From Google Alerts: Integrative Medicine in Health Systems and Around the World - Dec 2013

This typically monthly Integrator feature reflects a quick capture

• Yale IM lead David Katz, MD, MPH is a featured commentator on this widely reported piece on weight loss via ear acupuncture.
• The promo from Beaumont Hospital in Grosse Point, Indiana, pushes its IM program.
  
• UCSF's integrative oncologist Donald Abrams, MD is featured in this Audio Digest on integrative nutrition.
• A presentation on diet and inflammation by Carolyn Mathews, MD, the medical director for IM at Baylor University Medical Center is listed here.
  
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  Awarded Navy Capt. Dr. Koffman
  
  In a recent ceremony in the Pentagon, Navy Capt. Robert Koffman, MD the senior consultant for integrative medicine and mental health, was presented an award by his superiors for his treatment of Special Operations troops. The award was granted by the admiral of US Special Operations Command whose words included an endorsement of the value of integrative services.
• The Washington Times featured a widely re-posted interview with "integrative medicine expert Dr. Margaret Chesney." Chesney, a former NIH NCCAM deputy director, heads up the UCSF Osher Center for IM.
• A dominant media item this month was the report that vitamin and mineral supplements are of little if any value.
  
• The low sign-up of Latinos under the A.C.A. led to suggestions that it may be connected to higher use of alternative medicines. PEW data support the position. See also this article.
  

• This release announced a 3-day international conference in India on traditional and alternative medicines held Dec. 9-11, 2013.
  
• The Thai government is taking steps to expand markets for Thai herbs.
• An Indian minister urged the government to not commercialize alternative medicines as costs would be expected to rise.
  
• The UK's leading, professional anti-CAM pundit Edzard Ernst, MD attacks the ear-acupuncture weightloss findings here.
  
• Author Paul Offit, MD's book tour campaign against alternatives has hit Gulf News of Abu Dhabi. (Integrative medicine doctor Mitchell Fleisher, MD takes on Offit here.)
  
• Deaths to children associated with alternatives were the highlight of this piece datelined Islamabad.
  
• A brief promo for the role of "Traditional Iranian Medicine" as part of alternative medicine that noted growth of new scientific publications on the subject is here.
• An analysis of "alternative medicine" use in the UK found a slight up-tick in 2012.