- American Board of Holistic Medicine Gives Birth to Medicine's Newest Sp

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American Board of Holistic Medicine Gives Birth to Medicine's Newest Specialty

DENVER--(BW HealthWire)--Dec. 4, 2000--From December 3 to 6, over 400 physicians

are attending the first board certification review course in holistic medicine

at the Mark Hotel.

The course will be followed on December 7 by the first board certification

examination.

Created by the American Board of Holistic Medicine (ABHM) and co-sponsored by

the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of

Medicine, this course will help to prepare licensed M.D.s and D.O.s (doctors of

osteopathic medicine) to become physician-healers.

Applying both conventional and alternative therapies, these board-certified

physicians will be equipped to 1) treat the whole person -- body, mind, and

spirit; 2) address the causes of disease as well as treat symptoms; 3) guide

their patients toward a condition of optimal health while effectively treating

their chronic ailments; and 4) to practice on themselves and their patients in

accord with the fundamental principle of holistic medicine: unconditional love

is life's most powerful healer.

The practice of holistic medicine is highly effective in treating the more than

100 million Americans suffering from a variety of chronic conditions -- from

arthritis and sinusitis to heart disease and menopause. It is primarily for this

reason that nearly 50 percent of the American population is regularly using some

type of alternative therapy while making 629 million visits per year to

alternative practitioners. This number is almost double the number of the

combined visits to all primary care physicians. People are spending nearly $27

billion on the therapies and office visits, and most of these expenses are not

reimbursed by insurance. (All of these statistics come from a study that

appeared in the Journal of the AMA, Nov. '98.)

However, by setting a new standard of care, certification in holistic medicine

is already beginning to have a profound impact on the health care industry.

Holistic medical treatment is a cost-effective approach that both helps to

reduce the need for hospitalization, surgery, medication, and diagnostic tests

-- and satisfies the public's demand for relief of their suffering. It,

therefore, has begun to attract the interest of HMOs, the large self-insured

employers, and hospitals creating integrative medical centers. Holistic medicine

is expanding the model of both the primary care and the specialist physician for

the 21st century.

The co-directors of the board review course, A. , M.D., and

S. Ivker, D.O., have been family physicians for a combined 70 years. They

are also the co-authors of the book, The Self-Care Guide to Holistic Medicine

(Tarcher/Putnam). The ABHM is an independently constituted medical board,

founded in Seattle in 1996 to provide a basic scientific standard for the

credentialing of holistic physicians in the U.S. The ABHM may be contacted by

fax, 425/787-8040, or email: blh@....

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Contact:

American Board of Holistic Medicine

Larry Hulbert, 425/741-2996

Fax: 425/787-8040

blh@...

http://biz./bw/001204/wa_abhm.html