October 2, 2020
The case study, titled "Methods for Integrating Transdisciplinary Teams in Support of Reciprocal Healing: A Case Study." The paper features transdisciplinary teams that have the potential to address complex socioecological problems and details a collaborative process undertaken to address these challenges. To read the full paper, click here.
Dr. D'Adamo, Director at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Program Director at the Institute for Integrative Health, was featured on Baltimore's FOX45 Morning News and WTOP News Radio to discuss the upcoming publication in the Food Quality and Preference Journal. The paper uses the data collected during the Institute Program, Spice My Plate, which took place at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore, Maryland.
Brandin Bowden, MS, Director of Community Programs at the Institute for Integrative Health, and Chris D'Adamo, PhD, Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Program Director at the Institute for Integrative Health, recently submitted a paper for publication to the Journal of Food Quality and Preferences. As of September 1st, the paper was accepted for publication and will appear in the March 2021 issue. The paper "The addition of spices and herbs to vegetables in the National School Lunch Program increased vegetable intake at an urban, economically-undeserved, and predominantly African-American high school" features data collected from the Institute program Spice My Plate, which took place at the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore, Maryland.
InVIVO co-founding president, Susan L. Prescott, MD, PhD, Alan C. Logan, and Institute co-founders Susan Berman and Brian Berman, MD, publish paper in Challenges titled "Project Earthrise: Inspiring Creativity, Kindness and Imagination in Planetary Health."
August 11, 2020
Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field publishes its second quarterly newsletter.
This edition of the newsletter includes updates from the Cochrane Complementary Medicine Satellite Groups in China, South Korea, and Switzerland and a new systematic review assessing interventions for managing hot flashes in cancer patients.
Included in the newsletter are some Cochrane Evidence Summaries for Vitamin C supplements to prevent and treat pneumonia and interventions for increasing fruit and vegetable intake in young children.
To sign up for the Cochrane Complementary Medicine mailing list, visit https://cam.cochrane.org/join-us.
Institute Scholar, Steven Woolf, MD, MPH, co-authors a new paper in The Milbank Quarterly. This paper merges life expectancy data from several decades with the annual data on 18 state-level policies to ascertain why life expectancy across the nation has declined in recent years and become unequal across states. To read the study, click here.
Institute Visiting Visionary, Rebecca Etz, PhD, is featured in a new article about the state of primary care. More than a third of primary care practices have either laid off or furloughed employees in the past month and may continue once insurance companies return to normal telehealth policies. To read the full article, click here.
May 1, 2020
Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field publishes its first quarterly newsletter.
To sign up for the Cochrane Complementary Medicine mailing list, visit https://cam.cochrane.org/join-us.
The Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field was co-founded in 1996 by Dr. Brian Berman and is based at the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine. It is the Cochrane group dedicated to supporting the evidence base in complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine (CAM). To meet the growing demand for information about CAM therapies among researchers, healthcare providers, patients, and the general public, the Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field:Prepares Cochrane systematic reviews on CAM therapies;
Develops resources to support the conduct of high-quality systematic reviews on CAM therapies; and
Makes the evidence from systematic reviews on CAM therapies available and accessible to researchers, clinicians, and consumers.
The Field also maintains a database of researchers, clinicians, and consumers who have expressed an interest in the evidence base for CAM therapies. The database contains names of more than two hundred people from across the world, with CAM interests ranging from Ayurveda to vitamin therapies.
Chris D'Adamo, a program advisor at the Institute and director at the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine, weighs in on the debate on whether or not it is safe for the continued use of elderberry supplements during the COVID-19 outbreak. Over the past month, many social media influencers have been advising their followers to stay away from elderberry supplements, citing the dangers of cytokine storms. However, Dr. D'Adamo and other experts found these advisories to be misleading.
"Elderberry can increase inflammatory cytokines in people with an otherwise healthy condition, that’s desirable that helps us fight infections; however, there’s no evidence that elderberry would increase the risk of a cytokine storm," Dr. Chris D'adamo said.
To see the full story, click here.
September 28, 2019
Cooking Up Health with CH&M Workshops |
After the course, 87% of the students said that they would utilize the new information in their own lives, while 80% of the students said that it would also help them offer practical nutrition advice to future patients. The Institute will continue hosting the workshops through the winter with plans of rolling out a more substantial training for the next incoming cohort of medical students in 2020.
Institute Welcomes New Visiting Visionary, Rebecca Etz, PhD |
September 1, 2019
During the meeting, Scholar Sara Warber also presented on her work on a new project, Dreams of Nature, Health, and a Balanced Life, and Fellow Heidi Gullett spoke about climate change and the health training she leads for medical students. Other highlights from the meeting included a talk on neuroesthetics, as well as the impact of mindfulness practice on inflammation, and an overview of the Feldenkrais Method—a somatic learning practice with many therapeutic effects including pain management.
August 26, 2019
Mission Thrive Summer (MTS), the Institute’s "work, learn, and earn" program for Baltimore City high school students, just wrapped its seventh summer at Civic Works Real Food Farm. This summer employment program aims to provide young people with tools to make healthier individual choices and to empower communities in Baltimore through leadership, education, and service.
As in past years, the youth of MTS participated in our annual MTS Service Week. This week introduced participants to community service activities and engaging them in opportunities to help uplift individuals within their own communities. MTS crew members explored the concept of service while brainstorming ways to get Greenmount West Community Center (GWCC) summer camp youth excited about healthier eating through USDA MyPlate food groups. They adapted MTS lessons and demonstrations, bringing in their own creativity and knowledge to create unique games and activities for the pre-K to 2nd-grade campers. The activities presented during Service Week at GWCC included coloring activities, food group dance games, and making delicious smoothies!
The MTS youth also prepared more than 2,000 meals for Moveable Feast, a local organization that provides nutritious meals to individuals living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses. During the third week of MTS, crew leaders stepped away from the farm completely to work onsite with Moveable Feast and GWCC.
Mission Thrive Summer is excited to continue educating and inspiring the future generation of leaders and change agents here in Baltimore. If you want to hear more service-related highlights or what’s in store for MTS 2020, please contact MTS coordinator Nicola Norman at nnorman@tiih.org or 443-681-7608.
Plans are well underway with the final preparations for the 2019 Mission Thrive Summer Crew Leader Training! This training is an 80-hour integrative health program designed to provide our Mission Thrive Summer staff with a comprehensive toolkit and resources to successfully engage 30 summer youth participants in their experiential education and job experience at Real Food Farm (RFF). Some topics that will be covered in this year's training include mentorship and relationship building, inequality in the food system, motivating groups, trauma-informed practices in community programs, CPR certification, and effective communication.
The 2019 MTS Crew Leaders: Morgan Wu, Public Health major at Johns Hopkins University; Yasmin Bell, Neuro and Clinical Psychology Major at St Mary’s College; Emmanuel West, Theatre Arts major at Frostburg University; and Ryan Bowens, former Baltimore Youth Urban Debate League coach, and a graduate of Morgan State University.
This year we have invited the Baltimore Conservation Leadership Corps Crew Leaders to join us for the Crew Leader Training. We believe this integrative training can be adapted to support youth summer programming across the city.
(Left: Sculpture by Earman Branch)
May 30, 2019
February 21, 2019
Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, a VAC program partner, announced an expansion of its acting program at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. These acting workshops will help US veterans, their families, and their caregivers confront the challenges of injury and the emotional experiences of war. Vet Arts Connect will be on hand to collect and evaluate the data of this program.
To read the full press release and learn more about this initiative, click here.
On February 4th, the Institute welcomed more than 100 attendees for a special evening symposium, Consequential Public Health: Doing What Matters for Population Health, featuring a keynote presentation by Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH, an internationally renowned epidemiologist and author, who spoke on the urgent need to reorient epidemiology and public health to make a difference in health outcomes and the challenges of creating real solutions to improve population health during such divided times. Following the keynote presentation, former U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski and Jay Perman, MD, president of the University of Maryland, joined Dr. Galea for a panel discussion with the audience.
June 3, 2017
The Veterans Hike Across Maryland, a joint program with Vet Arts Connect and the Mid Atlantic Hiking Group, announced an end-of-program celebration to be held on Veterans Day 2017. More than 40 participants have signed up to join the final hike of the season, which will end in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
Veterans Hike Across Maryland began in September at the Pennsylvania/Maryland line on the Appalachian Trail. The participants completed more than 41 miles of the Appalachian Trail across five consecutive hikes.
This annual program is free to veterans and open to all service branches, no matter of rank, gender or years served. Each participant is required to take at least three of the five hikes and participate in an evaluation process that includes surveys at the beginning and the end of the program to test for improvement in symptoms that are commonly associated with the most common invisible wounds of war including PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.)
The research from the project is designed to investigate the impact of active engagement in arts and nature activities on symptoms like stress, anxiety, depression, social interaction, sleep disturbance, and anger.
For more information on this program, subscribe to our monthly newsletter.