benefit programs for ACHS’s growing military student population.

“From active duty military preparing herbal remedies over a camp stove in Afghanistan to military spouses providing wellness coaching to base communities, ACHS’s holistic health training is serving U.S. servicemembers, spouses, and veterans worldwide. With our new website, these military students can now find all the information they need about programs and our many available funding options in one place,” adds President Petersen.

Visit ACHS’s new website at www.achs.edu and check back frequently for new content.

About ACHS
American College of Healthcare Sciences was one of the first accredited colleges offering degrees, diplomas, and career-training certificates in complementary alternative medicine fully online. 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 (503) 244-0726, or stop by the College campus located at 5940 SW Hood Ave., Portland OR 97239.

You're Invited: Free Dynamic Phytotherapy Lecture Wednesday at 11 am

Dynamic Phytotherapy has the power to enhance the healing abilities of even the most experienced holistic health practitioner.

Join ACHS President Dorene Petersen for a Brown Bag Lunch talk about Dynamic Phytotherapy remedies and uses this Wednesday, August 31, from 11am-12pm.

This community wellness event is free and open to the public. To RSVP, just email admissions@achs.edu or call us at (503) 244-0726.

Share this info on your Facebook page or tweet about it
for a chance to grab a free ACHS Vintage Apparel hat with your next Apothecary Shoppe purchase. Be one of the first 5 to share this information and let us know about it on ACHS Facebook!!

The ACHS Campus and Botanical Teaching Garden is located in John's Landing at 5940 SW Hood Avenue, Portland OR 97239. Directions are available online here.

Do you use homeobotanicals as part of your health and wellness routine? What do you like most about homeobotanical remedies?

American College of Healthcare Sciences Raises Lavender Awareness Through Community Wellness Events and U-Pick

On July 20 we hosted our annual Lavender Open House community wellness event at the College campus. More than forty people attended the event to raise awareness about the benefits of growing and harvesting lavender for personal health and as a garden aid!!

Our ACHS Chief Institutional Officer and Master Gardener, Erika Yigzaw, led participants through a series of hands-on workshops highlighting the holistic health applications of lavender, including a lecture about the aromatherapeutic properties, a demonstration of how to use lavender in personal care items, and a demonstration of how to grow, harvest, and pot lavender and other herbs for culinary and herbal medicine use.

Free downloadable videos from the day’s events will be available through the ACHS YouTube channel, ACHStv (www.youtube.com/ACHStv), and photos and suggested uses for lavender are available on ACHS Facebook (www.facebook.com/ACHSedu).

Download and read the full-text press release online here: http://www.achs.edu/news/news-detail.aspx?nid=269

We'd love to hear from you! What lavender-specific topics would you like ACHS to cover at our next Lavender Open House event?

ACHS Aromatherapy Bar at the Beaverton Farmer's Market June 25

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our community wellness booth at the Beaverton Farmer's Market last Saturday, June 25! We've posted a few photos from the event for those who were not able to attend in person: Pictured left, ACHS Acting Director of Operations Tracey Miller (right) and volunteer Erin Pech and pictured right, ACHS Director of Marketing Kate Harmon (left) and ACHS Chief Institutional Officer Erika Yigzaw (right).

Did you enjoy our aromatherapy bar and demonstrations? We've posted a link to our demonstration of How to Use an Essential Oil Travel Kit to our YouTube channel, ACHStv, here: http://www.youtube.com/ACHStv#p/u/0/lOGYkuuTZds Stop by ACHStv, rate our video, and subscribe for immediate notification of when new videos are posted.

If you weren't able to make it to the Market this time, we have two more schedule dates this summer. Catch ACHS at the Beaverton Farmer's Market July 30 and August 27.

For a full listing of 2011 ACHS community wellness events and holistic health courses, visit us online at ACHSedu (www.achs.edu)

We always love to hear from you! If you have an idea for a community wellness workshop or ACHStv demonstration, let us know! You can post your suggestions here and to ACHS Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ACHSedu

Recording of Select Drug-Herb & Drug-Nutrient Interactions Now Available

Our December 14, 2010, teleconference with Dr. Mario Roxas--Select Drug-Herb & Drug-Nutrient Interactions--was action packed! Dr. Roxas shared an insightful, personal snapshot of the current state of our society's health followed by a stellar introduction to the complex world of drug-herb and drug-nutrient interactions. We welcome you to download the recording for your personal reference library. You may also want to download a copy of the presentation's accompanying PDF to follow along!

Download Select Drug-Herb & Drug-Nutrient Interactions HERE.

For those who were able to attend, we sincerely hope you enjoyed the teleconference. Our teleconferences have limited space and are, therefore, only open to ACHS students and graduates. However, we know there are many of you who would like to attend and to learn more about integrating holistic health and wellness into your everyday life. So, we are very happy to be able to post a recording of Select Drug-Herb & Drug-Nutrient Interactions for your enjoyment.

If there is a specific teleconference topic you would like to hear in the future, please let us know. You can email it to communications@achs.edu or post it as a comment to ACHS Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/ACHSedu

For a schedule of upcoming ACHS teleconferences, click on Community Wellness classes or use this link: http://www.achs.edu/wellness/community-wellness.aspx?id=6

ACHS President Dorene Petersen Featured on KPTV Better Portland

American College of Healthcare Sciences (ACHS) President Dorene Petersen was featured on KPTV Better Portland today.

Watch the segment here and learn more about easy ways to starting using essential oils for aromatherapy in your everyday life.

Click this link to watch Dorene Petersen's segment, "Find Out the Basics of Aromatherapy," on the KPTV website here: http://www.kptv.com/video/22957350/index.html

Highlights from "What is Aromatherapy?" at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland

Have you seen our new photos on Facebook? Click here to see photos from today's lecture "What is Aromatherapy?" at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in downtown Portland, Oregon.

Check out our new photo album “What is Aromatherapy? at the Lan Su Chinese Garden” from ACHS President Dorene Petersen’s lecture today.

Most of the photos are from within the Scholars’ Room, where the lecture took place, but there is also a beautiful picture of a big rhododendron right outside the lecture hall, in the Fragrance Garden.


For those of you who weren’t able to attend in person today, Dorene is going to give a complementary aromatherapy lecture at the Garden next week, on March 30, at 1pm, which is a continuation of the Garden’s Festival of Fragrance.

But, don’t worry if you’re not able to attend that event either, we filmed it! “What is Aromatherapy?” will be available for download on our College channel, ACHStv, on YouTube soon. Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/ACHStv It’s easiest to subscribe to ACHStv and an email will automatically be sent to you when the video is available (and all educational holistic health videos we post for free download!).

In the meantime, here are some interesting points from Dorene’s lecture:

• Aromatherapy is the use of aromas for their healing properties.
• An essential oil is the distilled (or sometimes expressed) product of the volatile components synthesized by various plant tissues of a single plant species.
• Essential oils are produced in different parts of the plant depending on the oil. Some examples include: Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is from seeds; eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) from leaves; and bitter orange (Citrus sinensis) is from the peel.

Some essential oils you might want to get started with include (note, before apply essential oils to the skin, a skin patch test is recommended):

• Peppermint (Mentha piperita), which is attributed with antiseptic, germicidal, and antibacterial properties.
• Lavender (Lavandula officinalis), which is attributed with soothing, balancing, and antibacterial qualities.
• Sweet orange (Citrus sinensis), which is attributed with antidepressant and anti-inflammatory properties.

>> All of these essential oils, as well as a large variety of additional oils and organic base oils (including camellia, aloe vera, and jojoba) can easily be ordered from ACHS’s Apothecary Shoppe College Store here: www.apothecary-shoppe.com. Just click on Essential Oils and/or Carrier Oils on the left-hand toolbar.

Two parting thoughts: First, when you have a quiet moment to yourself, ponder these words from Helen Keller: “Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived.”

Second, the Moon Gate at the Garden has a plaque above the arch on each side. On one side it reads, “Read the landscape,” and on the other side, “Listen to the fragrance.” According to the Lan Su Chinese Garden’s website, “In Chinese tradition, garden landscape without poetry is not complete.”

What do the words “Listen to the fragrance” whisper to you? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

ACHS Call for Presenters

ACHS Call for Presenters

You've spent a lot of time building your expertise and honing your craft. Now is the time to share your knowledge and experience by volunteering to lead an in-person community wellness event at the ACHS campus and/or a remote teleseminar.

This is your opportunity to donate a little time and help support our social mission of providing accessible holistic health education on a regular basis. The purpose of these classes and teleseminars is to provide the community with high-quality holistic health and wellness information in an easy-to-use and interactive manner. Classes and seminars should engage the audience, focus on holistic health topics of the day, share your passion, and be professional and organized.

In exchange, you'll have the opportunity to meet some great people, help improve the health of our communities worldwide, practice your presentation skills, add a presentation to your resume, network, and laugh … Need we go on? It may even meet continuing education requirements for your professional organization (check directly with your organization). You are also welcome to introduce your service or product, provided it is not the focus of the presentation. Presentations must be noncommercial in nature overall.

Here's a little more about what we're looking for:

Volunteers to present anin-person Saturday community wellness class at the ACHS campus in Portland, Oregon. Presenters are free to choose a holistic health and wellness topic of interest to them, but classes should be approximately 50 minutes long. Sessions will be filmed and then edited for viewing by the public on our college YouTube channel, ACHStv. Presenters are responsible for planning their class and organizing any necessary materials and/or technology with ACHS staff.

AND…

Volunteers to present a holistic health and wellness-themed teleseminar. Speakers do not need to be in the Portland area to take advantage of this opportunity. Rather, speakers can participate remotely (they will call into ACHS) and are again free to select the specific topic of their choice. All teleseminars will be scheduled on Tuesday evenings and will run from 7-8:30 pm, PST. To participate, speakers should be available from 6:50-8:45 p.m. to allow some extra time for set-up and Q & A. Teleseminars will also be recorded and available after the session for download.

We encourage ACHS graduates and those interested in faculty positions at ACHS to volunteer, as well as existing students and faculty and other experts in the local community.

To have your community wellness class and/or Tuesday teleseminar considered, please email your resume and a brief proposal for your class, including approximate length and any set-up requirements, to communications@achs.edu. An ACHS staff member will then follow up with you to find out more information about your event and/or presentation and will send you required paperwork.

Thank you for volunteering your time and expertise. You may also want to contact your professional organization to see if this opportunity meets their continuing education requirements.

We look forward to learning more about your presentation!

Ancient Walking to Primal Rhythms Community Wellness Workshop at ACHS on February 22

Great news! Randy Eady will be at the American College of Healthcare Sciences campus on February 22 to lead us through a workshop, Ancient Walking to Primal Rhythms. Eady is a board-certified rehabilitation counselor and therapeutic program coordinator.

Ancient Walking to Primal Rhythms uses a holistic approach to improve range of motion in walking, strength, flexibility, and proper movement alignment. The result of years of clinical research by the National Institutes of Health and the Oregon Research Institute, this program offers an easy-to-learn form of tai chi focused on building core muscle strength, body symmetry, and enhancing the integration of the body’s three organic balance centers.

This ACHS community wellness event is free to attend, but space is limited. RSVP to (503) 244-0726 or email admissions@achs.edu.

Here are the event details: Monday, February 22, from 11 am-1 pm. American College of Healthcare Sciences, 5940 SW Hood Ave., Portland.

If you can't attend in person, no worries! We will record and post the workshop presentation to our YouTube channel, ACHStv.

We look forward to seeing you on campus!

Use Your VA Education Benefits for an In-Demand, Satisfying Career

Over the next decade, the healthcare industry is expected to grow more than any other industry. There are more opportunities than ever to help people by providing person-to-person support that promotes sustainable health and wellness. In specific, the healthcare industry is experiencing a growing demand for specialists in aromatherapy, herbal medicine, massage, chiropractic, nutrition, wellness coaching, and acupuncture to work with physical therapists, doctors, and dieticians, among others.

The opportunity to help people find wellness and balance, is relatively unlimited. For many military servicemembers and spouses, it is this pride in helping others that attracted them to the military. A career in holistic health is an opportunity to find new ways to help other.

To read the full-length version of this article, which originally appeared in the 2010 Veterans Education Guide, download it as a PDF here: http://www.schoolguides.com/veterans_education_online.html (This ACHS article starts on page 76 of the Guide.)

Green Your Life while you earn credit

In case you haven't heard...

ACHS is hosting an exciting wellness retreat October 4-9, the ACHS Green Your Life Retreat at Breitenbush retreat center in Oregon.

And now we have even more exciting news—attend, and you earn 1 elective credit towards your ACHS diploma or degree.

You'll have the opportunity to meet and learn with experts such as:

• Plant Identification Walk with ACHS President Dorene Petersen and Essential Oil Company President Robert Seidel
• Essential Oil Distillation with Robert Seidel
• Children's Health with Deborah Halvorson
• Iridology with Dorene Petersen

>> Click here for more information.

Imagine an opportunity to relax, explore your wellness potential, and get hands-on holistic health experience while you earn credit towards your ACHS diploma or degree.

Call us today at (800) 487-8839 or click here to securely register online. We look forward to helping you green your life!

Rosemary Distillation at ACHS on June 17

You’re invited!

Ever wondered where essential oil comes from? Here’s your opportunity to learn more about the distillation process first-hand. Starting at 10 am on Wednesday, June 17, ACHS President Dorene Petersen will harvest rosemary fresh from the ACHS Botanical Teaching Garden, and will then lead a public distillation.

Come to participate or just come to watch… But be sure to bring a friend. This distillation workshop is open to the community. 10 am-1 pm. American College of Healthcare Sciences, 5940 SW Hood Ave., John’s Landing, Portland. For information, call ACHS at (503) 244-0726.

Did you know…

Rosemary Rosmarinus officinalis is a needle-like evergreen native to the Mediterranean. It is well known for its camphor-like scent and fresh, somewhat bitter taste. As a culinary ingredient, rosemary imparts flavor and aroma, and helps to facilitate digestion. When used topically, though, rosemary has antibacterial, antiseptic, nervine (sedative), and stimulant properties, among others.

To RSVP for upcoming ACHS community wellness events, including a U-Pick Lavender at ACHS on July 17 and a lavender distillation at Sherwood Lavender Farms on July 18, go to www.achs.edu and click on Community Wellness Classes.

We know to filter water. But should we be filtering our cosmetics too?

Hormone-altering chemicals in your makeup? Could be. The FDA does not require cosmetics manufacturers to test their own personal care products for safety. And yet, we buy it. We think...Chapstick can't hurt. It's just shampoo. But studies are showing that a little of something used over a long period of time can, in fact, hurt your overall health and wellness.

Ever wondered what those long, garbled words ("ingredients") on the back of your personal care products mean? They're synthetics. You probably new that. But...what do they mean? The skin is a complicated organ, one that needs clear pathways to excrete toxins. Synthetics block the skin's pathways, which, to the average eye, looks like less-than-vibrant skin.

To help you sort the good (natural!) from the bad and the ugly (synthetic), the Environmental Working Group has launched Skin Deep, a cosmetics safety database where you can search the products you use on a daily basis by product name, ingredient, or company. For example, did you know that Pantene Conditioning Spray has a hazard rating of 10 out of 10. Ingredients in this product have been linked to: developmental and reproductive toxicity, violations, allergies, and organ system toxicity, to name a few. Burt's Bees Avocado Hair Conditioner, however, only has a toxic rating of 3, which reflects its link to allergies.

Don't be fooled the word "cosmetics." We're not talking lipstick and sparkle eyeshadow here (not only). Toxic ingredients are equally included in men's and women's personal care products. For example, AXE Deodorant Body Spray for Men has a hazard rating of 5, while BOD MAN Fragrance has a rating of 8.

The decision to protect your health is a personal one. Make the most of it. Choose natural. For more information about natural products, download free tips and recipes from the Apothecary Shoppe College Store.

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.