Category Archives: Integrative Medicine

Are you on the waiting list yet? This week sees the long-anticipated opening of The Well, a first-of-its-kind members-only wellness destination in Manhattans Flatiron District. The brainchild of Rebecca Parekh, former COO for Deepak Chopra, Kane Sarhan, former Head of Brand for Starwood Capital Group and 1 Hotels, and Sarrah Hallock, a former executive at VitaminWater, the club brings together Western medicine with Eastern healing in an 18,000-square foot space meticulously designed by Rose Ink Workshops Liubasha Rose to offer a calming respite from the rigors of city life.

Stepping in from the street, visitors are greeted by a curated wellness boutique stocking clean beauty brands and accessories such as jade rollers and singing bowls; just beyond, the open-to-all The Well Kitchen & Table restaurant, from the team behind Cafe Clover and Clover Grocery, will serve organic food and wine beginning in October. From here, members can pass into the inner sanctum, at the heart of which is an actual wella symbolic nod to the notion of going deeper into oneself, and also the guiding principle behind Rose's design concept. The idea of a literal well was really interesting, she says. It's the absolute source of human survival and civilization; it's also cylindrical and deep, and has curves and rounded shapes and long perspectives. Our starting point was to translate that into the architecture.

The serene splendor of the lower level attests to the power of this inspiration. Walls are white and curved, lined with parcels of lavender and studded with glittering pyrite stones; in the relaxation room, drawn from the idea of Supermans crystal cave, light glows ethereally from selenite sconces custom-made by Rose & Stone, a collaboration between Liubasha and jewelry designer Joanne Stone. The upstairs space is very open and social, but as you go downstairs its mostly areas where you want to be inward-looking and private, Rose says. The space kind of meanderswe wanted it to feel like a journey where you make discoveries along the way.

Certainly the most astounding discoverybeyond the 10-room spa (each equipped with an infrared-emitting bed), fitness studios, steam and sauna facilities, and wellness consultation areasis the dome-shaped Meditation Room. Inspired by a James Turrell light installation as well as by Mexican temazcal huts, the room is like a cocoon, plushly carpeted and lined with low cushions. Beneath the flooring, a bedrock of crystals and stones ensures energetic equilibrium. The intent was for this to be like an oasis of calm, says Rose. The city is so vibrant and loud and hard and chaoticwe wanted to make a place where the minute you walk through the door all of that melts away. Twenty-minute guided meditation classes will be offered throughout the day, making it easy to pop in for a bit of "ohhhmmm" on the go.

What else do you get for your $375/month membership fee beyond good vibes and beautiful design? Monthly one-on-one sessions with a dedicated health coach, including access to an elite team of practitioners in integrative medicine, sports medicine, and Ayurveda, led by Chief Medical Officer Frank Lipman, M.D., Head of Sports Medicine Keith Pyne, D.C., and Head of Traditional Chinese Medicine Aimee Raupp, M.S., L.Ac. Youll also enjoy unlimited yoga, meditation and Mindful Movement classes, as well as access to the private training gym and all other facilities, including a beauty and grooming bar in the locker rooms featuring products by Caudalie, Purequosa, Caldera + Lab, LXMI and Snowfox. Although membership will be capped at less than 2,000 members, there's good news for those who fail to nab a coveted spot: Interest has been so keen that plans for a second location in New York and a Well L.A. are already in the works.

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The Well Opens in New York City - TownandCountrymag.com

Wellness Fest Cleveland is an event that truly focuses on whats good for the mind, body and soul. Join us for a day of healthy food and fun events that everyone will enjoy. The Vegan Flea Market will be there as well with over 20 vegan vendors along the street.

Some of the Pinecrest wellness merchants will be offering specialty classes that you can sign up for like yoga in the park and other wellness classes.

$15 Wellness Goodie Bag (Over $100 in Pinecrest Deals)

$20 Wellness Goodie Bag + Yoga Class

$20 Wellness Goodie Bag + Orangetheory Class

$20 Wellness Goodie Bag (Day Of / Door Price)

Stop by to learn more from Cleveland Clinic experts about how to improve your health and well-being and enjoy family-friendly activities from the following areas:

Wellness & Integrative Medicine

Cleveland Clinic Childrens

Blood Pressure Screenings

The event is free to walk around but we will be offering a Wellness Bag full of goodies. It will have over $100 in deals from the locations in Pinecrest and they only cost $15 each. The bags are reusable grocery store bags so you can get away from using single use plastic bags.

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Wellness Fest Cleveland comes to Beachwood - WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland

True Food Kitchen, a restaurant that targets health-conscious diners, opens Wednesday, Sept. 25, in the Warehouse District. Founded by integrative medicine advocate Dr. Andrew Weil, the chain counts Oprah Winfrey as an investor and operates 28 locations in 12 states. The New Orleans location is at 801 St. Charles Ave., on the ground floor of The Julia at Saint Charles residential development.

The restaurant covers 6,500 square feet of bright, airy space with bar and table seating and full table service. Decor is contemporary and features light woods, bright green banquettes and abundant plant life on all sides.

Container gardens of fresh herbs line the sidewalk outside the restaurant. A colorful piece of art spanning an entire interior wall instructs diners to Eat More Color, one of the principles of Weils anti-inflammatory diet that underpins the restaurants menu and philosophy. That artwork features locally sourced materials from The Green Project and ArcGNO.

The extensive menu will change seasonally and the opening iteration features pears, butternut squash, beets and Brussels sprouts. Culinary influences range from Asian to Middle Eastern, and menu items can be customized to meet many dietary regimens including keto, paleo, vegan and gluten. Servers are schooled in ingredients, nutrition information and preparations.

The menu includes appetizers such as edamame dumplings with dashi and white truffle oil ($11) and a roasted beet and goat cheese flatbread ($10). There is a simple salad of kale, lemon, garlic, grana Padano and breadcrumbs ($10), and more ambitious combinations such as butternut squash, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cannellini beans and more with horseradish vinaigrette ($14).

Shareable thin-crust pizzas range from $13 to $16 and gluten free versions are available. There is a basic margherita and a pie with like butternut squash, caramelized onions, kale, dried cranberries and vegan almond ricotta.

True Food Kitchen has a selection of bowls, offering varieties such as spicy Panang curry and Korean noodle. Bowls range from $12 - $14, and proteins can be added for an additional charge.

The menu also includes hearty fare such as steak tacos and burgers, both with grass-fed beef. The Unbeetable Burger is made from beets and served with kuzu, jicama slaw and crushed avocado. The bun is dairy-free and a gluten free one is available.

Desserts also receive an anti-inflammatory makeover in offerings such as flourless chocolate cake, served beneath a scoop of coconut-based vanilla ice cream.

For weekend brunch, the kitchen offers juices, smoothies and nonalcoholic refreshers including the Hangover Rx, a combination of pineapple, orange, honey and coconut water.

The bar has a large selection of wines by the glass and bottle. Many cocktails feature organic liquors, including a Beets by Jon with organic vodka, red beet, lemon and pineapple and the ginger margarita made with organic reposado tequila, ginger liqueur, sea buckthorn and honey.

True Food Kitchen will be open for lunch and dinner daily, with weekend brunch will be served from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

True Food Kitchen

801 St. Charles Ave., 504-558-3900

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True Food Kitchen opens Sept. 25 in the Warehouse District - The Advocate

THE WELL, an 18,000 square foot modern membership-based club officially debuts today in New Yorks Flatiron. The first of its kind, THE WELL builds best-in-class, integrated and highly personalized plans for each of its members, marking a completely new style of members club, with community and wellness at its core.

Until now there has been a gap in the market as consumers look to integrate wellness and health services into their lives. The idea for THE WELL first came to CEO and CoFounder, Rebecca Parekh (Former COO for Deepak Chopra and Deutsche Bank Executive), in 2009 when she was seeking a concept like this in her own life. Rebecca was finding it difficult to prioritize her own health and well-being with so much conflicting information and advice out thereand after visiting a destination spa in Sedona, Arizona, became inspired to bring destination wellness to an urban market. Her CoFounders, Kane Sarhan (Former Head of Brand for Starwood Capital Group and 1 Hotels) and Sarrah Hallock (Former Marketing Executive at vitaminwater, Bai and WTRMLN WTR), both had similar struggles, which is why they are so passionate about bringing this model of wellness to busy professionals in cities like New York.

Our mission is to be the gold standard for wellness, says Rebecca Parekh, CoFounder and CEO of THE WELL, Were building a movement to empower people to take greater agency for their health.

THE WELL has curated an expert team of renowned practitioners trained in Functional and Integrative Medicine, Chinese Medicine, Sports Medicine, Ayurveda and other modalities to offer a holistic approach to health and wellness. Practitioners are communicating in real-time to help members reach their goals and address topics including stress management, sleep hygiene, gut health and immunity. THE WELL practitioners include Chief Medical Officer Frank Lipman, M.D., Head of Sports Medicine Keith Pyne, D.C. and Head of Traditional Chinese Medicine Aimee Raupp, M.S., L.Ac.

We believe in bio-individuality which means there is no one size fits all protocol adds Sarrah Hallock, CoFounder and COO of THE WELL. THE WELL is a place where members receive trusted, personalized plans to help them achieve their individual health goals.

Membership includes monthly one-on-one sessions with a dedicated health coach who serves as a guide to help members drive their own experience and craft a highly personalized wellness plan. Unlimited yoga, meditation and movement classes are also included in membership, as well as access to the private training gym, relaxation lounge, sauna and steam room. THE WELL also offers an extensive treatment menu in its ten room spa including acupuncture and acupuncture facials, reiki, craniosacral, dry brushing and lymph drainage, deep tissue massage, myofascial release, neuromuscular and trigger point therapy and several other integrated modalities.

THE WELL has additionally partnered with best-in-class brands like Dyson, to offer members use of their innovative hair care tools and to incorporate their air purifiers and task lighting throughout the Club; and Land Rover, to provide a Range Rover house car that will transport members from the Club while enjoying special wellness amenities.

THE WELL has been designed by Rose Ink Workshop with the goals of facilitating connection, inspiring the imagination, expanding consciousness and creating an oasis of positivity and comfort. While shades and textures of white set the background of the space, there is plenty of color to ensure a luminous feel. Interacting with living nature is a key theme throughout the Club. The verdant space features more than 50 different varieties of plants curated by the resident plant whisperer, Luz LeStrange. Each species was chosen based on its natural healing and air purification qualities. LeStrange worked closely with THE WELL to rotate the selection seasonally and feature herbs that can be used in treatments and culinary offerings, including rosemary, lavender, eucalyptus, basil, rosemary and more.

Opening in October, THE WELL Kitchen & Table will be a market-fresh restaurant focused on seasonal, local and organic offerings, from the team behind Cafe Clover and Clover Grocery.

The ever-evolving menu features Ayurvedic-inspired and plant-centric entrees, with an international flare. Healthy juices, smoothies, organic and biodynamic wines and low ABV cocktails complete the offering.

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The Highly Anticipated Health Club, The Well, Opens in Flatiron - Gotham Magazine

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After years of strained communication,Demi Moore enjoys a close relationship with her daughters, Rumer, 31, Scout, 27, and Tallulah, 25 a new chapter for the women in more ways than one. The revelation that the G.I. Jane actress has patched things up with her family comes on the heels of the release of her candid new memoir, Inside Out. And, according to a new source, there were times Moores life created so much chaos that any sort of reconciliation seemed practically impossible.

She was really struggling mentally and didnt take care of herself. She didnt have the best relationship with her daughters either and her life was just chaos, a source told People of the destructive years that followedher split from ex-husband Ashton Kutcher. As a result, it created distance between her and her children, as Moore addressed in her book.

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But Moore has focused her energies over the last few years on getting healthy and restoring thecloseness she once had with Rumer, Scout and Tallulah. Now, she has a beautiful relationship with all of her daughters, said the source. Demi feels bad about the years she wasnt healthy. She really tries to make up for it now. Her daughters are amazing. Demi is involved in their everyday lives. And they are supportive of Demi. They love that she wrote a memoir.

Getting to this point wasnt easy, though. In a telling interview with The New York Times that went live last week,Moore admitted she sought professionalhelp to address some of her issues including a rehab program for trauma, codependency and substance abuse, as well as independent work with a doctor specializing in integrative medicine to assist in healing the health issues that contributed to her decline.

The effort hasnt gone unnoticed by her daughters. Scout told the Times she was proud of their mom for doing the internal work that she didnt have time to do, for a long time, because she was just in survival mode. Rumer said that the journey has given her a newfound empathy for her moms struggles. We grow up thinking that our parents are these immovable gods of Olympus, she said. Obviously as we grow older, we start to realize how much our parents are just people.

Today, Moore insists she has maintained her sobriety and her relationship with her daughters. In fact, she, Rumer and Scout are taking a 10-month-long spiritual psychology course together. Its a far cry from those unhealthy years after her split from Kutcher when, as Moore explains in the memoir, she had no career, no relationship.

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How Demi Moore Restored Her Relationship With Her Daughters After Trauma & Substance Abuse - Yahoo Entertainment

I knew from the moment I found out the lump in my breast wasnt a cyst, that I had cancer. The concerned look in the technicians eyes and serious tone in the radiologists voice tipped their hand. My biggest no-doubter though was having had CRPS for 37 years.

For the past decade or so Ive said to my partner John on more occasions than I can count that I dont understand how my catastrophic illness hasnt given me cancer. How can an organism thats been attacking itself with this level of pain and fatigue for almost four decades not end itself? Well the answer is, its doing just that.

Ive never been a lucky person. Despite that, I felt the Gods were at last on my side when my doctors told me that if this thing was cancer, Id most likely have the good kind, the one they know how to treat and is responsive to targeted therapy. True to form though, post-biopsy, my doctor lowered the boom that I have the worst prognosis an aggressive Triple Negative malignancy. While not all that surprised, I was devastated.

Cynthia Toussaint

And angry.

Ive taken care of myself, helped others and braved suffering my entire effing life. Ive done everything right. And this is my reward?! With a dozen auto-immune diseases and their many co-morbidites, Ive never asked why me?, but now find myself in the why ALWAYS me? camp.

Theres no good way to spin breast cancer and for me its a pain-complicated, convoluted nightmare. My oncologist wanted to do surgery right away, but I said hell no because of the possibility of spreading CRPS. So well start with chemotherapy. I have a 50/50 chance that the chemo will be effective and if my unlucky streak breaks, theyd like to follow with surgery to make sure they get it all. Again, Ive said no to cutting, and my doctor has agreed to do the least invasive monitoring follow up. Of course this greatly lowers my odds of survival.

For my 50/50 chance, Ill have the dubious honor of being bald and extremely weak. Ill be non-stop retching and experience dangerous weight loss. Ill also have chemo brain, the bastard cousin of fibro fog. Theyre concerned about neuropathy and God only knows what this is going to do to my CRPS. The cherry on top is that if I miraculously win this round, chances are the cancer will return with a vengeance in two to three years.

Like I said, Im angry. Really angry. And scared.

My doctors think that my 37 years of CRPS-driven inflammation caused my cancer. I think theyre right, and Im terrified that my bodys just going to keep producing it no matter the amount of cutting, zapping and tumor-poisoning they give me. At the end of the day, folks, when people say pain doesnt kill you, theyre wrong. Its terminal.

Im waking up in cold sweats fearing the treatment will take my energetic, life-affirming spirit, the one thing my pain couldnt rob me of. With that loss, Id be a shell of Cynthia, and my life would be absent of meaning. Also, I dont trust western medicine AT ALL. I despise the idea of spending my life as a patient in and around clinics, hospitals, doctors and all things medical. That care system failed me miserably and I swore it off forever ago.

So after getting this diagnosis bomb dropped in my lap, I called the least doctorly doctors I know, two integrative medicine guys, both who are angels. They gave me excellent advice as how to best prep myself for chemo as a woman with high-impact, persistent pain.

Perhaps the most useful advise I got was when I asked one of these guys, So how important is the being positive thing that I keep hearing about? He sort of laughed, took a moment, and responded with, Its more healthy to be authentic. THANK YOU! I dont know anyone who is positive thinking just after a serious chronic illness diagnosis, let alone cancer. Just like when pain turns our worlds upside down, we must grieve our cancer diagnosis and Im nowhere near acceptance.

Despite all of this uninvited darkness, Im mindful to see the bit of light that has peeked in. One swimming friend is going to shave her head when I lose my hair so we can go through the cue-ball phase together. John and I are going to New Orleans to visit good friends and self-proclaimed tour guides the week before my chemo starts and theyve offered a wonderful apartment, their treat. Last night a couple chauffeured us to a surprise scrumptious sushi dinner. Unexpected kindness is my new best friend.

A very close colleague whos lost a number of loves to cancer called the other day. Gary reminded me that I have way too many people to help and good work to do. He ended with, youre one tough broad, Cynthia and youre going to beat this.

Man oh man, I want to live. Ive fought to live my whole life, and this is the fight of my life. Perhaps Ill catch a break.

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Diagnosis: The Worst - National Pain Report

In the corner of the UC, tucked next to Ship-Ex and Jus Chill'n, lies the often forgotten University of Montana Health and Medicine (UMHM) Wellness Clinic. Several different programs across campus share the space, including Curry Health Wellness Center, the physical therapy program, the athletic training and neural injury programs, among others. This semester the clinic plans to make the space more accessible and visible to students.

Valerie Moody, director of the athletic training program, said that the space was set up to be a satellite clinic during the spring of 2019. Several different health programs on campus used the space, but Moody said that it didnt get a lot of foot traffic.

Last year it seemed like we were just sitting a lot and nobody really knew what the space was, she said. Moodys goals this semester are to let students know the space is there and to engage them in more activity-based events.

Each program will get the space for a set amount of time each week to do tabling or events. Mondays and Thursdays, physical therapy will offer services in the space from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Tuesdays will rotate monthly between different programs. September is neural injury and athletic training. This week they will be featuring Montana Brain Injury Alliances Unmasking Brain Injury display from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The display will feature artistic masks created by people who have suffered traumatic brain injury.

Curry Healths Wellness Center will take over Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Wellness Happy Hour, which will feature different themed activities, a bowl of condoms, some Curry swag and a raffle. This months theme is responsible drinking.

Students from a variety of disciplines will take the reins on Fridays, answering questions about their programs from 12 to 1 p.m. Cindi Laukes, Director of the Neural Injury Center, said that she values the creativity that students bring into using the space. Theyre not only the target, she said, but kind of an integral part, too.

Kayli Julius, a specialist at Curry Health Wellness, expressed her hopes that the clinic will become a place where students feel comfortable dropping by when they have questions or need help. Sometimes I think theres just barriers to care because its kind of scary coming in to see a medical provider or counselor, she said. If theyre in a space like the UC, maybe it would help kind of break down some of those barriers to getting services.

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Integrative health clinic in UC aims to engage students - Montana Kaimin

The U.S. government will spend $3 million to find out if marijuana can relieve pain, but none of the money will be used to study the part of the plant that gets people high.

Nine research grantsannounced Thursdayare for work on CBD, the trendy ingredient showing up in cosmetics and foods, and hundreds of less familiar chemicals. THC research was excluded.

The federal government still considers marijuana an illegal drug, but more than 30 states allow it use for a range of medical problems, some without good evidence.

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The science is strongest for chronic pain, themost common reasonpeople give when they enroll in state-approved medical marijuana programs. But little is known about which parts of marijuana are helpful and whether the intoxicating effects of THC can be avoided.

The science is lagging behind the public use and interest. Were doing our best to catch up here, said Dr. David Shurtleff, deputy director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, which is funding the projects.

THC has been investigated extensively, Shurtleff said, and its potential for addiction and abuse make it unsuitable for treating pain.

Other federal agencies have supported marijuana research, but much of the focus has been on potential harms. Shurtleff said the grants answer the call in a 2017 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, which concluded a lack of marijuana research poses a public health risk.

Another driver is the nations opioid addiction crisis, with its roots in overuse of prescription painkillers. The crisis has sparked new scientific interest in marijuanas pain-easing properties.

Dr. Judith Hellman, a grant recipient from University of California, San Francisco, said scientists need to better understand pain and to find more ways to treat it. Its very exciting to have the opportunity to do that, she said.

Hellmans research involves the bodys ability to produce signaling molecules similar to marijuanas ingredients. Her and Dr. Mark Schumachers work involves human immune cells in the lab, then tests on mice.

Human test subjects will be involved in only one of the grant projects. University of Utah researcher Deborah Yurgelun-Todd will scan the brains of human volunteers with lower back pain to see how CBD extract mixed with chocolate pudding affects pain-signaling pathways. Half the volunteers will get pudding without CBD as a control group.

Two more human studies may be funded in a second round of grant awards, NCCIH said.

In July, the National Institute on Drug Abuse said it would grow 2,000 kilograms (4,409 pounds) of marijuana this year at the University of Mississippi, which holds the sole federal contract for producing research cannabis. Those plants wont be used in many of the new projects, which instead will use lab-made versions of the chemicals.

Researchers in Illinois hope to create a library of useful compounds found in cannabis plants.

We make them from scratch and test them one by one, said David Sarlah of the University of Illinois. Marijuana contains such tiny amounts of the interesting ingredients that its too costly and time consuming to isolate enough for research, Sarlah said.

Sarlah, an organic chemist, will make the chemicals. His colleague Aditi Das will run tests to see how they react with mouse immune cells.

There are so many beneficial effects that patients report. We need to know the science behind it, Das said.

Carla K. Johnson

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US awards $3 million to fill gaps in medical marijuana research - STAT

Deepak Chopra, Special to SFGate

By Deepak Chopra, MD

Everyone is good at avoiding the elephant in the room, which refers to something everyone is aware of but cannot bring themselves to discuss. In some ways the ultimate elephant in the room is human nature. We all exhibit human nature, but we rarely discuss it for a simple reason: no one knows what to do with it.

Lions suffer no inner conflict when they prey upon the weak, but we do, or should. Mating season doesnt send dolphins into an emotional tailspin, but human sexuality is fraught with psychological implications, and for some people these are unresolved for a lifetime. The essential problem, however, is that human nature is torn between opposites. We see ourselves as good and bad together, rational and irrational, peaceful and violent.

The divided self is a central topic in a new book Ive written titled Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential. In it I counter the general helplessness that people feel about human nature. Its a helplessness born of being human, quite literally. Just to exist as a human being involves an inheritance of opposites. As children we learn to curb the dark side of these opposites, but psychology hasnt gotten much beyond Freuds sad conclusion that civilization barely keeps a lid on our innate tendency to violence, sexual jealousy, hatred of others, and similar inherited woes.

If human nature has been in conflict since recorded history began, perhaps it should remain the elephant in the room. This seems to be a kind of silent consensus. People feel free to discuss almost anything except the presence of the divided self. Countries pass military budgets, cities support police forces, legislatures pass laws, all of which try to curb the worst in human nature, and yet the people passing the laws and paying for armies and police forces are afflicted with the same impulses they attempt to curb.

Despite the tendency to take these things for granted, human nature is not like the nature of a lion, dolphin, or any other creatureit isnt really fixed or innate. We go beyond our nature all the time, which is why I chose the Greek word meta, which means beyond, in the books title. There is a well-known dictum that you cannot fix a problem at the level of the problem. This would seem to stymie any solution to the problem of human nature, because most people assume they are stuck with being human and all the defects this entails.

Rationality, science, art, education, and lawmaking constitute vast areas where we do not simply accept our divided self but build constructs that shape reality in an orderly, predictable, safe, and even beautiful way. The streets of Renaissance Italy were rife with gangs and family feuds (think of Romeo and Juliet) that gave rise to daily violence and danger, and yet Leonardo and Raphael flourished at the same time.

Going beyond has its limits, however. One could say that science and art and laws compensate for our inner conflicts without actually solving them. This seems obvious, in fact. Caravaggio, a great Italian painter, was on the run for murder and eventually died by violence in some obscure way no one has gotten to the bottom of. Corruption in politics as well as the #MeToo movement are indicators that the worst in human nature lurks in places of the highest positions and power.

In Metahuman I argue that going beyond hasnt really been tested to the limit. There is a more powerful form of going beyond than art, science, laws, and even rationality. It involves going beyond human nature itself and undoing all the mental constructs that enfold us. The bald fact is that human nature is a self-created construct. The lower brain remains with us on our evolutionary journey, implanted with basic impulses like fight-or-flight. But Homo sapiens escaped from evolutionary jail thousands of years ago.

A lion is a lion because its a lionthere is no choice in the matter. Humans are self-created because we are self-aware. Thus we counter survival of the fittest by taking care of our weak, poor, and disabled. We educate ourselves to transcend instinct in favor of expanded awareness. In fact, expanded awareness is our whole purpose. Science and technology cannot exist unless you are aware that there is a challenge or problem to solve. Then you look inside for ideas that lead to a solution.

What this means is that awareness solves the conflicts inherit in human nature. Nothing can be changed if you arent aware of it. I am not addressing how difficult our problems are. My only aim is to point to the only true level of the solution that isnt mired at the level of the problem. We have constructed imperfect societies, imposed religious beliefs that are shot through with mythology, and funded armies to project our need to be violent when called upon.

Yet the things we most value are not mental constructs. They include love, compassion, creativity, generosity, joy, curiosity, and the potential to grow. Leonardo had the mind and skill to paint the Mona Lisa, but he didnt invent creativity. Einstein had brilliant scientific ideas, but he didnt invent curiosity. The foundation for what we most value lies at the source of the mind, which is consciousness itself. Human nature was invented at a distance from the source. We can be sure of this because consciousness per se is not divided; it is whole.

Wholeness is uncreated. We exist and we are conscious. That is a statement of wholeness. Metahuman is based on the claim that existence and consciousness are the same. To be fully conscious, you only need to be here now. Everything else is at the level of the problem.

Be here now is a good catch phrase, devised by the spiritual teacher Ram Dass, who is still alive. Beyond the catch phrase lies the hidden reality that transcends all of our mental constructs. There is no apparent limit to human potential. We have infinite thoughts to think and infinite ways to express those thoughts. Yet the most brilliant thoughts are still secondary to consciousness itself. The fact is that humans live from the level of thought rather than the level of awareness. This is like knowing how to use a computer while suffering from amnesia about where computers come from.

Ive only given a bare outline of what can be accomplished by going beyond. The essential thing is to go beyond human nature in order to find the source where human nature was invented. Only from there can we change human nature. Our other choice is to keep living with human nature and shrug off its defects as if they are inevitable. Which course seems better to you?

Deepak Chopra MD, FACP, founder ofThe Chopra Foundationand founder of Chopra Global and co-founder of Jiyo, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego. Chopra is the author of more than 85 books translated into over 43 languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His latest book is Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential. Chopra hosts a new podcast Infinite Potential and Daily Breath available on iTunes or Spotifywww.deepakchopra.com

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How to Change Human Nature - SFGate

A Nashville treatment center owner and a longtime practitioner based in rural Tennessee are teaming up to form a new treatment and recovery resource that will aim to deliver therapeutic and medication-assisted addiction treatment models within the scope of a whole-person care practice.

Ryan Chapman, owner of Integrative Life Center in Nashville, and Daniel Sumrok, MD, a practitioner with more than 20 years of experience treating addiction and substance use disorder, are forming a partnership to launch Integrative Health Centers.

Chapman entered the addiction treatment space in December with the acquisition of Integrative Life Center in Nashville, which he describes as a traditional residential and outpatient, trauma-focused provider of addiction, mental health and eating disorder treatment services. Chapman says through discussions with industry colleagues and peers, he began to envision a future that incorporated medication-assisted treatment, all within the scope of whole-person care. Chapman was tipped off to the work being done by Sumrok two hours away.

I was talking with people about this idea, and the founder of ILC, Lee McCormick, was one of several people who told me, I think what you would be looking to scale and grow already exists with Dr. Sumrok in McKenzie, Tennessee, Chapman says. Thats when the initial connection was made and conversations started. We spoke the same language. We saw the problem the same way.

IHC will offer trauma-informed therapy, with a focus on adverse childhood experiences, as part of its whole-person care model. That was a key for Sumrok, who also teaches at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis and has extensively studied the role of traumatic events in addiction.

When Ryan talks about general medical care and addictions care and the single point of service provision of care, that makes my heart flutter because I firmly believe one of the problems with medicine is its difficult for people to access and difficult to access in a whole-person way, Sumrok says. As important to me is that that whole-person way include this trauma-informed philosophy.

Chapman will serve as IHCs chief executive officer, while Sumrok serves as chief medical officer. Step one of the partnership will be expanding the scope and volume of services offered at Sumroks McKenzie practice, Chapman says. A temporary Nashville clinic is slated to open within the next month while the site of a permanent Nashville flagship location in the citys midtown area undergoes renovations. As more providers are brought on board, IHC plans to open additional locations in 2019 and 2020, with the Nashville practice serving as a model for urban facilities and McKenzie to serve as a rural model, Chapman says.

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New Tennessee Program Incorporates Addiction Treatment Modalities into Whole-Person Care - Psych Congress Network