Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Also Included In: Complementary Medicine / Alternative Medicine;  Heart Disease
Article Date: 18 May 2012 – 1:00 PDT

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An extract of the Chinese herb kudzu dramatically reduces drinking and may be useful in the treatment of alcoholism and curbing binge drinking, according to a new study by McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers.

“Our study is further evidence that components found in kudzu root can reduce alcohol consumption and do so without adverse side effects,” said David Penetar, PhD, of the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital, and the lead author of the study. “Further research is needed, but this botanical medication may lead to additional methods to treat alcohol abuse and dependence.”

In the study, published in the current issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, researchers in the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital looked at one of the major components of the kudzu root – the isoflavone puerarin – to determine whether it would reduce alcohol consumption in a laboratory simulation of an afternoon drinking session.

According to Penetar, puerarin was selected over other kudzu root components because its safety and efficacy have already been established in humans, particularly in China where it is approved for intravenous injection to treat coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction and angina. Puerarin is also less potent than other parts of the kudzu plant, so it has few side effects and has none of the estrogenic activity found in other components, making it safe for women.

In the study, Penetar and his colleagues looked at 10 men and women, all in their 20s and all reporting regularly consuming alcohol weekly. A laboratory at McLean Hospital was set up as an apartment, with TV, DVD player, reclining chair and other amenities. The unit was also stocked with a refrigerator full of each subject’s favorite beer and other non-alcoholic beverages.

In an initial 90-minute session in the “apartment,” each subject was allowed to consume as many beers as he or she wanted – up to a maximum of six. After the session, each was given either puerarin or a placebo and told to take it daily for a week. Then, each returned to do the experiment again. Two weeks later, the subjects returned for a third session to see if they had returned to their baseline drinking levels. After that, each subject was given the pill he or she didn’t get the first time and told to take it for a week. Each then returned for a fourth and final drinking session.

The study showed that subjects taking puerarin drank significantly fewer beers – dropping from 3.5 beers on average to 2.4.

“This was a simulation of a binge drinking opportunity and not only did we see the subjects drinking less, we noted that their rate of consumption decreased, meaning they drank slower and took more sips to finish a beer,” explained Penetar. “While we do not suggest that puerarin will stop drinking all together, it is promising that it appears to slow the pace and the overall amount consumed.”

The Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital has been involved in a series of research projects for more than 10 years, looking at the ability of extracts of the kudzu root and its components to reduce excessive drinking with very encouraging results.

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Main Category: Prostate / Prostate Cancer
Also Included In: Allergy;  Complementary Medicine / Alternative Medicine
Article Date: 08 May 2012 – 0:00 PDT

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An over-the-counter natural remedy derived from honeybee hives arrests the growth of prostate cancer cells and tumors in mice, according to a new paper from researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine.

Caffeic acid phenethyl ester, or CAPE, is a compound isolated from honeybee hive propolis, the resin used by bees to patch up holes in hives. Propolis has been used for centuries as a natural remedy for conditions ranging from sore throats and allergies to burns and cancer. But the compound has not gained acceptance in the clinic due to scientific questions about its effect on cells.

In a paper published in Cancer Prevention Research, researchers combined traditional cancer research methods with cutting-edge proteomics to find that CAPE arrests early-stage prostate cancer by shutting down the tumor cells’ system for detecting sources of nutrition.

“If you feed CAPE to mice daily, their tumors will stop growing. After several weeks, if you stop the treatment, the tumors will begin to grow again at their original pace,” said Richard B. Jones, PhD, assistant professor in the Ben May Department for Cancer Research and Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology and senior author of the study. “So it doesn’t kill the cancer, but it basically will indefinitely stop prostate cancer proliferation.”

Natural remedies isolated from plant and animal products are often marketed as cure-alls for a variety of maladies, usually based on vague antioxidant and anti-inflammatory claims. While substances such as ginseng or green tea have been occasionally tested in laboratories for their medicinal properties, scientific evidence is commonly lacking on the full biological effects of these over-the-counter compounds.

“It’s only recently that people have examined the mechanism by which some of these herbal remedies work,” Jones said. “Our knowledge about what these things are actually doing is a bit of a disconnected hodge-podge of tests and labs and conditions. In the end, you’re left with a broad, disconnected story about what exactly these things are doing and whether or not they would be useful for treating disease.”

To study the purported anti-cancer properties of CAPE, first author Chih-Pin Chuu (now at the National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan) tested the compound on a series of cancer cell lines. Even at the low concentrations expected after oral administration, CAPE successfully slowed the proliferation of cultured cells isolated from human prostate tumors.

CAPE was also effective at slowing the growth of human prostate tumors grafted into mice. Six weeks of treatment with the compound decreased tumor volume growth rate by half, but when CAPE treatment was stopped, tumor growth resumed its prior rate. The results suggested that CAPE stopped cell division rather than killing cancerous cells.

To determine the cellular changes that mediated this effect, the researchers then used an innovative proteomics technique invented by Jones and colleagues called the “micro-western array.” Western blots are a common laboratory tool used to measure the changes in protein levels and activity under different conditions. But whereas only one or a few proteins at a time can be monitored with Western blots, micro-western arrays allow researchers to survey hundreds of proteins at once from many samples.

Chuu, Jones and their colleagues ran micro-western arrays to assess the impact of CAPE treatment on the proteins of cellular pathways involved in cell growth – experiments that would have been prohibitively expensive without the new technique.

“What this allowed us to do is screen about a hundred different proteins across a broad spectrum of signaling pathways that are associated with all sorts of different outcomes. You can pick up all the pathways that are affected and get a global landscape view, and that’s never been possible before,” Jones said. “It would have taken hundreds of Westerns, hundreds of technicians, and a very large amount of money for antibodies.”

The micro-western array results allowed researchers to quickly build a new model of CAPE’s cellular effects, significantly expanding on previous work that studied the compound’s mechanisms. Treatment with CAPE at the concentrations that arrested cancer cell growth suppressed the activity of proteins in the p70S6 kinase and Akt pathways, which are important sensors of sufficient nutrition that can trigger cell proliferation.

“It appears that CAPE basically stops the ability of prostate cancer cells to sense that there’s nutrition available,” Jones said. “They stop all of the molecular signatures that would suggest that nutrition exists, and the cells no longer have that proliferative response to nutrition.”

The ability of CAPE to freeze cancer cell proliferation could make it a promising co-treatment alongside chemotherapies intended to kill tumor cells. Jones cautioned that clinical trials would be necessary before CAPE could be proven effective and safe for this purpose in humans. But the CAPE experiments offer a precedent to unlock the biological mechanisms of other natural remedies as well, perhaps allowing these compounds to cross over to the clinic.

“A typical problem in bringing some of these herbal remedies into the clinic is that nobody knows how they act, nobody knows the mechanism, and therefore researchers are typically very hesitant to add them to any pharmaceutical treatment strategy,” Jones said. “Now we’ll actually be able to systematically demonstrate the parts of cell physiology that are affected by these compounds.”

The paper, “Caffeic acid phenethyl ester suppresses the proliferation of human prostate cancer cells through inhibition of p70S6K and Akt signaling networks,” will be published online May 4 by Cancer Prevention Research. In addition to Chuu and Jones, authors include Mark F. Ciaccio, John M. Kokontis, Ronald J. Hause, Jr., Richard A. Hiipakka and Shutsung Liao of the University of Chicago; and Hui-Ping Lin of the National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan.

Research was supported by grants from the Cancer Research Foundation, American Cancer Society, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health, and National Science Council.
University of Chicago Medical Center

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Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Also Included In: Complementary Medicine / Alternative Medicine
Article Date: 08 May 2012 – 0:00 PDT

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Researchers in Spain have found that many of the individuals claiming to see the aura of people – traditionally called “healers” or “quacks”- actually present the neuropsychological phenomenon known as “synesthesia” (specifically, “emotional synesthesia”). This might be a scientific explanation of their alleged “virtue”. In synesthetes, the brain regions responsible for the processing of each type of sensory stimuli are intensely interconnected. This way, synesthetes can see or taste a sound, feel a taste, or associate people with a particular color.

The study was conducted by the University of Granada Department of Experimental Psychology – scar Iborra, Luis Pastor and Emilio Gómez Milán, and has been published in the prestigious journal Consciousness and Cognition. This is the first time that a scientific explanation is provided on the esoteric phenomenon of the aura, a supposed energy field of luminous radiation surrounding a person as a halo, which is imperceptible to most human beings.

In neurological terms, synesthesia is due to cross-wiring in the brain of some people (synesthetes); in other words, synesthetes present more synaptic connections than “normal” people. “These extra connections cause them to automatically establish associations between brain areas that are not normally interconnected”, professor Gómez Milán explains. Many healers claiming to see the aura of people might have this condition.

The case of the “Santón de Baza”

The University of Granada researchers remark that “not all healers are synesthetes, but there is a higher prevalence of this phenomenon among them. The same occurs among painters and artists, for example”. To carry out this study, the researchers interviewed some synesthetes as the healer from Granada “Esteban Sánchez Casas”, known as “El Santón de Baza”.

Many people attribute “paranormal powers” to El Santón, such as his ability to see the aura of people “but, in fact, it is a clear case of synesthesia”, the researchers explain. El Santón presents face-color synesthesia (the brain region responsible for face recognition is associated with the color-processing region); touch-mirror synesthesia (when the synesthete observes a person who is being touched or is experiencing pain, s/he experiences the same); high empathy (the ability to feel what other person is feeling), and schizotypy (certain personality traits in healthy people involving slight paranoia and delusions). “These capacities make synesthetes have the ability to make people feel understood, and provide them with special emotion and pain reading skills”, the researchers explain.

In the light of the results obtained, the researchers remark the significant “placebo effect” that healers have on people, “though some healers really have the ability to see people’s auras and feel the pain in others due to synesthesia”. Some healers “have abilities and attitudes that make them believe in their ability to heal other people, but it is actually a case of self-deception, as synesthesia is not an extrasensory power, but a subjective and ‘adorned’ perception of reality”, the researchers state.

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Featured Article
Academic Journal
Main Category: Flu / Cold / SARS
Also Included In: Complementary Medicine / Alternative Medicine;  Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 07 May 2012 – 12:00 PDT

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People who take oral zinc may experience shorter common cold symptoms than those who do not, researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, and McMaster University reported in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).The authors added that adverse effects, especially when higher doses are taken, are common.

The authors gathered data on 17 randomized human studies involving 2,121 individuals aged from 1 to 65 years. They wanted to find out how efficient and safe oral zinc might be as a treatment for the common cold. All the trials used placebos and oral zinc preparations, and were double-blinded.

They found that zinc significantly reduced cold symptom duration, compared to placebos. However, they emphasized that the evidence was of “moderate” quality. Higher doses appeared to have a better effect.

Dr. Michelle Science said:

“We found that orally administered zinc shortened the duration of cold symptoms. These findings, however, are tempered by significant heterogeneity and quality of evidence.”

After taking oral zinc supplements for one week, the evidence or any benefits regarding cold symptoms was week. Taking zinc for two to three days seemed to have no impact at all.

Regular zinc consumption was found to help adults reduce their duration and severity of cold symptoms. However, no benefits at all were observed in children.

The most common adverse events associated with zinc supplements were nausea and a bad taste.

Dr. Science explained that prior studies showed conflicting effects of zinc in the reduction of symptom severity, as well as duration.

The authors concluded:

“Until further evidence becomes available, there is only a weak rationale for physicians to recommend zinc for the treatment of the common cold. The questionable benefits must be balanced against the potential adverse effects.”

Written by Christian Nordqvist

Copyright: Medical News Today

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On this page:

• Key Points
• Overview
• Use in a United States
• The Status of Homeopathy Research
• Side Effects and Risks
• Regulation of Homeopathic Treatments
• Licensing
• If You Are Thinking About Using Homeopathy
• Selected References
• For More Information

Homeopathy, also famous as homeopathic medicine, is an choice medical complement that was grown in Germany some-more than 200 years ago. This fact piece provides a ubiquitous overview of homeopathy and suggests sources for additional information.

Top

Key Points

• There is small justification to support homeopathy as an effective diagnosis for any specific condition.
• Although people infrequently assume that all homeopathic remedies are rarely diluted and therefore doubtful to means harm, some products labeled as homeopathic can enclose estimable amounts of active mixture and therefore could means side effects and drug interactions.
• Homeopathic remedies are regulated by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, FDA does not weigh a remedies for reserve or effectiveness.
• Several pivotal concepts of homeopathy are unsuitable with elemental concepts of chemistry and physics. There are poignant hurdles in carrying out vicious clinical investigate on homeopathic remedies.
• Tell all your health caring providers about any interrelated health practices we use. Give them a full design of all we do to conduct your health. This will assistance safeguard concurrent and safe care.

Top

Overview

The choice medical complement of homeopathy was grown in Germany during a finish of a 18th century. Supporters of homeopathy indicate to dual radical theories: “like cures like”—the idea that a illness can be marinated by a piece that produces identical symptoms in healthy people; and “law of smallest dose”—the idea that a reduce a sip of a medication, a larger a effectiveness. Many homeopathic remedies are so diluted that no molecules of a strange substance remain.

Homeopathic remedies are subsequent from substances that come from plants, minerals, or animals, such as red onion, arnica (mountain herb), dejected whole bees, white arsenic, poison ivy, belladonna (deadly nightshade), and vicious nettle. Homeopathic remedies are mostly formulated as sugarine pellets to be placed underneath a tongue; they competence also be in other forms, such as ointments, gels, drops, creams, and tablets. Treatments are “individualized” or tailored to any person—it is not odd for opposite people with a same condition to accept different treatments.

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Use in a United States

According to a 2007 National Health Interview Survey, that enclosed a extensive deliberate of a use of interrelated health practices by Americans, an estimated 3.9 million adults and 910,000 children used homeopathy in a prior year. These estimates embody use of over-the-counter products labeled as “homeopathic,” as good as visits with a homeopathic practitioner. Out-of-pocket costs for adults were $2.9 billion for homeopathic medicines and $170 million for visits to homeopathic practitioners.

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The Status of Homeopathy Research

Most vicious clinical trials and systematic analyses of a investigate on homeopathy have resolved that there is small justification to support homeopathy as an effective diagnosis for any specific condition.

Homeopathy is a argumentative subject in interrelated medicine research. A series of a pivotal concepts of homeopathy are not unchanging with elemental concepts of chemistry and physics. For example, it is not probable to explain in systematic terms how a pill containing small or no active part can have any effect. This, in turn, creates vital hurdles to vicious clinical examination of homeopathic remedies. For example, one can't endorse that an intensely intermix pill contains what is listed on a label, or rise design measures that uncover effects of intensely intermix remedies in a human body.

Another investigate plea is that homeopathic treatments are rarely individualized, and there is no uniform prescribing customary for homeopaths. There are hundreds of opposite homeopathic remedies, that can be prescribed in a accumulation of opposite dilutions to provide thousands of symptoms.

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Side Effects and Risks

• Certain homeopathic products (called “nosodes” or “homeopathic immunizations”) have been promoted by some as substitutes for required immunizations, though information to support such claims is lacking. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) supports a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for immunizations/vaccinations. To learn some-more about vaccines revisit www.vaccines.gov.
• While many homeopathic remedies are rarely diluted, some products sole or labeled as homeopathic competence not be rarely diluted; they can enclose estimable amounts of active ingredients. Like any drug or dietary supplementA product that contains vitamins, minerals, spices or other botanicals, amino acids, enzymes, and/or other mixture dictated to further a diet. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has special labeling mandate for dietary supplements and treats them as foods, not drugs. that contains chemical ingredients, these homeopathic products competence means side effects or drug interactions. Negative health effects from homeopathic products of this form have been reported.
• A systematic examination found that rarely diluted homeopathic remedies, taken underneath a organisation of lerned professionals, are generally protected and doubtful to means vicious inauspicious reactions. However, like any drug or dietary supplement, these products could poise risks if they are improperly made (for example, if they are infested with microorganisms or incorrectly diluted).
• Liquid homeopathic remedies competence enclose alcohol. The FDA allows aloft levels of ethanol in these remedies than it allows in conventional drugs.
• Homeopaths design some of their patients to knowledge “homeopathic aggravation” (a proxy worsening of existent symptoms after holding a homeopathic prescription). Researchers have not found most justification of this greeting in clinical studies; however, investigate on homeopathic aggravations is scarce. Always plead changes in your symptoms with your health care provider.

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Regulation of Homeopathic Treatments

Homeopathic remedies are regulated as drugs underneath a Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). However, underneath stream Agency policy, FDA does not weigh a remedies for reserve or effectiveness. FDA coercion policies for homeopathic drugs are described in FDA’s Compliance Policy Guide entitled Conditions Under Which Homeopathic Drugs May be Marketed (CPG 7132.15).

FDA allows homeopathic remedies that accommodate certain conditions to be marketed but group preapproval. For example, homeopathic remedies contingency enclose active mixture that are listed in a Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of a United States (HPUS). The HPUS lists active mixture that competence be legally enclosed in homeopathic products and standards for strength, quality, and virginity of that ingredient. In addition, a FDA requires that a tag on a product, outdoor container, or concomitant prospectus embody during slightest one vital denote (i.e., medical problem to be treated), a list of ingredients, a series of times a active part was diluted, and directions for use. If a homeopathic pill claims to provide a vicious illness such as cancer, it contingency be sole by prescription. Only products for teenager health problems, like a cold or headache, that go divided on their own, can be sole but a prescription.

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Licensing

Laws controlling a use of homeopathy in a United States change from state to state. Usually, people who are protected to use medicine or another health caring contention can legally use homeopathy. In some states, non-licensed professionals competence practice homeopathy.

Arizona, Connecticut, and Nevada are a usually states with homeopathic chartering play for doctors of medicine (holders of M.D. degrees) and doctors of osteopathic medicineOsteopathic Medicine is a finish complement of medical caring that employs a “whole person” proceed to health caring and is formed on a body’s healthy bent toward health and self-healing. Osteopathic physicians (DOs) can use osteopathic manipulative treatment, a complement of primer therapy, to provide automatic strains inspiring all aspects of a anatomy, soothe pain, and urge physiologic function. (holders of D.O. degrees). Arizona and Nevada also permit homeopathic assistants, who are authorised to perform medical services underneath a organisation of a homeopathic physician. Some states categorically embody homeopathy within a range of use of chiropractic, naturopathyA whole medical complement that originated in Europe. Naturopathy aims to support a body’s ability to reanimate itself by a use of dietary and lifestyle changes together with CAM therapies such as herbs, massage, and corner manipulation., and physical therapy.

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If You Are Thinking About Using Homeopathy

• Do not use homeopathy as a deputy for proven required caring or to postpone saying a health caring provider about a medical problem.
• If we are deliberation regulating a homeopathic remedy, move a product with we when we revisit your health caring provider. The provider competence be means to assistance we establish either a product competence poise a risk of side effects or drug interactions.
• Follow a endorsed required immunization schedules for children and adults. Do not use homeopathic products as a surrogate for conventional immunizations.
• Women who are profound or nursing, or people who are meditative of regulating homeopathy to provide a child, should deliberate their (or their child’s) health care providers.
• Tell all your health caring providers about any interrelated health practices we use. Give them a full design of all we do to conduct your health. This will safeguard concurrent and protected care. For tips about articulate with your health caring providers about interrelated and choice medicine, see a National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine’s (NCCAM) Time to Talk campaign.

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Selected References

• Altunc U, Pittler MH, Ernst E. Homeopathy for childhood and adolescence ailments: systematic examination of randomized clinical trials. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2007;81(1):69–75.
• Cucherat M, Haugh MC, Gooch M, et al. Evidence of clinical efficiency of homeopathy: a meta-analysis of clinical trials. European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 2000;56(1):27–33.
• Der Marderosian AH. Understanding homeopathy. Journal of a American Pharmaceutical Association. 1996;NS36(5):317–321.
• Ernst E. A systematic examination of systematic reviews of homeopathy. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 2002;54(6):577–582.
• Ernst E. Homeopathy: what does a “best” justification tell us? Medical Journal of Australia. 2010;192(8):458–460.
• Ernst E. The law about homeopathy. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 2007;65(2):163–164.
• Jonas WB, Kaptchuk TJ, Linde K. A vicious overview of homeopathy. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2003;138(5):393–399.
• Kuehn BM. Despite health claims by manufacturers, small slip for homeopathic products. JAMA: Journal of a American Medical Association. 2009;302(15):1631–1634.
• Merrell WC, Shalts E. Homeopathy. Medical Clinics of North America. 2002;86(1):47–62.
• Rowe T. Homeopathy. In: Goldblatt E, Snider P, Quinn S, et al., eds. Clinicians’ and Educators’ Desk Reference on a Licensed Complementary and Alternative Healthcare Professions. Seattle, WA: Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care; 2009.
• Shang A, Huwiler-Müntener K, Nartey L, et al. Are a clinical effects of homoeopathy remedy effects? Comparative investigate of placebo-controlled trials of homoeopathy and allopathy. Lancet. 2005;366(9487):726–732.
• Tedesco P, Cicchetti J. Like cures like: homeopathy. American Journal of Nursing. 2001;101(9):43–49.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Manual of Compliance Policy Guides. Sec. 400.400. Conditions Under Which Homeopathic Drugs May Be Marketed. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Web site. Accessed during www.fda.gov/ICECI/ComplianceManuals/CompliancePolicyGuidanceManual/ucm07… on Mar 22, 2012.
• Vallance AK. Can biological activity be confirmed during ultra-high dilution? An overview of homeopathy, evidence, and Bayesian philosophy. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 1998;4(1):49–76.

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Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Also Included In: Complementary Medicine / Alternative Medicine;  Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 30 Apr 2012 – 0:00 PDT

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Training physicians in mindfulness meditation and communication skills can improve the quality of primary care for both practitioners and their patients, University of Rochester Medical Center researchers report in a study published online in the journal Academic Medicine.

As ways to improve primary care, the researchers also recommend promoting a sense of community among physicians and providing time to physicians for personal growth.

“Programs focused on personal awareness and self-development are only part of the solution,” the researchers stated. “Our health care delivery systems must implement systematic change at the practice level to create an environment that supports mindful practice, encourages transparent and clear communication among clinicians, staff, patients, and families, and reduces professional isolation.”

Medical education can better support self-awareness programs for trainees while also promoting role models – preceptors and attending physicians – who exemplify mindful practice in action, they wrote.

The Academic Medicine article, which will be published in the journal’s June print edition, is a follow-up to a study by the researchers published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2009. That study found that mindfulness meditation and communication training can alleviate the psychological distress and burnout experienced by many physicians and can improve their well-being.

Seventy physicians from the Rochester, N.Y., area were involved in the initial study. The physicians participated in training that involved eight intensive weekly sessions that were 2 ½ hours long, an all-day session and a maintenance phase of 10 monthly 2 ½-hour sessions. For the new report, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 20 of the physicians who participated in the mindfulness training program.

The findings in the new study include:

• For 75 percent of the physicians, sharing personal experiences from medical practice with colleagues was one of the most meaningful outcomes of the program.
• A nonjudgmental atmosphere helped participants feel emotionally safe enough to pause, reflect, and disclose their complex and profound experiences, which, in turn, provided reassurance that they were not alone in their feelings.
• Sixty percent reported that learning mindfulness skills improved their capacity to listen more attentively and respond more effectively to others at work and home.
• More than half of the participants acknowledged having increased self-awareness and better ability to respond non-judgmentally during personal or professional conversations.
• Seventy percent placed a high value on the mindfulness course having an organized, structured, and well-defined curriculum that designated time and space to pause and reflect – not something they would ordinarily consider permissible.
• Participants also described the personal struggles they have with devoting time and energy toward self-care despite acknowledging its importance.

The authors of the article are: Howard Beckman, M.D., clinical professor of Medicine and Family Medicine at the Medical Center and director of strategic innovation at Finger Lakes Health systems Agency; Melissa Wendland, associate director of research and planning at the Finger Lakes Health systems Agency; Christopher Mooney, M.A., senior information analyst in the Office of Curriculum and Assessment University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; Michael S. Krasner, M.D., associate professor of Clinical Medicine at the Medical Center; Timothy Quill, M.D., director of the Center for Ethics, Humanities, and Palliative Care at the Medical Center; Anthony Suchman, M.D., clinical professor of Medicine at the Medical Center; and Ronald Epstein, M.D., professor of Family Medicine at the Medical Center and director of the Center for Communication and Disparities Research at the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Epstein and Krasner conduct mindfulness meditation and communication training programs.
The research was supported by the Physicians Foundation.
University of Rochester Medical Center

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