Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine editorial urges govt. healthcare reform to include a holistic view

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. An editorial in the January 2009 issue of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, is calling for universal coverage that incorporates evidence-based methods of prevention, chiropractic and complementary and alternative medicine to be part of the Obama Administration's call for healthcare reform.

CAM encourages a holistic view of health, and new government policies should reflect that view with a shift in both CAM and conventional health research budgets "away from the longstanding emphasis on single-intervention therapeutics and toward multifactorial integrative and whole-systems approaches," noted Daniel Redwood, associate professor at Cleveland Chiropractic College in Kansas City and author of the editorial.

National policy should require training for all health practitioners in prevention and health promotion, including a whole-foods diet, exercise and stress management, he suggested. "There is no lack of scientific evidence for these approaches; what is lacking is a deep appreciation of their importance and the will to teach these to the patients who so desperately need them," he wrote.