The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has embraced the concept of whole person health to underlie its research effort and drive discovery. Helene Langevin, MD, director of the NCCIH, authors an invited commentary on the imperative of engaging the challenges of multicomponent and other methods in researching whole person health in the peer-reviewed journal JACM, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, dedicated to paradigm, practice, and policy advancing integrative health. Click here to read the article now.
Dr. Langevin describes whole person health as "supporting the health and well-being of each person across multiple domains-biological, behavioral, social, and environmental-through research on multicomponent nutritional, psychological, and physical approaches to care." The NCCIH has included the concept of whole person health in its new strategic plan, which will guide the institute's research endeavors for the next 5 years.
Whole person health is complex, and research in this area is challenging. "Research on whole person health must integrate across physiological systems, explore multicomponent interventions and measure the impact of interventions in multiple organs, systems, and domains," says Dr. Langevin. One potential area of exploration is that of multicomponent approaches such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and naturopathy. Other areas, such as nutritional research and stress management research offer unique opportunities for studying whole person health.
"Langevin makes clear that this direction was made possible through the science engaged by her predecessors at NCCIH - and at the same time, this is an exciting direction for a field in which treating the whole, and thus getting better at researching it, has been a central axiom for decades," says John Weeks, Contributing Editor, Special Projects and Collaborations, JACM, and johnweeks-integrator.com, Seattle, WA. He adds: "Terrific also to see that Langevin and her NCCIH colleagues are finding interest in this priority from leaders across the NIH's multiple centers. The time is ripe."
About the Journal
JACM, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine is a monthly peer-reviewed journal published online with open access options and in print that is dedicated to research on paradigm, practice, and policy advancing integrative health. Led by Holger Cramer, PhD, Research Director, Department of Internal and Integrative Medicine, Evang. Kliniken Essen-Mitte, University of Duisburg-Essen (Essen, Germany), JACM publishes human clinical trials, observational studies, systematic reviews and commentary intended to help healthcare professionals, delivery organization leaders, policy-makers and scientists evaluate and integrate therapies into patient care protocols, payment strategies and appropriate protocols. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the JACM website.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research. A complete list of the firm's more than 100 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.
