Spring Break
Health and Wellness to offer herbal consultations
Issue date: 10/30/08
Less than two months after the Hopkins Hospital opened a new Integrative Medical Center, the Student Health and Wellness Center (SHWC) has announced plans to offer integrative treatments to Hopkins students starting today.
Traditional medicine originated in China almost 5,000 years ago. That it is sometimes referred to as "alternative medicine" in other countries reflects an inherent bias in Western conceptions of medical treatment, according to Alan Joffe, director of the SHWC.
Integrative medicine refers to the practice of combining Western treatments such as pills and vaccinations with the traditional treatments of the East. It holds that curing a disease means treating the whole patient, not just the patient's illness.
Joffe noted that there was a strong demand among students for more holistic treatments.
"There is clearly a group of students at Hopkins who prefer approaching health from a perspective other than what traditional Western medicine has to offer," he said in an e-mail to the News-Letter. "I want to provide those students with some of those services."
Allegra Hamman, CRNP, clinical herbalist and wellness consultant, will be administering the new services for the SHWC.
Hamman will provide "wellness consultations" to students. In these consultations, Hamman will consider factors such as stress, diet, rest and exercise in their relation to overall health.
"[Alternative medicine] looks at the student's overall picture. It really is a holistic approach," she said. "There are so many things that go into being well, it's not just the absence of disease."
Hamman has been a nurse practitioner at the SHWC since 1995. For several years, she has had an interest in stress management and illness prevention issues. She was responsible for bringing Stressbusters to campus, a group originally founded at Columbia University. Stressbusters trains Hopkins students to provide free back rubs. Hamman also brought the first massage therapist to campus.
Traditional medicine originated in China almost 5,000 years ago. That it is sometimes referred to as "alternative medicine" in other countries reflects an inherent bias in Western conceptions of medical treatment, according to Alan Joffe, director of the SHWC.
Integrative medicine refers to the practice of combining Western treatments such as pills and vaccinations with the traditional treatments of the East. It holds that curing a disease means treating the whole patient, not just the patient's illness.
Joffe noted that there was a strong demand among students for more holistic treatments.
"There is clearly a group of students at Hopkins who prefer approaching health from a perspective other than what traditional Western medicine has to offer," he said in an e-mail to the News-Letter. "I want to provide those students with some of those services."
Allegra Hamman, CRNP, clinical herbalist and wellness consultant, will be administering the new services for the SHWC.
Hamman will provide "wellness consultations" to students. In these consultations, Hamman will consider factors such as stress, diet, rest and exercise in their relation to overall health.
"[Alternative medicine] looks at the student's overall picture. It really is a holistic approach," she said. "There are so many things that go into being well, it's not just the absence of disease."
Hamman has been a nurse practitioner at the SHWC since 1995. For several years, she has had an interest in stress management and illness prevention issues. She was responsible for bringing Stressbusters to campus, a group originally founded at Columbia University. Stressbusters trains Hopkins students to provide free back rubs. Hamman also brought the first massage therapist to campus.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
Amazon Herbs
posted 11/06/08 @ 5:17 AM EST
Herbs do not have the negative side effects that drugs have. Rather they have positive side effects. Plants (herbs) contain thousands of phytochemicals that help health like lutein and zeaxanthin in spinach preventing blindness in old age from macular degeneration. (Continued…)
Business Opportunity
posted 11/13/08 @ 9:48 AM EST
This is a great opportunity for the students to try something else that is a lot older than traditional medicine. Chinese medicine has been using herbs for 5,000 years. (Continued…)
Cancer Cure
posted 4/24/09 @ 3:43 PM EST
In 1998 the government created the 27th National Institute of Health, the NCCAM. NCCAM stands for National Center of Complimentary and Alternative Medicine. (Continued…)
Euphoria
posted 8/09/09 @ 3:10 AM EST
Of the thousands of phytochemicals that are in plant foods, they have already identified over 900 of them including resveratrol in grapes, lycopene in tomatoes and curcumin in the herb or spice tumeric. (Continued…)
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