You Like Me, You Really Like Me

By Bill Benda, MD, FACEP, FAAEM
2011 Naturopathic Champion Award Winner

Dr. Benda accepts the Naturopathic Champion Award at the 2011 AANP Convention Gala.

I received an award at August’s AANP annual convention at the Biltmore, a brand new one entitled the Champion Award, which from this time onward will be given to a non-naturopathic individual recognized for his or her contributions to the field. It was a bit of a bittersweet moment, for a number of reasons, which, in my semi-shocked and semi-intoxicated state, I revealed to the gathered audience of several hundred.

You see, since the end of my second term on the AANP Board this past January, I have been contemplating my interprofessional affair with naturopathic medicine. I’ve come to realize that this relationship has followed the course of most of the intimate personal romances I’ve wandered through during my adult life: the shy, hesitant initial contact; the heady discovery of mutual interests; flirtations via email; commitment to a two-year trial, followed by another. The inevitable red flags, mixed messages, minor jealousies, extraorganizational dalliances, threats of abandonment. And finally, that inevitable choice to be made as we separate: Can we still be friends? If only for the children?

But more on this in a minute.

Back to the award presentation. After Sally LaMont came to my table and explained that I really had to step up on the stage and say a few words, I made my way to the microphone and, given that I had no clue and therefore no opportunity to prepare, had no other option than to blurt out what I had been thinking just minutes before.

I revealed that I had spent that particular day in my hotel room on the bed watching bad television and figuring out how to extricate myself from the evening gala without too much notice. How to weather the emotions that arrive whenever a relationship changes. I actually revealed to the audience that whenever I’ve thought of naturopathic physicians over the past decade I’ve felt a combination of a “deep love and a desire to kill you.” Really, I said that. It came from years of appreciation of brilliance and commitment, as well as exasperation with avoidance of dealing with internal issues. The irony of helping a profession with such beautiful and pure principals while constantly hearing about the evils of my own chosen vocation. The puzzled looks when I brought up my frustrations to my fellow Board members, as in “What are you talking about?”

Ah, well. The good news is that we will still be friends, especially for the children, as I get to continue working with Naturopathic Medical Student Association leadership knowing that they will be college deans and presidents and AANP officers and Board members in just a few years. And that I can still maintain some sort of contribution to our health-care system outside of the daily grind.

And there is something else I said on that stage that I know to be true, and will always believe to be true. Something I’ve preached and written and lectured about and sort of made my own personal integrative crusade. And that is that, when we get down to it, there are no MDs, or NDs, or RNs, or DOs in this world. No titles, no social standing, no one-upmanship. There are simply people who have chosen a particular path in their desire to help their fellow human. It is, I believe, how some of us choose to manifest love—not something we feel, or express through song, or poetry, or touch. Love is simply what we are, and it is made manifest in all of its beauty by what we do when another needs us to act on their behalf. It is this—not the money, or prestige, or social conscience—that makes the insanity of working in such a dysfunctional system tolerable. And makes living such a complex and, at times, such a painful life end up being worthwhile.

So thank you, everybody. I like you, too.

President's Message: Convention Notes and the Search for a New Executive Director

By Carl Hangee-Bauer, ND, LAc
AANP President

AANP President Carl Hangee-Bauer, ND, LAc, and President-Elect Michael Cronin, ND, with their
wives Michele Hangee-Bauer and Kyle Cronin, ND, respectively.

It’s been two months since my last President’s blog and there has been a lot of water under the bridge since.

The 26th AANP Convention at the Arizona Biltmore has come and gone and was a success by all measures. I had a great number of people come up to me and tell me that this was the best conference they could recall, from the quality of the sessions to the results of the elections and annual awards. Everyone seemed to enjoy him- or herself at our favorite convention venue.

There are many congratulations in order. Dr. Michelle Simon is our newly-elected Board member, with Drs. Kasra Pournadeali and Dr. Michael Reece re-elected to second Board terms. Dr. Joe Pizzorno will succeed Dr. Corey Resnick as our next Treasurer, and Dr. Bruce Milliman was elected the next Speaker of the House of Delegates. And, as you all know, Dr. Michael Cronin will be succeeding me as your next AANP President in January.

Thank you to all who ran for Board or House leadership positions, congratulations to all who were elected, and thank you to all who have served and will be moving on to more challenges and opportunities, particularly Board member Dr. Trevor Holly Cates and House Speaker Dr. Helen Healy.

Our 2011 awardees were met with great appreciation and applause by attendees at the annual awards banquet. Dr. Shiva Barton is our 2011 Physician of the Year, Dr. Louise Edwards received the Vis Award, Dr. Bill Benda received the new Champion Award, and Dr. David Field received the President’s Award. Emerson Ecologics was named AANP Corporation of the Year and Dr. Ryan Bradley and Joshua Goldenberg, ND candidate, received research accolades. These awardees have all demonstrated great dedication to the naturopathic profession and have accomplished great things, some over a lifetime of service. They are examples to us all and we thank them and congratulate them from the depths of our hearts.

Just a few days before the start of the convention, Karen Howard called to inform me that after nine years as AANP Executive Director, she has decided to retire and move on. The announcement was later made to the Board, House of Delegates and the convention attendees at our annual meeting. Karen’s decision has reverberated through our community and set a tone at the convention that was reflective of her many accomplishments, her impact on the naturopathic profession, and the mixed emotions in the community with her moving on.

Karen joined the AANP during a time of great change and has been an instrumental force in our move to Washington, D.C., and our greatly increased federal presence. She has overseen many developments in our organization that we take for granted today, including development of practice development resources, the state alliance, our website, strategic coalitions with groups aligned to our purposes, and of course our annual DC FLI.

Her fiscal prowess has been exceptional. When she started as Executive Director, the AANP had a $276,000 deficit. As of the end of 2011, we have a positive balance of $402,000. We owe much of our prosperity and fiscal good health to her steady hand.

Karen has offered to stay on as Executive Director while we begin our search for her successor, and there will be plenty more to say before she completes her work with the AANP. I plan to devote one of my next blogs to Karen and the impact she has had on the AANP and the naturopathic profession, so stay tuned!

With Karen’s announcement, I immediately activated our succession planning process and appointed an Executive Director Transition Team (EDTT) consisting of Dr. Michael Cronin, Dr. Joe Pizzorno, Dr. Keri Marshall, Dr. Lise Alschuler, Dr. Harry Swope, David Matteson, and me. The EDTT has been meeting weekly to establish a rational process for succession. Our first steps have been to assess strategically the current state of the association, the needs and goals of the organization over the next five years, and the assets and profile of an ideal executive to fit our needs now and in the near-term future. We anticipate completing our assessment and posting a job description in October, and hope to begin the interview process soon afterwards.

We will do our best to keep in good communication with you as we move through this process, and appreciate the community feedback we have already received. This is some of the most important work we will do as an association over the next three to six months and the choices we make will affect the progress and goals of the AANP over the next five to ten years. The better the job we do now, the better we will meet our common goals. If you have any ideas or feedback that you think would help us be most successful, please send it to me at Carl@SFnatmed.com.

We plan to keep you up-to-date with these monthly blogs and in other venues as needed or appropriate.

Tempus Fugit

By Jacob Schor, ND, FABNO

Last June, Louise Edwards, ND, (who had occupied our guest room the night before) helped me load a grandmother clock into the back of my car and haul it home. We’d been for a walk in the park with the dog and stopped at an estate sale on the way home. Not only did we leave with the grandmother clock (a smaller version of a grandfather clock), but also a new nightstand for her bedroom. Well, actually Rena and my guestroom, but since Louise is such a frequent guest, we sometimes refer to it as Louise’s room.

The clock has the Latin words "Tempus Fugit" on the faceplate. This seems to be a common thing on clocks. It translates, of course, to mean, “time flies.”

Given that the clock chimes on the quarter hour, it certainly enforces that thought. Rena and I have gotten into the habit of saying "tempus fugit" out loud each time the clock starts to chime away. It adds a bit of urgency to what already felt like busy days.

Thus when we attended the AANP convention this past month in Arizona, it’s those two words that started echoing in the back of my mind, something of a little mantra. Over the last few years at each of our conventions, time has been set aside to remember colleagues who are no longer with us or who, at the present, are in such need of divine intervention, that I suppose we figure that some sort of communal prayers won’t hurt.

This year is was Konrad we remembered and Molly we prayed for.

Time flies. None of us are getting younger as the saying goes. We are fast approaching the time when losing colleagues will not be a rarity but for will seem all too commonplace.

On our website Rena and I have a photo posted from the 1934 convention of the American Naturopathic Association:

A group photo from the 1934 convention of the American Naturopathic Association at the Albany Hotel in Denver, CO.

At the time the picture was taken (probably using Kodak black-and-white film), the American Naturopathic Association was celebrating its 38th annual congress.

Time flies. From the look of these delegates, as smartly dressed as they were, the majority, if not all of them, were long passed before the first AANP convention.

Time flies. Our profession experienced a resurgence over the last few decades and that first wave of new doctors are not getting any younger. It will only be so much longer that we have to listen to stories about going to school in Kansas. At some point Kansas will be a secondhand memory.

Time flies. That clock keeps ticking and chiming away the minutes as I write. I’d swear it was going faster and faster. My beloved wife has developed a habit of reminding me that our life together may be more than half over. It’s a sure way to cut the foundation out of any disagreement we might be having. We have those talks about what we want to do with the rest of our lives. Where do we want to live? Those of you at a certain age surely know what I’m talking about.

Time flies and we start making lists of things that we still want to do. We joke about our new purchases and that they should last the rest of our lives. There is that book I keep meaning to write. Is it time to set aside the time? What was it supposed to be about anyway?

Time flies and we keep going to work and seeing patients who it seems each year come in sicker and in greater despair than I recall from years’ past. Or perhaps their despair is more contagious? They certainly seem sicker. How ludicrous that any of our schooling was devoted to otitis media when many days all the patients we see have cancer. Metastatic cancer. Our patient population has aged along with us.

Time flies and I find myself thanking a deity for the minor events in my life, for sustaining me long enough to once again taste a fall apple, for a taste of this year’s honey, for another week of work, and for patients that feel better.

Time flies and I’m reminded by an email from the AANP office that I have a blog due later this week. That clock makes it hard to get lost in distraction. How can one drift into oblivion reading a good mystery when with every tick of the clock another second has been lost.

Time flies and I’m not halfway through with today’s to do list. I’ve got the dishwasher fixed, the Natural Medicine Journal review draft finished and sent in, and almost enough of this AANP blog post written to call it quits. There’s still email to check, the dog to walk, supper to cook and a complex patient to be ready for in the morning. Time flies and what a pleasant ride it is…

PoY Boy, Two Thousand Eleven

By Shiva Barton, ND, LAc
2011 AANP Physician of the Year

As you probably know, I had the distinct honor of being awarded the AANP Physician of the Year Award for 2011. I cannot begin to tell you how deeply honored and grateful I am to have received this award. It continues to be very moving to me to be nominated by my peers and to be deemed worthy of this award.

I don't really remember much of my acceptance “speech”—I hope it was inspirational, or at the least, coherent. In any event, I am sincerely grateful and moved, and appreciate the vote of confidence. Naturopathic medicine is such a wonderful healing art. I think we take for granted that everyday, besides helping the garden variety illnesses, we are helping people that do not have any other options to get well. At least, that is much of what I see in my practice. We help people who, for whatever reason, are medical outcasts. And we can help many of them recover their health and lead happier, healthier and more productive lives.

It is an honor to be able to share naturopathic medicine with my patients, to teach about it at the conferences, and to inspire preceptees who come to visit my practice. So I am very grateful for being recognized as contributing to the improvement of this wonderful and challenging profession and will truly cherish this award for the rest of my life.

OK, enough with the sappy stuff...

I'm reminded of the famous quote: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Well, a few days after I returned home from the conference I get an email from the great Matthew Santoro of the AANP. (I say “great” when referring to Matthew because he is doing such a great job sending us the AANP Clips. Always informative, and frequently clinically relevant. Please send Matthew a big email thank you!) So Matthew emails me. Here is the subject line of that email: 

Congratulations on the PoY Award and a Request!

Well, it took me a few seconds to realize that PoY was not the Hawaiian delicacy, but AANP shorthand for Physician of the Year. As for the request, I figured that he wanted an autographed picture of me to hang in his office. Well, that would be a problem... The only picture that I have of myself in a suit - not including the snapshots of me in a tuxedo—but that's another story...—was taken about six years ago.

When I came home from this conference and told Elena, our office manager, that I had won this tremendous honor she told me in no uncertain terms that I had to publicize it. Now, if you know me—and I do remember saying this in my acceptance speech—I am the kind of person that likes to sit in the back of the room, be quiet and not draw any attention to myself… OK, well maybe crack a few jokes while I'm back there. Hence, I never make the effort to do the publicity stuff that I should be doing, such as keeping a current picture to provide to autograph hounds and to send out with press releases. This is one of the ways the PoY has already changed my life. I have to take this publicity thing seriously. (Note: neither publicity nor serious is part of my primary genetic code.)

So in order to fulfill my office manager's order and my supposition of what Matthew wanted, I had to get a professional picture taken. I arranged to have a photo session at the local portrait photographer's studio for last Tuesday. I think the idea of me potentially damaging my DNA by getting an up-to-date professional portrait was too upsetting for the forces of nature. How do I know this? Well, Hurricane Irene blew through our area and knocked out the power to the photographer's studio—one of the few structures in our community that was affected by the power outage. As of this writing, she still has no power, so the laws of nature so far are preserved. (Preserving the laws of nature, of course, is very important to us as naturopathic physicians.) Such are the obstacles encountered on the path to naturopathic greatness, or maybe even a spot on Oprah. Needing a picture, I had to take one of myself. I think I'll keep my day job...

Well, it turns out that Matthew wasn't asking me for an autographed picture after all (I still think he's great in spite of this). This is what he wanted:

We request each year that the PoY become a regular writer for our blog, Physicians Who Listen, and I’d love to have you on board! Your first due date would be the Friday, September 2, by 5 PM EDT. You can write on a topic of your choice or, at your request, we can suggest a topic for you...

This is where the “No such thing as a free lunch” comes in... Win an award, write a column. I think Matthew didn't realize that my favorite author is Dave Barry. Not sure how inspiring that will be. I remember one time riding shotgun while my brother-in-law was driving down the highway, reading a Dave Barry column about dressing up as Batman for his young daughter's birthday party. I remember we were laughing so hard and I couldn't see because the tears were running down my eyes. I remember hoping my brother-in-law could see and thinking that I was glad I wasn't driving or I would be dead. Had I died, I never would have lived long enough to get this award and write for this blog. For that I am eternally grateful, or will be grateful for as long as I live, which will not be for eternity, guaranteed... But the point of naturopathic medicine is not to help people live forever. It is to help them to be as healthy and happy as they can be, and when it is time to go, to pass peacefully, and maybe tell a few jokes on the way out.

So, Matthew, here is my first column. As you can see, I picked a topic of my choice. How do you like the picture I took?

Reflections: Naturopathic Medicine, Convention and Volunteerism

By Sara Thyr, ND

The Arizona Biltmore. Photo by AANP President Carl Hangee-Bauer, ND, LAc.

Upon returning this week from the AANP convention at the Biltmore in Arizona, I have been very busy. Which is fantastic. I’m very grateful. But it has not allowed much time for reflection on all that has happened, one of the gifts that being away from our usual circumstances often affords us. But being at the convention barely allows time for a few deep breaths, much less assimilating what we are learning and assessing our place in our national association. So I will take a few moments here to offer some of my musings regarding our time together, a family of healing professionals, basking in the sun and the desert heat.

First of all, while naturopathic medicine is still not more than a blip on the national landscape of health care, I was reminded yet again at what an amazing roll we might have in really, truly repairing not only the health-care system in America, but the health of all Americans. As we move into a new era of leadership in our community, I hope that this opportunity is realized.

Which brings me to thoughts about the resignation of our executive director for the past nine years, Karen Howard. I have a love-hate relationship with Karen and possibly always have. Let’s not call it love-hate. Let’s call it love-irritated relationship. We have very different styles of communication. I’m soft, squishy, and easy to tears—and dream of acquiring tactful disagreement skills. Karen is strong and outspoken and has no problem sharing her opinion, even if that may mean (what feels like) steamrolling over quieter voices. That said, I believe with all my heart that she has been the right person for our association for most of the last decade.

Karen has brought incredible awareness of our profession to our nation's capital—a stark change from the beginning of this decade. She has created networks within our own profession to assist more states in licensing naturopathic physicians, to help states with standing licenses to work together in improving scope of practice and marketability of NDs within those states, and she has taught so many of us how to come to our legislators with our information and expertise and ask for what we want. The DC FLI was an incredible undertaking and has blossomed with incredible success over the years. Most legislative health aids and legislators today know what a naturopathic physician is. This was not the case before Karen Howard took over the roll as full-time steward of our profession ten years ago.

Within the framework of the State Association Leadership Team (SALT), Karen taught us about strong associations and strategic planning. Many of us in our states' leadership roles brought this knowledge back to our states to assist local leadership in becoming more organized and stronger—not to mention becoming more proactive than reactive, learning to quit operating via putting out fires and start planning for the future.

When Karen took over as executive director, our association was fractured and deeply in debt. She thrives on picking up pieces in great disarray and building something that is stronger than it was before. And that she did. While I felt her resignation like a blow to the gut, once I recovered and began to breath again, I realized that she has equipped us with the ability to move forward and continue to achieve our goals as an association. And as one physician who has worked with her for many years, I feel that I will continue to be able to achieve my own goals with much of the knowledge and experience that she has helped me acquire. I am deeply grateful for her touch in my life.

While I was working as president of the New Hampshire Association of Naturopathic Doctors, I was inspired at a SALT conference to bring in a consultant to work with our association on strategic planning. It was a challenging process, but one where we moved forward as a group and all learned a lot. One thing that I have always held from those days of meetings was about volunteerism: our consultant impressed upon me that we should never separate our volunteers from their passion.

It takes a great deal of time and commitment to volunteer for any work—and perhaps most especially for this profession—because there is so much to be done and so few people to share in the tasks, which at times seem larger than life. I have worked on putting together speakers for the AANP Convention for the past four years—task which I think Karen inherently knew was my passion, and could rely upon me to spend many hours trying to perfect the process. It is bittersweet to let go of chairing that committee—made easier only by leaving it in such capable hands as those of Dr. Jacob Schor.

Karen Howard had an innate ability to recognize people’s passions – and help them find a way to fit service to our organization into their busy lives. I am not certain if it is testament to my lack of backbone or her great persuasive skills that I could not say no to her. Maybe I’ll try to hide for a while from our new ED! :’)

Hiring Rebecca Takemoto and her staff at Sync-Opate to handle our convention and other meetings such as the SALT and FLI was another insightful move on Karen’s part. Rebecca makes the convention run incredibly smoothly, and is perfectly cut out for a job where she is juggling 40 things at once and smiling calmly as she deals with the latest crisis. And let’s not forget the food. She makes sure that the chef’s anywhere we go provide fresh, green, allergy-sensitive foods—and as seen at the Biltmore—that taste wonderful.

When I look at our profession as a whole, from topics as diverse as the national legislative process to the process of trying to figure out what topics at a conference will be most interesting, I find myself perplexed. We are both so alike and yet so incredibly different. As Dr. Matthew Baral so eloquently said in his closing keynote address, there is no me, only us. There is no mine, only ours.

I wish many blessings for Karen as she finds a new place to share her incredible strengths.

Upcoming Convention – There is Hope!

By Sara Thyr, ND

I have the very time-consuming and honorable task of co-chairing the Convention committee and reviewing the talks before the conference to be sure that they are free of commercial bias. It can be a daunting task. We receive many really enticing abstracts, and have to work together to find the ones that will be the most interesting and educational to the most brilliant naturopathic doctors in the country.

As I look over the schedule and presentations for this upcoming Convention, I am filled with incredible pride, and–more mushy–a great sense of hope! There is a deep need for our medicine in the world and now is the right time.

I know first hand the incredible effort and time it takes to prepare a lecture for the AANP Convention. It is a daunting task to present to your peers. And what we will be able to listen to this year comes from some amazing and inspiring leaders in the field, and some doctors who have put together very well-researched and inspiring lectures.

What makes me so hopeful is knowing that we will come away with information about how a simple plant may help us deal with infections that are resistant to antibiotics. We will learn how epigenetics and preconception health affects health throughout our lives…the true heart of preventative medicine. We will have a chance to learn from some of the most practiced homeopaths in our profession – how to make homeopathic prescriptions as a naturopathic doctor that will increase our effectiveness with patients. We have a chance to hear about the importance of creativity in healing and actually learn how to help our patients implement this for the benefit of their lives. We can learn from someone who does more nutrition research in a week than most of us do all year about all of the myths and important research in the literature that most of us don’t find the time to look at. We can learn how genetically modified foods are dangerous and the interesting mechanism used to grow these foods that makes them so harmful (along with the shocking information about how our government, influenced by industry, continues to ignore the health risks involved).

Do you know how medicinal botanicals can help with neurodegenerative diseases? You will if you make it for the concurrent sessions on Wednesday. And if you are torn, as I am, about listening to that talk or learning about how to treat cancer patients if you are not a cancer specialist, have no fear. The AANP is making sure that you have the opportunity to hear every talk – even the ones that you can’t attend. I love this. I have always been torn in making a schedule where I’d get to see everything I am interested in. This year we can. We get to hear every lecture.

We have more keynote speakers this year, and more keynotes from naturopathic physicians, that will not only be educational, but also inspirational. The Convention theme is “Composing Effective Patient Care” and fitting this theme we will learn how tones and music affect our health.

I am so incredibly grateful to everyone who has put so much time, thought, and effort into making this Convention so incredible. I am more excited than ever to be attending. (Well, maybe I’ll be more excited next year when I won’t have any Board or Convention responsibilities. We’ll see.)

We are so lucky to get to meet again at the jewel of the desert, the Arizona Biltmore. All who have been there know that it is the perfect location for us to connect with friends and make new ones; to sit in on some great continuing education talks, and celebrate our profession.

I hope you will be there this year. It is not to be missed as a source of rejuvenation for your practice and your soul.

President's Message: A Summer of Community

By Carl Hangee-Bauer, ND, LAc
AANP President

May was a wonderful month for the AANP and the naturopathic profession. Our annual Federal Legislative Initiative (aka the DC FLI) and our historic meeting with the AMA were significant successes. Thankfully, there has been a period of calm in my AANP duties before beginning to ramp up our summer activities, culminating with the ever-wonderful AANP Convention in August. It’s always good to have these more quiet times to reflect on all the trends and projects in progress, as well as take a few deep breaths. Having just returned from a Hawaii vacation, I feel refreshed and ready to focus on the next steps, and to see you all in August.

Summer is a season where we tend to get out more and be with others. The longer days and warmer weather foster opportunities like picnics, beach time, barbeques, and other activities that reinvigorate and deepen our connections with friends and family.

The naturopathic community reflects this greater seasonal trend. In early summer, the various elements of our profession begin to communicate more frequently as August approaches. Committees of both the Board and House of Delegates are meeting in preparation for the business of the convention. Our scientific community is busy preparing for the Naturopathic Research Summit on August 16. Students and NDs are preparing for the ZRT Cup.

At least as important as these formal relationships is the gathering of our tribe. This year we find ourselves back at the Biltmore in Phoenix, the most popular site for the AANP Convention, as well as at the East Coast remote convention site in Stamford, Connecticut. At both venues we will come together to learn new skills, find out what’s new in our field, be exposed to new products and diagnostic tools, have fun, and reconnect with our old friends and acquaintances. The latter is one of my favorite reasons for attending the convention. It is the one week each year that I can immerse myself in my profession and deepen my relationships with my colleagues. This always leaves me reinvigorated when I return to my practice.

Whether you are an AANP member or not (why not?), please join us at either site and experience the uniqueness of our community and the joys of being together.

A few reminders:

Vote! This year we are electing a new Treasurer to the board as well as three board positions. We have eight people running for these three positions so it will prove to be a competitive election. Packets containing candidate statements and other materials will be mailed to Members shortly. Voting will begin online on July 17 and continue into the Convention until August 19.

Nominate one of your colleagues for an award. The AANP is calling all of its members to nominate qualified candidates for the 2011 AANP Physician of the Year, Corporation of the Year, VIS, and New!!! Champion of Naturopathic Medicine Award (the "Champion Award"). This year's award recipients will be recognized at the closing banquet of the AANP's 26th Annual Convention and Exposition on Saturday, August 20, 2011, in Phoenix, AZ. All nominators and nominees must be members of the AANP in good standing. Click here to learn about the individual awards and download the nomination forms.

I am already thinking about who will get this year’s Presidents Award. So many deserving choices…

Our unity is our strength, and our community – represented by the AANP – is the vehicle we have to tell the wonderful story of naturopathic medicine. I invite all of you to help us build it even better. There is much to do. So, with all of the changes in health care, advances in medical knowledge and trends, and successes in our profession, the AANP Convention is the place to be to digest, absorb and grow – and connect.

I look forward to seeing you all there.

Brand New Wine in the Same Old Bottle

By Bill Benda, MD, FACEP, FAAEM

Andy Rooney, famous curmudgeon.
Photo by Stephenson Brown via Flickr, used under the Creative Commons License.

One of the worst things about aging is that we tend to become intolerant. One of the best things about aging is that we can get away with it. In fact, curmudgeonly editorializing is one of my favorite current pastimes.

So this blog submission will deal with one of my personal pet peeves: conference brochures. You may have noticed these glossy advertisements in your mailbox and on your computer screen heralding the Spring peak of the semiannual convention season, exemplified by the recently adjourned Integrative Healthcare Symposium in NYC and this past weekend’s iMosaic assembly in Minneapolis, along with a cornucopia of nutrition and functional medicine and guild gatherings taking place across the country. I don’t wish to grouse about the conferences themselves (at least not at the moment), but I do have issue with the advertising touting the wonders that await.

(Cue Andy Rooney.)

So here we are – pioneers of cleaner and less toxic therapies, protagonists in the battle to provide truth and clarity to our patients, ‘advertising’ a new way of doing old business – and yet we put out glossy brochures worthy of People and Vogue. Have you ever really looked at these things? Dig one out of your trash or junk folder, and here is what you will find:

Cover page – quite possibly a panorama of a city skyline or palm fronds swaying in the balmy breeze of a beach resort town. But more likely than not you will be greeted by a group of extraordinarily attractive and happy “health-care practitioners” a la Law and Order promos – arms crossed, heads tilted slightly upwards or downwards towards the apparently seven- or three-foot tall photographer, teeth brilliant and eyes knowing. At the front is a young woman, usually blonde Caucasian but sometimes African-American, always with a white coat and stethoscope draped around her neck – clearly a physician of some order or degree. “Hi! We’re young and hip and we like this conference!” Immediately behind her is the graying yet vim white gentleman (never a woman), also with white coat and tight yet perceptive smile. “We traditionalist docs approve of this conference, too!”

From these two handsome people on to the back row we have a variety of ethnicities, always including one Asian practitioner, a second requisite female, and in the very back a white or black young man (again, never a woman) in scrubs but sans white coat. “Medical technicians can attend this conference, too, as equals!”

Turning the front page, we then delve into the remainder of the brochure and find: The row of profile photos of well-known presenters we recognize from last year’s conclave, and the year before. The ubiquitous mortar and pestle next to some unidentified herb. The close-up of an acupuncture needle inserted just so into perfectly clear and tan skin. The slender woman with leotard in a yoga or meditation pose overlooking aforementioned balmy beach, hair pulled back in a ponytail. And of course, the sponsor hotel’s tasty spread of sustenance laid out on white-clothed tables for our culinary pleasure, complete with smiling person in a chef’s hat.

Imagine if we all really looked like these people, and lived their implied existences. (I know my social life would be a lot more exciting.) But the fact is that we are not stock photo models, or Stepford-docs. We are not fetishes to the altar of our alternative therapeutic offerings. We proclaim we will not obfuscate the patient’s symptoms with drugs, or misrepresent the cause of illness as anything other than what it really is, so why are we pretending to be pretty young models when in fact we are . . . well, go look in the mirror.

What you will likely see is an actual, authentic person, lines and pouches and blemishes and all. Why don’t we put these faces on the brochure, these bodies on the beach? Why are we reproducing the very promise of physical perfection we point out as arrogant and misleading in our allopathic brethren and sistren? Why are we doing things the same old way, while stating to be somehow different?

Yes, I know this particular topic may not quite rank up there with new ways of ameliorating the side effects of chemotherapy or the nutritional impact on autistic spectrum disorder. But these ads are nothing less than a reflection of the level of the honesty our patient will be getting when we walk into the exam room.

Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina sang a song in the '70s about our flawed American political system entitled "Same Old Wine in a Brand New Bottle." What we have here is a kind of backwards take on the same problem. If we are truly offering a new, healthier wine, we really need a more transparent bottle.

President's Message: Science and Naturopathic Medicine

By Carl Hangee-Bauer, ND, LAc
AANP President

Photo by CIAT - International Center for Tropical Agriculture via Flickr, used under the Creative Commons License.

When I was a teenager, my first career choice was marine biology. Growing up along the coast in Florida, I spent much of my spare time in nature and in the water, enjoying the marvels of life and the natural world around me, and I still spend most of my vacations in natural settings and in the water. In school, I was a science geek and took every course in biology, chemistry, physics, etc., I could. When I went to college at Florida State University, my major was Biology, with dual minors in Chemistry and Physics. It was during my four-year stint in the United States Army that my attention was redirected to the medical field (I was a Medical Service Corps Officer), which eventually led me to naturopathic medicine and my true life career.

I tell you this to let you know that I am no stranger to science. I still find it fascinating and appreciate the many ways it helps us understand the workings of nature and the world, helping us separate what appears to be the truth of things from reality. Studying naturopathic medicine, and especially acupuncture, presented me with many challenges, and I learned along the way that our medicine, as well as all other systems of medicine, are really a combination of science and art. When we work with our patients, we draw from both in order to stimulate the vis and provide well-rounded care to our patients.

Thus it has become an increasing concern to me when I read articles and blogs on the Internet blasting naturopathic medicine for being “unscientific.” These frequently polemic articles, while professing to come from scientific logic, to my eye are biased misrepresentations of the truth. They often lambast our profession and philosophy as unscientific, yet I have yet to see any one of them provide a critical analysis of research done by naturopathic physicians and researchers. It is sad that science can be used in these political ways.

This is important. As a student at Bastyr University, I remember Dr. Joe Pizzorno saying that if our profession is to be taken seriously by the larger world of medicine, we must speak in a language that everyone can understand and appreciate. That language is the language of science, and few have done more over the past 25 years than Dr. Pizzorno to increase the credibility of the naturopathic profession using this approach. While I think we all can agree that we draw both from science as well as traditional practices and experiences when evaluating the efficacy of our therapies and approaches to practicing medicine, advancing the research and science agenda remains an important step for our profession to move forward, especially with the continued interest in evidence-based approaches to health care.

Fortunately there is now a great effort within the profession to advance our understanding of how science informs naturopathic practice, especially in the realm of whole practice approaches to health issues. Dr. Michael Cronin, the AANP’s President-Elect, has been a strong advocate on the AANP Board for promoting scientific affairs. The Naturopathic Physicians Research Institute (NPRI), headed by Dr. Carlo Calabrese, is a group of academic and community clinicians, clinical researchers and other health scientists whose aim is to increase the amount of original data and analysis on the practice of naturopathic medicine for the purposes of its documentation and improvement, the discovery of potentially generalizable health applications, and to inform policy. And, of course, there is active research going on presently at all of our naturopathic colleges by well-trained and experienced researchers who are testing the theories and practices of naturopathic medicine. Much of the discussion I’ve heard lately focuses on studies of whole practice approaches to health care versus single agent actions.

On August 16, 2011, the Tuesday before the start of the 2011 AANP Convention, the AANP will be sponsoring a scientific summit. While only in the early stages of planning, it promises to be a gathering for the different players in the naturopathic profession to connect and define how the AANP mission, naturopathic research, and evidence-informed health policy can join and result in healthier patients, a more effective health-care system, and a flourishing naturopathic profession. Core discussion points will include articulating policy and practice issues driving our research agenda, where the profession is now and what future possibilities exist, and defining the core research questions relating to safety, effectiveness, and costs.

The AANP Board and many in our profession agree that where possible providing a scientific basis for our therapies and for the naturopathic approach is an important step in growing our professions credibility and inclusion in the greater health care system. How we prioritize this and communicate to the public is of vital importance.

I hope to see many of you there.