September 18, 2001
Special Program Focuses On Alternative Health Care, Treatment
INDIANAPOLIS - Aspirin or acupuncture? Psychological counseling or St. John's Wort? Medication or meditation? With any such choice, perhaps there's room for both.
Increasingly, Americans are looking to the Eastern culture for answers and are turning to alternative forms of medicine to maintain health and treat their maladies. Eastern Medicine Approaches to Health and Disease, an upcoming special program at the Indiana University Medical Center, will be part of the citywide 2001 Spirit & Place Festival.
The festival is sponsored by The Polis Center, an academic research center at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus.
The program is 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 11, and located in the Ruth Lilly Auditorium at the Riley Outpatient Center, 575 West Drive on the IUPUI campus.
"This program will introduce alternatives: alternatives in conceptualizing health, illness and recovery. These alternatives are based on Eastern philosophies and techniques and are sometimes used alone and often in conjunction with conventional care," says Palmer MacKie, M.D., clinical assistant professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine. "Participants will have the opportunity not only to hear but to witness Eastern medicine in use."
Dr. MacKie, director of the school's Integrative Pain Center at Wishard Hospital, is a licensed acupuncturist and incorporates other forms of alternative and complementary medicine in his practice. He will be joined by panelists from other related disciplines, including:
- Larry Gerstein, Ph.D., professor and director of the doctoral
program in counseling psychology at Ball State University, will moderate
the session. Dr. Gerstein is an expert in Eastern religion and philosophy
and conducts research at the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute
in India.
- Young Ki Park, D.O., is an Indianapolis family practitioner
and osteopath, specializing in acupuncture, herbal therapies and Oriental
medicine.
- John Peterson, M.D., is a Delaware County family physician
who uses ayurvedic techniques (an India-originated herbal and meditation
approach to diagnose and treat patients), is medical director of the
Expectations Birthing Center near Muncie.
- Yangbum Gyal, a Kachupa doctor of Tibetan medicine, diet and
lifestyle, and has taught at IU-Bloomington.
For more information about the Eastern Medicine Approaches to Health and Disease program, call 317-579-9015 or e-mail Rangzen@aol.com.
For information about the 2001 Spirit & Place Festival and The Polis Center, see www.polis.iupui.edu/polis/home.htm or www.rangzen.com.
###
Media Contact: Joe Stuteville
Tel: (317)274-7722
(317)212-1275 pager
Email: jstutevi@iupui.edu
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
A STATEWIDE
RESOURCE
Phone
317 274 7722
Fax
317 278 8722