Monthly Archives: June 2020

Medical Economics and Specialdocs Consultants present a free webinar for physicians on the topic of: Now what? The Imminent Dangers and Emerging Opportunities for Physicians. The webinar is scheduled for June 17 at 7pm Eastern.

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Physicians have been at the forefront of unprecedented turmoil during the COVID-19 emergency. This crisis has compounded structural faults that have been consistently observed but inadequately addressed over the past decade.

Primary care physicians, in particular, have found themselves in turbulent times as office visits evaporated overnight due to shelter-in-place orders and patients understandable fear of potential infection. In response to decreased in-person visits, telehealth visits swelled to extraordinary levels, thanks in large part to temporary relaxation of regulations.

As a result, doctors have had to rethink staffing, real estate and other costs of providing care. They also should consider that there is no clear answer on how long the new guidelines and associated reimbursement rates for telehealth will remain in place. With so many unknown factors in play, physicians face an uncertain future.

Now what?

It is what many doctors are asking themselves, and it encapsulates several separate questions:

1.What is the next unforeseen and life-altering event I will need to address if I stick with the status quo?

2.What will the physician landscape look like in one, three or five years?

3.What should I do now?

Change will remain constant, and one of the seminal lessons of COVID-19 is that no one can perfectly predict how or when the next significant challenge will arise. Similarly, specific forecasts of the future state of healthcare are notoriously inaccurate. The best step toward an answer is to first observe principal trends and envision where independent primary care will fit within them. From there you can take actions to safeguard your practice from whatever may come next.

The challenges facing independent primary care physicians have beenwell documented, and if you are reading this article you likely already know the key clinical, financial and operational challenges of running your own practice (e.g., reimbursement declines, stagnating compensation, rising operating costs). Various market responses to these issues have emerged:

-Large medical groups and health systems continue toacquire and consolidate independent practices. OptumCare, the care delivery division of UnitedHealth Group, is the largest employer of physicians in United States with 48,000. HCA Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente have 38,000 and 23,000 physicians, respectively, and all are actively adding physicians to their rosters. Health systems across the country are rapidly acquiring remaining independent practices in their operating footprints. From 2012 to 2018, the number of hospital-owned physician practices increased from 35,700 to more than 80,000, and the number of hospital-employed physicians increased from 94,700 to 168,800. Consolidation by medical groups and health systems is expected to continue apace in the near term, despite the furloughing of physicians and other staff at hospitals across the country.

-New care models centered on membership and convenience are quickly forming. One Medical, Iora and others are among a growing number of corporate entities establishing practices across the country. These practices employ physicians and often partner with large health systems to integrate different primary care offerings into a health system, with services marketed both to employers and individuals. One Medical, which recently became a publicly-traded company and has 455,000 members, estimates that it has only captured between 1% and 3% share in each of its markets but they and similar companies have ambitions and funding aimed significantly higher than their current share.

-Alternative treatment sites have continued to grow over the past few years. Walgreens and Walmart have expanded both services and number of locations, and have made no secret of their ambitious goals for additional growth. According to Walmart, their prices are 30% to 50% lower than what patients would pay for comparable services at physician offices. The merger of CVS and Aetna has created another integrated care provider with broad consumer exposure and comprehensive population health capabilities CVS has more than 1,100 MinuteClinic locations and plans to open 1,500 HealthHUBs by 2021, offering more comprehensive services like chronic disease management, sleep apnea assessment, blood draws, and a care concierge to help patients find appropriate services.

The trends above, and the models at the center of those trends, each focus on different areas of the primary care market.

-Health systems and large corporate medical groups are targetingtraditional physician practiceswith broad patient bases and hope to consolidate the markets in which they operate.

-One Medical and similar providers have constructed models that focus onconvenience, cost and connectivity to providers, and ultimately aim to supplant incumbentmedical groups and independent physicians as the dominant primary care providers in their markets. They have also designed their offerings to appeal toyounger, healthier patientswith commercial insurance, leaving other patients to seek care elsewhere.

-CVS, Walmart and others are focused on making care easy, accessible and affordable, and keeping consumers within their retail ecosystems. These services are targeted towardcost-conscious patientswith low to average healthcare needs.

Meanwhile, payers, providers and other healthcare stakeholders are encouraging further migration to alternative reimbursement models. Prospective payment, value-based, capitation these will all continue to grow at the expense of fee-for-service. With more structured and complex payment arrangements, additional leverage will go to payers and providers with scale, not independent physicians. OptumCare already has two-thirds of its 48,000-physician network under capitated/risk-based contracts, with more likely. Rapidly growing companies like Bright Health are launching individual and Medicare Advantage plans by aligning with a single provider organization in each market. At the same time, advisory and advocacy groups are calling for different versions of aPrimary Care Marshall Planto increase the amount of prospective and value-based payments for primary care.

Add to this the accelerated adoption of telehealth and recent estimates that the telehealth market could grow from $3 billion to $250 billion in the near term (potentially converting 20% of outpatient care to virtual settings). While patients will certainly benefit from some aspects of expanded telehealth, large physician groups, payers and telehealth providers stand to gain the most in this scenario with additional leverage in the market again, at the expense of independent physicians and smaller provider and payer entities.

So, back to that question: Now what?

The options for independent physicians can be grouped into two broad categories: employed positions and independence with some modification. For physicians comfortable with an employed setting, the choices are broader than ever it is no longer just large health systems and physician groups employing doctors. New entrants like those mentioned above provide additional possibilities for doctors uninterested in independent practice, and may better match certain doctors preferences and goals.

But for physicians committed to their independence, change is necessary. Practice management companies offer a route that preserves some level of independence. However, these typically require the use of outside care teams and resources, and principally focus on maximizing fee-for-service revenue.

A more comprehensive solution can be found with membership medicine (e.g., concierge medicine and direct primary care), truly distinct practice models that minimize reliance on fee-for-service income and offer greater operational and clinical flexibility. The COVID-19 emergency is a stark reminder of the precarious state of primary care and its reliance on revenue from office visits. With nearly all healthcare stakeholders promoting payment structures that require physicians to understand and take on risk, individual physicians with limited leverage are best served by aresilient concierge modelthat can meet their clinical, financial and operational goals.

Independent physicians are justifiably unsure of the future, and fear of choosing the wrong path is understandable. However, preserving the status quo will not preserve options for later. The primary care world is evolving more quickly than at any period in recent history due to COVID-19 and all the factors discussed above.Independent doctors with strong practices should recognize this as a pivotal moment in their personal and professional timeline, evaluate their options, commit to a decision, and act NOW.

By Dave Farr, Vice President of Business Development, Specialdocs, a pioneering concierge practice transition and management company established in 2002, helping physicians nationwide transform their practices with a customized and sustainable concierge model.

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Now what? The imminent dangers and emerging opportunities for physicians - Medical Economics

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June 12, 2020

Fitness clubs, once considered a less appealing option for retailer center owners, became one of the hottest tenant classes before stay-at-home mandates shuttered most of them amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Post-pandemic, the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) advises landlords to consider not only gyms but also the broader spectrum of wellness tenants.

In a new report, ICSC says the concept of wellness is less fuzzy than you might think.

The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), a Miami-based organization that seeks to educate the public and private sectors about preventative health and wellness, defines wellness as the pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health. The report states.

Wellness involves not merely physical health, but also mental, emotional, spiritual social, and environmental dimensions, according to ICSC. It also has a dimension of spending power: globally, wellness represented a $4.5-trillion economy in 2019, according to the GWI. Domestically, interest in wellness has spread from the Western U.S. to other regions.

ICSC says that key wellness segments often found in shopping centers include personal care, beauty and anti-aging; healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss; fitness and mind-body; preventative and personalized medicine and public health; and traditional and complementary medicine. Consumers heavily oriented toward wellness buy a wide array of often complementary services and products that sustain their lifestyles, including health food; supplements, vitamins, and minerals; anti-aging and other treatments such as facials, body scrubs, electrolysis, microdermabrasion, chemical peels and laser treatments; and alternative medical regimens.

Whether the goal is maintaining appearance and beauty or extending or merely preserving ones life, this is an array that shopping center landlords are scrutinizing with more avid interest than ever, ICSC says.

An ICSC survey has found that 73% of U.S. adults say living a healthy, well-balanced lifestyle in terms of their physical and mental well-being is more of a priority for them today than in the past.

The same ICSC survey reported that 39% of U.S. adults visited wellness tenants in shopping centers during the past year. They averaged 12 trips to wellness services in shopping centers during this perioda figure that rises to 31 trips when those who didnt visit these tenants at all are excluded. Cost and proximity were their top motivating factors for choosing a facility.

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For Retail Landlords, Time to Look Beyond Gyms to Wellness

Paul Bubny

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For Retail Landlords, Time to Look Beyond Gyms to Wellness - ConnectCRE

A new market report by Market Research Intellect on the Complementary And Alternative Medicine Market has been released with reliable information and accurate forecasts for a better understanding of the current and future market scenarios. The report offers an in-depth analysis of the global market, including qualitative and quantitative insights, historical data, and estimated projections about the market size and share in the forecast period. The forecasts mentioned in the report have been acquired by using proven research assumptions and methodologies. Hence, this research study serves as an important depository of the information for every market landscape. The report is segmented on the basis of types, end-users, applications, and regional markets.

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Complementary And Alternative Medicine Market 2019 Break Down by Top Companies, Countries, Applications, Challenges, Opportunities and Forecast 2026 -...

In the contemporary moment of sex-positive feminism, praises for the orgasmic capacity of the vibrator abound. Theyre all-encompassing, a blanket of electricity, thatll course through your veins, producing orgasms you didnt know you were physically capable of having, wrote Erica Moen in her webcomic Oh Joy Sex Toy. Vibrators today go hand in hand with masturbation and female sexuality.

Yet for American housewives in the 1930s, the vibrator looked like any other household appliance: a nonsexual new electric technology that could run on the same universal motor as their kitchen mixers and vacuum cleaners. Before small motors became cheap to produce, manufacturers sold a single motor base with separate attachments for a range of household activities, from sanding wood to drying hair, or healing the body with electrical vibrations.

In my research on the medical history of electricity, vibrators appear alongside galvanic battery belts and quack electrotherapies as one of many quirky home cures of the early 20th century.

The first electromechanical vibrator was a device called a percuteur invented by British physician Joseph Mortimer Granville in the late 1870s or early 1880s. Granville thought that vibration powered the human nervous system, and he developed the percuteur as a medical device for stimulating ailing nerves.

[Image: New-York Tribune/Wiki Commons]Current medical opinion held that hysteria was a nervous disease, yet Granville refused to treat female patients, simply because I do not want to be hoodwinked . . . by the vagaries of the hysterical state. The vibrator began as a therapy for men only. It then quickly left the sphere of mainstream medical practice.

By the early 20th century, manufacturers were selling vibrators as ordinary electric household appliances. The merits of electricity in the home were not as obvious then as they are today: Electricity was dangerous and expensive, but it promised excitement and modernity. Electric commodities, such as sewing and washing machines, became the hallmarks of the rising middle class.

Vibrators were another shiny new technology, used to sell consumers on the prospect of modern electric living. Just as banks handed out free toasters for opening checking accounts in the 1960s, in the 1940s the Rural Electrification Administration distributed free vibrators to encourage farmers to electrify their homes. These modern electric devices were not thought of as sex toys.

In what may sound surprising to 21st-century readers, these appliances promised relief of a nonsexual variety. Users of all ages vibrated just about every body part, without sexual intent.

Vibrators made housework easier by soothing the pains of tired housewives, calming the cries of sick children, and invigorating the bodies of modern working men. They were applied to tired backs and sore feet, but also the throat, to cure laryngitis; the nose, to relieve sinus pressure; and everything in between. Vibration promised to calm the stomachs of colicky babies, and to stimulate hair growth in balding men. It was even thought to help heal broken bones.

A 1910 advertisement in the New York Tribune declared that Vibration Banishes Disease As the Sun Banishes Mist. In 1912, the Hamilton Beach New-Life vibrator came with a 300-page instructional guide titled Health and How to Get It, offering a cure for everything from obesity and appendicitis to tuberculosis and vertigo.

As such advertisements suggest, vibrators were not standard medical treatments, but medical quackery, alternative medicine that didnt deliver on their promises. Yet the electrical cure-alls sold by the millions.

The classic form of medical quackery in the U.S. market was patent medicinebasically useless concoctions made mainly of alcohol and morphine, sometimes containing downright damaging ingredients such as lead and arsenic. After the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, the federal government began regulating the sale of patent medicines.

Vibrators and other electrotherapies were not covered by the new law, so they took up the market share of older medical concoctions. The White Cross Vibrator replaced Mrs. Winslows Soothing Syrup as a popular home cure rejected by the medical establishment.

In 1915, the Journal of the American Medical Association wrote that the vibrator business is a delusion and a snare. If it has any effect it is psychology. The business was dangerous not because it was obscene, but because it was bad medicine. The potential, acknowledged by doctors, for the vibrator to be used in masturbation was just further evidence of its quackery.

Sex toy scholar Hallie Lieberman points out that nearly every vibrator company in the early 20th century offered phallic attachments that would have been considered obscene if sold as dildos. Presented instead as rectal or vaginal dilators, these devices were supposed to cure hemorrhoids, constipation, vaginitis, cervicitis, and other illnesses localized to the genitals and the anus. Hamilton Beach, for example, offered a special rectal applicator for an additional cost of $1.50 and recommended its use in the treatment of Impotence, PilesHemorrhoids, and Rectal Diseases.

The two most prominent scholars of vibrator history, Rachel Maines and Hallie Lieberman, argue that vibrators were always secretly sexual, but I disagree. Vibrators were popular medical devices. One of many medical uses of the vibrator was to cure diseases of sexual dysfunction. And this use was a selling point, not a secret, during an era of anti-masturbatory rhetoric.

Special vibrator attachments such as the rectal applicator offered dubious treatments for dubious diseases: remedies for ailments purportedly caused by ruinous and prevalent masturbation.

Masturbation was thought to cause diseases such as impotence in men and hysteria in women. Masturbatory illness was a pretty standard idea in the early 20th century. One of its surviving formulations is the idea that masturbating will make you go blind.

Theres no way to really know how people were using vibrators. But the evidence suggests that they signified medical treatment, not sinful masturbation, regardless of the use. Even if users were doing physical actions that people today think of as masturbation, they didnt understand themselves to be masturbating, and therefore they werent masturbating.

For most of the 20th century, vibrators remained innocuous quackery. Good Housekeeping even bestowed its seal of approval on some models in the 1950s. When the sexual revolution hit America in the 1960s, vibrators were largely forgotten, outdated appliances.

In the 1970s radical feminists transformed the vibrator from a relic of bygone domesticity to a tool of female sexual liberation. At Betty Dodsons bodysex workshops, electric vibrations changed feelings of guilt about masturbation to feelings of celebration so that masturbation became an act of self-love. She and her sisters embraced vibrators as a political technology that could convert frigid anorgasmic housewives into powerful sexual beings capable both of having multiple orgasms and destroying the patriarchy.

This masturbatory revolt erased the vibrators fading reputation as a cure for masturbatory illness and replaced it with a specific, powerful, public, and lasting linkage between the vibrator and female masturbatory practice.

Kim Adams is a postdoctoral lecturer in English at New York University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The surprising medical history of vibrators - Fast Company

ByHub staff report

University and Medicine leaders announced today that Johns Hopkins will pause the development of a police department for at least two years so that it may benefit from the national re-evaluation of policing in society brought about by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

"We want Johns Hopkins to be part of the conversation about what is possible for our city and country in rethinking the appropriate boundaries and responsibilities of policing, and to draw on the energies, expertise, and efforts of our community in advancing the agenda for consequential and enduring reform. And we want to be able to work nowwith a sense of shared purpose and commitment, with our neighbors, and across our university communityto develop and model these alternative approaches," wrote Ronald J. Daniels, president of the university; Paul B. Rothman, dean of the medical faculty and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine; and Kevin W. Sowers, president of the Johns Hopkins Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Read the full message below.

Dear Faculty, Students, Staff, and Neighbors of Johns Hopkins:

As hundreds of thousands rise in protest here and across the nation, we share the continued anguish and anger at the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, and the unjust loss of so many other Black lives, in the long and grotesque history of systemic racism that has shaped this nation and its institutions.

This moment of national reckoning implicates all areas of our lives and the work we do together as a learned community. We recognize the ways in which systemic racism impacts unfairly our Black and Brown colleagues, neighbors, students, and staff. We know we must do more as an institution and as individuals to fully realize Johns Hopkins' core commitment to justice, equity, and inclusion, and we are grateful for the many difficult and important conversations that are happening now and that will guide our efforts to listen, to support, and to act.

Today, we want to speak to the renewed questions and broad concerns about policing in America and the calls to reconsider our decision to create a university police department at Johns Hopkins.

We sought the legislative authorization to build this department because of the sustained surge in violent crime directly impacting our students, faculty, staff, and neighbors and because, in contrast to our public university peers in the city, we lacked a police department that could help protect them. In seeking this authorization, we embraced without reservation many of the reforms that are now being called for across the country and we hope that legislation can contribute to the wider discussion of the steps needed to realize lawful, nonracist, and publicly accountable sworn policing.

The legislation that was enacted responded in a detailed and comprehensive manner to many of the concerns that were raised about the need for training to address racial bias, excessive force, and de-escalation, and the requirement for increased transparency and accountability. These issues are now very much at the center of the public debate over what modern policinghowever large or small its scopemust be in this country. Critically, the Johns Hopkins Police Department (JHPD) legislation explicitly enacted the best practices recommended by the national Task Force on 21st Century Policing and the Consent Decree that currently governs the Baltimore Police Department.

Throughout the process and again in recent weeks, we have been keenly aware of the range of principled and thoughtful perspectives on these issues, and we hear now the increasingly urgent calls for reconsideration of the way in which public safety in our community is achieved.

Many people see no role whatsoever for sworn policing in our country. Many others accept the necessity of some role for sworn policing but seek a fundamental and vigorous reimagination of how that role can be discharged equitably and integrated with other initiatives that ensure community safety.

We want Johns Hopkins to be part of the conversation about what is possible for our city and country in rethinking the appropriate boundaries and responsibilities of policing, and to draw on the energies, expertise, and efforts of our community in advancing the agenda for consequential and enduring reform. And we want to be able to work nowwith a sense of shared purpose and commitment, with our neighbors, and across our university communityto develop and model these alternative approaches.

Given the need for us to come together as a community in this enterprise of reimagining public safety, we have decided to pause for at least the next two years the implementation of the JHPD.

Taking the immediate implementation of the JHPD off the table is important for several reasons:

We hold with utmost seriousness our responsibility for the safety of our entire community, and in that spirit embrace the opportunity before us to allow that communityat Johns Hopkins, in our city, and well beyondto lend its intellectual and moral leadership in pointing a way forward on an issue that has so deeply riven this country.

In partnership and gratitude,

Ronald J. Daniels President

Paul B. Rothman, M.D.Dean of the Medical FacultyCEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Kevin W. Sowers, M.S.N., R.N., F.A.A.N.President, Johns Hopkins Health SystemEVP, Johns Hopkins Medicine

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Johns Hopkins will pause development of a police department for at least two years - The Hub at Johns Hopkins

The Kenya Medical Research Institute-KEMRI is awaiting final approvals to test its herbal medicine Zedupex for the management of Covid-19.

Deputy Director of the Centre for Traditional Medicine and Drug Research (CTMDR) at KEMRI, Dr. Peter Mwitari said Zedupex has already undergone its first review and is currently being evaluated before being given final approvals.

He said their proposal on the use of Zedupex for management of COVID 19 symptoms is undergoing an expedited process.

Mwitari is, however, urging the Ministry of Health to fast track formulation of legislation to guide alternative medicine practice in the country.

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He says lack of legislation to inform modalities on traditional medicine practice, has negatively impacted healthcare in the country.

Kemri is already banking on its herbal medicine Zedupex for management of the deadly virus.

The herbal drug developed in 2015 by the Kenyan researchers has been used for the treatment of herpes.

Dr. Mwitari, who was the chairperson of a technical working group that had been appointed to draft a policy document on traditional medicine and medicinal plants, said the team had finalized drafting the traditional and alternative health practitioners bill of 2019, and is now awaiting further directions from the health ministry.

Mwitari said had the legislation been finalized, it would have played a major role especially now when the country is battling the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said they have been getting several enquiries from traditional medicine practitioners who claim to have medicinal plants that may help in the management of Covid-19, but that they cannot be allowed access to Covid-19 patients as their herbs have no scientific proof of efficiency.

Mwitari said had there been legislation guiding the industry, more traditional medicine would have been researched and possibly get approvals on their treatment potential. The legislation will also help rid the industry of quacks.

Nonetheless, Dr.Mwitari said the center is currently awaiting necessary approvals on a second proposal that seeks to bring on board herbalists or any Kenyan who may have knowledge of a medicinal plant that has antiviral properties which may be researched on efficiency to manage some of the symptoms associated with Covid-19.

The approvals will also enable Kemri researchers to collect medicinal plants from practitioners for further analysis as well as documentation of their Traditional Medical Knowledge.

Medicinal plants

Mwitari called on the government to set aside more funds for research on traditional medicine, saying the sector can compliment the governments agenda of universal healthcare once legislation is put in place.

He said Kemris internal research grant has set aside 10 million shillings for research on the pandemic, and the amount is expected to be increased this new financial year.

Mwitari said there is documented evidence in Kenyas folklores that the practice has successfully been used by our forefathers for their healthcare needs including addressing previous pandemics.

He also said that medicinal plants account for up to 60 per cent of conventional medicine, hence the need for more research on their properties.

Mwitari cited the Artemisia annua plant for management of Malaria, The Madagascar periwinkle- which is the primary source of anti-cancer agent, Prunus Africana for managing prostate cancer, among others. Mwitari said he believes herbs may hold the key to Covid-19 cure once legislation is in place.

The world health organization-WHO is currently working with research institutions across the globe to select traditional medicine products which can be investigated for clinical efficacy and safety for Covid-19 treatment.

Madagascar has already come up with Covid-Organics, its herbal remedy for Covid 19. President Andry Rajoelina says that two injectable medications are already undergoing clinical trials.

A document summarizing the clinical trial protocol, published on the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR) website, says that the trials have been registered in accordance with World health organization-WHO standards.

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Kemris Zedupex herbal drug to treat Covid-19 awaits final nod - Kenya Broadcasting Corporation

Todays world is overwhelmed with the effects of addiction, whether it be physical, psychological or emotional. Most addictive habits take hold of a person as a way of coping with some pain that occurred earlier in a persons life. Many times, someone within the family, or close to the individual, betrays the individual in a hurtful or negative manner. Childhood is a very vulnerable time, and if a child cannot feel safe in his/her home or environment, then developing positive or negative coping mechanisms becomes common place.

Generally, the pain is too much to bare, and the means of coping which may develop into a habit, and become more common place the longer it is used to cope. As you may have heard it said, the addiction is not the problem, it has become the solution to the underlying problem. The concept of Adverse Childhood Experiences was extensively studied by Kaiser Permanente in 1998 to study how these experiences affect longterm health outcomes. It was found that children often experience a range of physical and psychological traumas that often have a negative impact on their life as time goes by. It was also found that just one Adverse Childhood Experience such as divorce of parents, alcohol or drug abuse in the home, or experiencing or witnessing violence can independently result in substance abuse in teenage or adulthood.

Many recovery programs developed for the treatment of drug and alcohol addictions have been formulated by dedicated healthcare professionals who are mindful of the need for Trauma Informed Care with consideration of the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences, and the need to address issues at the root of the problem. An Integrated Holistic approach is a wonderful solution for the treatment of chemical addiction, whether Adverse Childhood Experiences are a factor or not. Approaching the patient in a holistic manner by treating the underlying cause of illness, condition, or addiction, as such, addresses the needs of the individual not his disease, illness or addiction.

The nutritional status of a person with a substance abuse addiction is most often very deficient. If a person eats a diet with inadequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and protein over a prolonged period of time, it becomes difficult to remain healthy. Research shows that restoring these nutrients to healthy levels can help addicts recover more effectively.(1) Recovering substance abusers often mistake hunger, irritability, nausea, headache, and/or dizziness for drug or alcohol cravings. Learning how to distinguish between the normal feeling of hunger and a craving for drugs helps a person in recovery to differentiate the difference, and overtime make healthier responses to these sensations. Nutritional therapy can be instrumental in helping the recovering addict feel up to making better eating habits and better life choices. Studies have implied that reducing sugar in the diet could make it easier for an opioid addict to withdraw from the drug.(2)

In addition to nutritional therapies and healthy eating counseling, many supportive therapies have been shown to be instrumental on a successful journey to restored health and recovery from substance abuse. One of the modalities necessary to assist in the recovery of substance abuse, especially in regards to Adverse Childhood Experiences, is consultation with an experienced psychotherapist. This is especially critical when there is past trauma standing in the way of recovery. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing are therapies often used by counselors to assist the recovering person in healing from past traumas. The use of breath work and the practice of mindfulness have also been used to help a recovering person cope with day to day stressors as they move forward.(3)

A well rounded treatment for the recovery from substance abuse may also include therapies such as acupuncture, massage and yoga. These modalities have all been researched over the years, and have been shown to individually have positive effects on the central nervous system. In 1998, the Touch Research Institute said that "a program of regular therapeutic massage can result in a significant, lasting increase in dopamine levels." Dopamine is the feel good hormone; one definitely needed for recovery.

An Integrated Holistic Addiction treatment plan is a safe and effective way to recover from abusive drug and alcohol use. When treating the individual and not the addiction, by providing essential nutrients for healing and supporting emotional healing through the use of Integrated Psychotherapies, there is a increased chance for life long health and happiness.

References

(1) Houston, Reagan, Addiction Therapy for Drugs, Alcohol, Caffeine, and Sugar, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, October 21, 2014

(2) Alan Gaby, MD, Nutritional Treatments for Opioid Addiction, Nutritional Medicine.

(3) How Psychotherapy Works for Drug Addiction, drugrehab.org

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A Place To Heal Wellness Center | Alternative Medicine - Fountain Hills Times

Ever since the coronavirus spread across the world, suspicions have proliferated about what is really going on. Questions arose about the origins of the virus, the way it makes people sick, the mitigation measures taken, the suspended civil rights, the connection with 5G, possible cures and medications, and about the role of Bill Gates in it all.

These ideas are commonly framed as conspiracy theories. Yes, they may all distrust the mainstream narrative and share certain characteristics, but they are not one of a kind.

They take so many different forms and have such varying degrees of plausibility that I question how useful it is to bracket them all under the same banner. To understand and effectively respond to the various coronavirus conspiracy theories, we need to dig deeper.

Listen to our Expert guide to conspiracy theories, a series by The Conversations The Anthill podcast.

The dominant explanation for the popularity of coronavirus conspiracy theories is remarkably similar: these dark and unsettling ideas help people make sense of a complex and uncertain world. They provide sufficiently large explanations for tragic events, and give back feelings of agency and control.

Since these ideas sometimes have real-world consequences, from 5G masts set on fire to ignoring coronavirus mitigation measures, various commentators condemn these conspiracy theories. Officials now need not only fight a health pandemic, so their story goes, but an infodemic too.

The problem with the generalising approach is threefold. It does not account for the motivations of conspiracy theorists themselves; nor for the different forms and plausibility of the various conspiracy theories; nor for their relations with various political and societal issues.

Providing uniform explanations for conspiracy theories fails to seriously consider their contents or underlying concerns. Similarly, it leaves untouched how certain conspiracy theories are weaponised in various propaganda wars.

A closer look at these theories or even better actual engagement with the people propagating them, shows conspiracy theories not so much as a uniform coping strategy in unsettling times, but rather as a wide array of cultural expressions.

These include suspicions of planned efforts to impose mass vaccinations, doubts about the origins of the virus, expressions of disgust for the ruling elite, geopolitical insinuations, pointers to an inflated media panic, the scapegoating of certain societal groups (Chinese or Jews), critiques on the methods and measurements of COVID-19 symptoms and deaths, discontents with powerful philanthropists, worries about the expansion of authoritarian government policies, or concerns about corporate intrusion in the search for effective medications.

This means, as I argue in my recent book, that we need to focus on the meaning, diversity and context of different conspiracy theories, as well as the people who subscribe to them.

During my ethnographic research projects on contemporary conspiracy cultures, I encountered a wide variety of people, ideas, practices and communities. Because coronavirus conspiracy theories have yet to settle down, lets turn to some markedly different conspiracy theory subcultures that have been around for longer. They illustrate how different conspiracy theories and the people who subscribe to them can be.

Starting with the anti-vaccination movement of great concern to many. Because many anti-vaxxers in the western world are highly educated urban hipsters, it is difficult to reject them as ignorant deplorables.

Read more: Throwing science at anti-vaxxers just makes them more hardline

Next to critiques of Big Pharma, vaccine hesitancy is informed by holistic and naturalistic ideas about health and the body; ideas rooted in alternative medicine and New Age spiritualities. In these subcultural worlds, emotions, feelings, experiences, testimonies and social relations are often more important guides than scientific knowledge.

Rather different are those active in the 9/11 Truth Movement. Broadly interested in geopolitics and government cover ups, these people challenge the mainstream narrative of 9/11 with competing factual and scientific evidence. They advance visual proofs and mathematical calculations of why the towers could not have collapsed by the planes, but indicate controlled demolition instead.

These activists profess knowledge of physics, construction and explosives, and ground their legitimacy in this expertise. They are focused on exposing the official lies. Like true activists, they wish revolutionary change, to end the regime and illicit power structures responsible for 9/11.

The list of markedly different conspiracy subcultures could go on. Think of the Flat Earthers, who deploy various scientific methodologies and perform actual experiments in the outside world to show that it is not a globe but a Truman Show-like dome.

Read more: I watched an entire Flat Earth Convention for my research here's what I learnt

Favouring rational thinking and scientific methods is, however, no guarantee for brotherhood. 9/11 Truthers generally stay away from them as that would harm their credibility.

QAnon followers, meanwhile, deploy various strategies to interpret secret messages from their anonymous leader Q. These are known as crumbs or drops and are all part of their search for truth and redemption. Sharing many characteristics of millenarian New Religious Movements, QAnon followers anticipate a violent apocalypse when the conspiracy will be dismantled and followers will be vindicated.

This brief overview already shows the wide variety of themes, ideologies, plausibilities, origins, people and potential dangers of different conspiracy theory subcultures. Regarding conspiracy theories as one uniform category obscures all these differences and the various societal dynamics in which conspiracy theories play a role.

This inevitably leads to simplistic explanations. Further, it has the political effect of collectively stigmatising certain ideas and people and prematurely excluding them from legitimate political debate. Conspiracy theories are not uniform nor should our engagements with them be.

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Why we should not treat all conspiracy theories the same - The Conversation UK

One medical research team in Israel believes they have a small piece to the coronavirus puzzle. In an exclusive interview with The Fresh Toast, Dr. Igal Louria-Hayon, head of the Medical Cannabis Research and Innovation Center at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, says the healing properties in cannabis may be able to help the body fight against COVID-19.

Announced in May, Dr. Louria-Hayon and his team of researchers announced they would begin a clinical trial in studying how cannabis aids in inflammation within the body and if that could decrease the effects of COVID-19. One of the main causes of death with the disease is cytokines proteins that signal cells to turn on to fight that are released, causing the body to react in uncontrollable ways against the virus. As a part of the bodys endocrine signal process, once cytokines are turned on past their maximum, the proteins become difficult to control and can cause a shockwave of effects, leading to death.

In some studies, cannabis was proven to help regulate inflammation and cytokines, offering better signalling to the body. The goal of the upcoming study is to examine the receptors to which these substances bond, the cellular messages that are communicated and the extent to which cannabinoids reduce the inflammatory response.

Especially important to note, Dr. Shlomit Yehudai-Reshef, director of the Rambam Medical Research Institute, shared that her team was able to identify a key method to understanding the virus and the human bodys subsequent reaction: white blood cells. Despite the complexity and high risk, we found a safe way to separate the white blood cells, including the immune cells from verified patients, explained Dr. Yehudai-Reshef, clarifying that when the cells were separated, they were easier to study and manipulate.

FILE: University of Lethbridge researcher Igor Kovalchuk is leading a study on medical cannabis as a potential therapy for COVID-19. / Photo: Supplied.Summited photo

Yehudai-Reshef illustrated that when blood samples were accessible, they could continuously learn from the disease, its biological processes leading to the blood becoming a key factor in developing treatment.

In discussing his teams preliminary research and goals, Dr. Louria-Hayon answered the following questions.

How do these findings change the outlook in the healthcare community?

The current lack in scientific knowledge about cannabis spanning from taxonomies to clinical research has led us to the understanding that we need to change our attitude when examining this plant. By developing a rigorous system of analysis, such that discards anecdotal information and accidental findings, we aim to discover the clinical significance of the cannabis plants active components, he said.

With each and every experimentation determining the active mechanism and its effect on disease, we see the scientific community acknowledging the necessity to develop our understandings towards medicine. / Photo: iStock / Getty Images PlusiStock / Getty Images Plus

With each and every experimentation determining the active mechanism and its effect on disease, we see the scientific community acknowledging the necessity to develop our understandings towards medicine. The manner in which we conduct experiments in Rambam Medical Center is at a level in which our results will enable the healthcare community to practice the use of cannabis in informed and productive ways.

Do you think this will open the eyes of health practitioners to start looking to alternative medicine in these times?

Our current time dictates a state of emergency, a time that calls for innovative initiatives in various areas of expertise. In fact, we have seen and are still seeing different initiatives inaugurating during this time of plague in both technology and medicine. If this time of crisis requires unconventional treatments and creative minds, it is our task to encourage thinking outside the box. I believe that physicians treating COVID-19 patients who already found that conventional treatments are not clearly at hand, will turn to examine alternative care. It is, therefore, our task to provide the exact knowledge for novel treatment in this time of need.

It is only via collaborations that alternative treatments may prove not merely as potential solutions, but as care methods. / Photo: Bertrand Blay / iStock / Getty Images PlusBertrand Blay / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Have you spoken to/heard from doctors that this has changed their strategy?

What makes cannabis research at Rambam Medical Center unique, is the fact that we are literally situated at the heart of the hospital. The cross pollination between health doctors and researchers manifests in many ways, stemming from our use of clinical materials, to collaborations with doctors raising questions from the field of practice and joint research. These are, indeed, the very platforms we are establishing for the concrete use of our results, which will be made into treatment. As we are deep into research, it is only via these collaborations which are happening that alternative treatments may prove not merely as potential solutions, but as care methods.

The FreshToast.com, a U.S. lifestyle site that contributes lifestyle content and, with their partnership with 600,000 physicians via Skipta, medical marijuana information to The GrowthOp.

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This doctors insight on treating the pandemic with cannabis - The GrowthOp