Healthy People 2020 is a set of science-based health objectives for improving the health of Americans over the second decade of this century. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services leads this interagency effort. Over the past 100 years, the Nation has seen a great deal of change in the leading causes of death. At the beginning of the 1900s, infectious diseases ran rampant in the United States and worldwide and topped the leading causes of death. A century later, with the control of many infectious agents and the increasing age of the population, chronic diseases top the list. The report's bottom line is that seventy percent of all disease is preventable. Preventing illness, promoting health, and aiding the treament of chronic conditions is what Qigong is designed to do.
NATIONAL PREVENTION AND HEALTH PROMOTION STRATEGY
On June 10, 2010 the President signed an Executive Order creating the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council (National Prevention Council). The National Prevention Council, chaired by Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, is charged with providing coordination and leadership at the Federal level, and among all executive departments and agencies, with respect to prevention, wellness, and health promotion practices. With input from the public, interested stakeholders, and an Advisory Group made up of non-federal members, the National Prevention Council is charged with developing a National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy (National Prevention Strategy). The National Prevention Strategy will incorporate the most effective and achievable means of improving the health of Americans and reducing the incidence of preventable illness and disability in the United States.
The National Prevention Strategy represents a historic opportunity to bring prevention and wellness to the forefront of the national conversation on health. A focus on prevention will offer an opportunity to not only improve the health of Americans, but also help to reduce health care costs and improve quality of care. Concentrating on the underlying drivers of chronic diseases will help to shift the nation from today's "sick-care" system to a "health care" system that encourages health and well-being, while maintaining state-of-the-art medicine.
The Strategy’s impact will be significant because it will take a community health approach to prevention and wellness — identifying and prioritizing actions across many sectors to reduce the incidence and burden of the leading causes of death and disability. Especially important are requirements that the Strategy establish actions within and across federal departments and agencies relating to prevention, health promotion, and public health.
Although the Samueli Institute is not a government organization, it creates initiatives and supports research that is aligned with government policies, concepts, and documents. The Institute is proposing the Wellness Initiative for the Nation (WIN). The purpose of WIN is to proactively prevent disease and illness, promote health and productivity, and create well-being and flourishing for the people of America. The WIN concept paper addresses strategies for creating health, saving costs, and enhancing wellness through a concerted focus on self-care, core lifestyle change and integrative health care practices. In addition, WIN can prevent the looming fiscal disaster in our health care system. For more information, see About the Wellness Initiative for the Nation (WIN).
Legislation of Health Freedom
People have a right to healthy lifestyles through unfiltered health care information and choices that are not arbitrarily limited by governing bodies. These choices include complementary, alternative, integrative, and Energy medicine modalities. For educational and legislative information on issues affecting your freedom to choose medical treatment and prevention methods, see HealthKeepers and The American Association for Health Freedom.
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
In 1997, NIH issued a Consensus Statement which officially approved acupuncture for use in medical treatment.
To see which energy medicine research is currently underway, go to ClinicalTrials.gov, and search for 'Qigong', 'Tai Chi', 'Acupuncture', etc.
The most common health problem for which people turn to complementary and alternative approaches is chronic pain. Pharmacological management of chronic pain, while important, has hazards. Evidence is showing, based on carefully controlled studies, that there is promise in certain complementary treatments as adjuncts to conventional pain management. For example, the pain of osteoarthritis may be relieved by acupuncture; tai chi has been found to be helpful in reducing the pain of fibromyalgia; and massage and manipulative therapies can contribute to the relief of chronic back pain. Josephine P. Briggs, M.D., Director, NCCAM. (More).
Although Qigong covers four of the five categories of CAM therapies according to NCCAM, not nearly enough funding is being done for basic Qigong research. Help the Qigong Institute promote and fund Qigong research by donating to the Qigong Institute.
WHITE HOUSE
WHITE HOUSE COMMISSION ON COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE POLICY
In March 2000, the President and Congress responded to public demand and public need by creating the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy. The Commission's mandate was to develop legislative and administrative recommendations that would help public policy maximize potential benefits, to consumers and American health care, of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies - chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, herbs, and nutritional and mind-body therapies like Qigong, as well as a host of other approaches. The main goals were "...to engage Americans to participate actively in their own care; to stimulate research that will fairly test promising new and ancient approaches; to fully inform all health professionals and the people they serve about what is, and is not, known about CAM therapies; to make sure safe and reliable products are available to all Americans; to expand all Americans' options for safe and effective care; and to promote the study of approaches that may save us all money as well as enhance our health and well being." Read the Final Report of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
WHITE HOUSE FORUM ON HEALTH REFORM MARCH 2009
President Obama called a non-partisan forum to discuss how to lower the costs and improve the quality and accessibility of health care. Participants strongly recommended changing the current paradigm so that prevention of illness and keeping people healthy becomes an integral part of the American health system. They noted that it is much cheaper to prevent disease than to treat it, and that public health and prevention should be interwoven into our society, including schools. Read a short summary of the White House Forum on Health Reform Report (PDF).
US ARMED FORCES
What do the US Marines Force Recon, Navy SEALS, a Brazilian JiuJitsu champion, and Shaolin monks have in common? The relaxation techniques of Qigong are a key component in their amazing abilities. Read How Qigong Helped a World Champion Retain His Title (once on the page, scroll down to the article).
Military deploys acupuncture to treat soldiers' concussions: CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — The U.S. military is applying an ancient Chinese healing technique to the top modern battlefield injury for American soldiers, with results that doctors here say are "off the charts." More.
Acupuncture Gets Military Support For Gulf War Illness Treatment - The Department of Defense has made a $1.2 million research grant to the New England School of Acupuncture (located in Newton, Massachusetts). The goal of the study is to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of Gulf War Illness (GWI)
US army lends an ear to acupuncture:
Battlefield Acupuncture is being offered by clinics across the capital after the US concluded it helped provide relief to servicemen caught in the blast of roadside bombs and other explosive devices. London Evening Standard, October 4, 2011
