Message from The Executive Director

Adam Perlman, MD, MPH, FACP, Executive Director of, ICAM

Assoc. Professor, Primary Care

Our Institute was named the Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine or ICAM largely because Complementary and Alternative Medicine or CAM is the term that the National Institutes of Health uses to describe this group of diverse health care practices and disciplines not currently considered to be part of main stream medicine. Therefore, the Institute's name reflects its academic core and principle mission to increase the knowledge base on CAM for practitioners and the public. More >>

Message from the Director of Education

Karen Malone, MA, Director of Education, ICAM, Assistant Professor, Primary Care

Welcome to our fall 2008 Newsletter, the theme of which is maintaining and optimizing health during this time of seasonal transition. In this edition we explore this theme from several perspectives, including that of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Ayurveda, and Western Clinical Nutrition, and provide practical suggestions to think about and take forward during this time of change. More >>

Clinician's Corner

Articles contributed by Cynthia Y. Paige, MD and Minal Vazirani, MD

Foreword by Karen Malone, MA

In her article titled “Autumn: A Season for Harvesting Your Potential”, Dr. Cynthia Paige, an MD from the New Jersey Medical School, explores some of the links between seasonal influences and health in Traditional Chinese Medicine and gives us some TCM-inspired health practices to help us maintain our Qi during this time of transition.

In “Transitioning from Summer to Fall…from an Ayurvedic Perspective”, Dr. Minal Vazirani looks at the role of the seasons in relation to health and disease in Ayurveda, and gives us some Ayurvedic lifestyle health practices to help us maintain Prana during the fall. More >>

Complementary and Alternative Therapies Incorporated in Practice

by Judith E. Deutsch, PT, PhD and Ellen Zambo Anderson, PT, MA

Results from the 2002 National Health Interview indicate that 62% of adult Americans use some form of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). (1) In another survey, 63% to 72% of adults who combined conventional medicine with CAM did not disclose their CAM use to their physician. (2) These data suggest that health care providers need to be knowledgeable about CAM and be willing and able to advise patients about its use. More >>

Featured Article

"Soil, Body and Soul",   by Nancy Moran, BSN

Foreword by Crystal Jones, MPA and Karen Malone, MA

The following is a Featured Article from one of our students on the MSHS Integrative Health and Wellness specialization, Nancy Moran. In this beautiful piece, Nancy shares her heartfelt story, giving us a glimpse of the impact of integrative medicine from a most personal perspective.

Through her own personal commitment and conviction, together with the evidence-based information about integrative medicine she is gaining from the course, Nancy has been able to make decisive choices about the type of care she provides, giving her the gift of being able to be optimize the care she gives a loved one.

This moving personal account illustrates just what integrative medicine is really all about, and what it means to real people, looking for answers, hope and healing in their quest for health and wellness. Everyone at ICAM sends Nancy and her husband Terry our very best wishes for a full recovery. More > >

ICAM's Lecture Series: a Participant's Perspective

by Crystal Jones, MPA

Many of you are familiar with the Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine's Wellness and Distinguished Lecture Series. An integral part of ICAM's mission is to be an educational resource to our university community and the community at large on the subject of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. As our lecture series has expanded over the past few years, it has allowed us to accomplish our mission by steadily reaching greater numbers and gain increased interest in CAM. More > >

Philanthropic Gift to Support ICAM "Yoga for MS" Research Project

by Susan Gould Fogerite, PhD, Director of Research, ICAM

Assoc. Professor Primary Care and Clinical Lab Sciences, SHRP, UMDNJ

ICAM recently received a generous gift of $10,000 to support a seed project to design and develop an integrated yoga program for individuals with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) that will be tested in a clinical trial. We are very grateful to Hugh Evans, MD, of New Jersey Medical School , for this generous donation made to the Musical Moments for MS event, which came through the Foundation of UMDNJ. Substantial work has been done on this project already, including preliminary design of the clinical trial and a draft proposal for funding. This gift will help support further research of the literature on both yoga and MS, design of the detailed clinical trial intervention and budget, and a comprehensive proposal for review by funding agencies, philanthropic individuals and groups, and the UMDNJ Institutional Review Board.  More > > 

The ICAM Research Lab Stands Ready to Assist in your Clinical Trial needs

by Susan Gould Fogerite, PhD

The ICAM Research Lab continues to support the general clinical research and educational activities of UMDNJ through education, collaboration and service. Clinical Trials Update: The ICAM Lab has just completed assays of IL-6, TNF-alpha, high sensitivity CRP, insulin, adiponectin, resistin, and serum amyloid A, for the clinical study “ The Metabolic Effects of Almond Consumption in Adults with Pre-Diabetes ”. We have begun a new study “ Hormones of Stress and Inflammation in Pre-Type II Diabetes ” measuring cortisol and DHEA-S in these laboratory samples. Additional subjects without pre-Type II diabetes will be recruited and tested for morning fasting cortisol and DHEA-S levels in serum and saliva for comparison. More > >