williamaveryhudson

A bibliography of some of the best free-access peer-reviewed articles to date:

Ades PA, Savage PD, Brochu M, Tischler MD, Lee NM, Poehlman ET. Resistance training increases total daily energy expenditure in disabled older women with coronary heart disease. J Appl Physiol. 2005 Apr;98(4):1280-5. PMID: 15772059

Chaya MS, Kurpad AV, Nagendra HR, Nagarathna R. The effect of long term combined yoga practice on the basal metabolic rate of healthy adults. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2006, 6:28 (31 August 2006). PMID: 16945127

Cohen L, Warneke C, Fouladi RT, Rodriguez MA, Chaoul-Reich A. Psychological adjustment and sleep quality in a randomized trial of the effects of a Tibetan yoga intervention in patients with lymphoma. Cancer. 2004 May 15;100(10):2253-60. PMID: 15139072

Cooper S, Oborne J, Newton S, Harrison V, Thompson Coon J, Lewis S, Tattersfield A. Effect of two breathing exercises (Buteyko and pranayama) in asthma: a randomized controlled trial. Thorax. 2003 Aug;58(8):674-9. PMID: 12885982

Demark-Wahnefried W. Move onward, press forward, and take a deep breath: can lifestyle interventions improve the quality of life of women with breast cancer, and how can we be sure? J Clin Oncol. 2007 Oct 1;25(28):4344-5. Epub 2007 Sep 4. PMID: 17785702

Donohue B, Miller A, Beisecker M, Houser D, Valdez R, Tiller S, Taymar T. Effects of brief yoga exercises and motivational preparatory interventions in distance runners: results of a controlled trial. Br J Sports Med. 2006 Jan;40(1):60-3; discussion 60-3. PMID: 16371493

Flegal KE, Kishiyama S, Zajdel D, Haas M, Oken BS. Adherence to yoga and exercise interventions in a 6-month clinical trial. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2007 Nov 9;7:37. PMID: 1799607

Garfinkel MS, Singhal A, Katz WA, Allan DA, Reshetar R, Schumacher HR Jr. Yoga-based intervention for carpal tunnel syndrome: a randomized trial. JAMA. 1998 Nov 11;280(18):1601-3. PMID: 9820263

Innes KE, Bourguignon C, Taylor AG. Risk indices associated with the insulin resistance syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and possible protection with yoga: a systematic review. J Am Board Fam Pract. 2005 Nov-Dec;18(6):491-519. Review. PMID: 16322413

Kjellgren A, Bood SA, Axelsson K, Norlander T, Saatcioglu F. Wellness through a comprehensive yogic breathing program - a controlled pilot trial. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2007 Dec 19;7:43. PMID: 18093307

Manjunath NK, Telles S. Influence of Yoga and Ayurveda on self-rated sleep in a geriatric population. Indian J Med Res. 2005 May;121(5):683-90. PMID: 15937373

Manocha R, Marks GB, Kenchington P, Peters D, Salome CM. Sahaja yoga in the management of moderate to severe asthma: a randomized controlled trial. Thorax. 2002 Feb;57(2):110-5. PMID: 11828038

Michalsen A, Grossman P, Acil A, et al. Rapid stress reduction and anxiolysis among distressed women as a consequence of a three-month intensive yoga program. Med Sci Monit. 2005 Dec;11(12):CR555-561. PMID: 16319785

Nagarathna R, Nagendra HR. Yoga for bronchial asthma: a controlled study. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). 1985 Oct 19;291(6502):1077-9. PMID: 3931802

Ospina MB, Bond K, Karkhaneh M, et al. Meditation practices for health: state of the research. Evid Rep Technol Assess. 2007 Jun;(155):1-263. PMID: 17764203

Sareen S, Kumari V, Gajebasia KS, Gajebasia NK. Yoga: a tool for improving the quality of life in chronic pancreatitis. World J Gastroenterol. 2007 Jan 21;13(3):391-7. PMID: 17230607

Sherman KJ, Cherkin DC, Erro J, et al. Comparing yoga, exercise, and a self-care book for chronic low back pain: a randomized, controlled trial. Ann Intern Med. 2005 Dec 20;143(12):849-56. PMID: 16365466

Telles S, Naveen KV, Dash M, Deginal R, Manjunath NK. Effect of yoga on self-rated visual discomfort in computer users. Head Face Med. 2006 Dec 3;2:46. PMID: 17140457

van Montfrans GA, Karemaker JM, Wieling W, Dunning AJ. Relaxation therapy and continuous ambulatory blood pressure in mild hypertension: a controlled study. BMJ. 1990 May 26;300(6736):1368-72. PMID: 2196946

For new posts about free-access, peer-reviewed articles reviewing complementary medicine theory, research, practice and policy, visit my new blog CAMWATCH.

complementary medicine complementary and alternative medicine integrative medicine yoga

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Tilburt JC, Miller FG. Responding to medical pluralism in practice: a principled ethical approach.
J Am Board Fam Med. 2007 Sep-Oct;20(5):489-94. PMID: 17823467

An important contribution to the growing literature on clinical applications of complementary and alternative medicine, from a bioethical perspective. The authors incorporate the key concept of medical pluralism into their analysis.

From the abstract:

The popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) raises a range of ethical issues for practicing clinicians. Principles of biomedical ethics define obligations of health care professionals, but applying principles in particular cases at the interface of CAM and biomedicine may be particularly challenging. “Recognition of medical pluralism” can help clinicians’ ethical deliberations related to CAM. Here we outline a 3-point practical approach to applying basic principles of biomedical ethics in light of medical pluralism: (1) inquiring about CAM use and the scientific evidence related to CAM, (2) acknowledging the health beliefs and practices of patients, and (3) accommodating diverse healing practices. Construed as such, recognition of medical pluralism encourages pragmatic willingness to examine the personal and cultural meaning associated with CAM use, the biases and assumptions of biomedicine, as well as the risk-benefit ratio of CAM practices. In this way, recognition of medical pluralism can help clinicians enhance patient care in a manner consistent with basic ethical principles.

In a case study, Tilburt and Miller include the following trenchant observation on the placebo effect:

In modern biomedicine, therapeutic benefit is determined formally using methods of evidence-based medicine to ascertain efficacy. Typically, the standard for efficacy is superiority to a placebo control in a double-blind, randomized trial. Treatments that are no better than placebo are considered therapeutically worthless. However, recognition of medical pluralism would allow for stretching the biomedical interpretation of efficacy to include objective treatment improvements from placebo interventions themselves without violating the spirit of evidence-based medicine. Patients may derive benefit from treatments that work by virtue of a placebo effect, as evidenced by clinically meaningful superiority to a (no treatment) control group in randomized trials. If such superiority is demonstrated for either CAM or conventional therapies, prescribing such a therapy could be warranted provided that full disclosure is offered to the patient, there are no significant safety concerns, and no other treatment options are available. Such an expanded understanding of treatment benefit may support an ethically justified referral for a broader range of CAM treatments.

For new posts about free-access, peer-reviewed articles reviewing complementary medicine theory, practice and policy, visit my new blog CAMWATCH.

complementary medicine complementary and alternative medicine integrative medicine

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I arranged a long-term rental through Exberliner (3 months, initially - a flat just off Rosa-Luxemburg Platz), so I haven’t tried any Berlin hotels yet. But here are some I’d like check out in the future (plus one place that’s open exclusively to women).

Most offer doubles at less than 100 euros, and all are walking distance to interesting places and convenient enough to U-Bahn or S-Bahn lines to make the rest of this big city accessible. And don’t forget biking is a perfect travel option any time of the day or night.

Berlin is well covered by Google Earth, so enter any of the addresses for an aerial view.

Charlottenburg
Friedrichshain
Mitte
Neukölln
Prenzlauerberg
Wilmersdorf

CHARLOTTENBURG

HOTEL-PENSION COLUMBUS
Meinekestrasse 5
www.columbus-berlin.com

HOTEL-PENSION FUNK
Fasanenstrasse 69
www.hotel-pensionfunk.de

MÜNCHEN
Güntzelstrasse 62
www.hotel-pension-muenchen-in-berlin.de

PENSION-GÄSTEZIMMER GUDRUN
Bleibtreustrasse 17

PENSION VIOLA NOVA
Kantstrasse 146
www.violanova.de

PROPELLER ISLAND CITY LODGE
Albrecht-Achilles-Strasse 58
www.propeller-island.com

FRIEDRICHSHAIN

EAST SIDE HOTEL
Mühlenstrasse 6
www.eastsidehotel.de

EASTERN COMFORT
Mühlenstrasse 73-7
www.eastern-comfort.com

MITTE

HOTEL AM SCHEUNENVIERTEL
Oranienburger Strasse 38
www.hotelamscheunenviertel.de

HONIGMOND GARDEN HOTEL
Invalidenstrasse 122
www.honigmond-berlin.de

HONIGMOND RESTAURANT-HOTEL
Tieckstrasse 12
www.honigmond-berlin.de

KÜNSTLERHEIM LUISE
Luisenstrasse 19
www.kuenstlerheim-luise.de

HOTEL MÄRKISCHER HOF
Linienstrasse 133
www.maerkischer-hof-berlin.de

CIRCUS HOSTEL
Weinbergsweg 1A
www.circus-berlin.de

NEUKÖLLN

FLAMINGO BEACH LOTEL
Lichtenrader Strasse 32
www.l32.de/lotel/

PRENZLAUERBERG

ACKSEL HAUS
Belforterstrasse 21
www.ackselhaus.de

HOTEL GREIFSWALD
Greifswalder Strasse 211
www.hotel-greifswald.de

HOTEL GARNI TRANSIT LOFT
Greifswalder Strasse 219
Details on Twizi.com

LETTE’M SLEEP HOSTEL
Lettestrasse 7
Details on Backpackers.de

WILMERSDORF

HOTEL ARTEMISIA
Brandenburgische Strasse 18
www.frauenhotel-berlin.de

See also:
DON’T-MISS BERLIN (BÜHNE)
DON’T-MISS BERLIN (DAYTIME)
DON’T-MISS BERLIN (HOTELS, INNS & HOSTELS)

tags: berlin hotels accommodations

Comments and Links Appreciated!

Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Integrative Medicine. What is it?

My best definition is World Music for Our Bodies.

The National Library of Medicine (publishers of PubMed) seems to be the one U.S. government agency that has escaped Bush-whacking. The past several years have seen an explosion of peer-reviewed journal articles about CAM. As a long-time worker in healthcare communications and beneficiary of western allopathic medicine, ayurveda and traditional chinese medicine, among others, I’ve followed these publications with great interest. Daily email alerts from the PubMed website often yield 50 articles a day.

Something important is happening. The Other 90% (which westerners call the developing world), and western practitioners outside of the mainstream, have much to offer the minority of us who rely and usually/sometimes benefit from the expensive miracles of western allopathic medicine. The medical journals seem to be listening. I’d like to help distribute the knowledge, leveraging the work of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and PubMed. Consider it a gift of the U.S. taxpayers in an otherwise dismal period of our brief history.

I’ll limit my reporting to articles that are freely available to anyone over the web. For the most part, I’ll extract from the abstracts/articles without comment. Just click on the PMID numbers to access the full text.

Let’s start with a paper from John Willinsky of the University of British Columbia and Mia Quint-Rapoport of the University of Toronto.

Willinsky J, Quint-Rapoport M. How complementary and alternative medicine practitioners use PubMed.
J Med Internet Res. 2007 Jun 29;9(2):e19. PMID: 17613489

The authors undertook a study to establish the potential contributions made by a range of PubMed tools and services to the use of the database by complementary and alternative medicine practitioners including chiropractors, registered massage therapists, and a homeopath. They found strong indications of PubMed’s potential value in the professional development of these complementary and alternative medicine practitioners in terms of engaging with and understanding research. It provides support for the various initiatives intended to increase access, including a recommendation that the National Library of Medicine tap into the published research that is being archived by authors in institutional archives and through other websites.

For new posts about free-access, peer-reviewed articles reviewing complementary medicine theory, practice and policy, visit my new blog CAMWATCH.

complementary medicine complementary and alternative medicine integrative medicine

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In the November Vanity Fair, David Rose tells a story of massive fraud leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and continuing today. The article appears to be soundly researched and makes essential, absorbing, if at times sickening, reading.

A couple of extracts, pertaining to KBR, a spin-off from Halliburton. (Emphasis added.)

The Department of Defense is easily the biggest federal agency, with a budget that has balooned more than 90 percent since 2000, to about $460 billion this year. Much of that increase has been spent on private contracting, which rose from $106 billion in 2000 to $297 billion in 2006.

KBR’s Iraq logistics contract was awarded in December 2001, almost a year and a half before the war started. By August 2007 the company had received about $25 billion from the D.O.D., and the funds continue to roll in at a rate of more than $400 million a month.

The Bush administration has special sensitivities to claims concerning KBR and its former parent company, Halliburton. Dick Cheney’s deep connection with the firm is well established. It is less widely known that former attorney general Alberto Gonzales, the Cabinet member who headed the Justice Department until August, when he was forced to resign, also has long-standing links with both Halliburton and its legal counsel, the venerable Texas firm of Vinson & Elkins….

Although Cheney was by [9/11/2001] vice president, he still owned substantial stock options and was receiving deferred salary payments from Halliburton, which have totaled more than $946,000 during his first five years in office.

Read the complete article.

war fraud profiteering corruption

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Royal Ballet of Flanders
Kathryn Bennetts, Artistic Director

Cornered (excerpt)
U.S. Premiere

Choreography by Nicolo Fonte
Music by Philip Glass (Violin Concerto Part 2), Ross Edwards, Gavin Bryars
Scenery and lighting by Michael Mazzola
Costumes by Markus Pysall

Dancers: Altea Nuñez, Claire Pascal, Wim Vanlessen, Joëlle Auspert, Ricardo Amarante, Mikel Jauregui, Courtney Richardson, Eric Bortolin

From the program: Cornered is inspired by the idea of the passing of time; a ballet in four duets, each a kind of meditation on the effect and nature of time passing.

High seriousness without a trace of pretentiousness, much about weight and balance. And a perfect introduction to the Glass Violin Concerto.

dance dance festivals

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A Londoni férfi (The Man from London)
Béla Tarr, director
Hungary/France/Germany, 2007

Co-Director: Ágnes Hranitzky
Screenplay: László Krasznahorkai, Béla Tarr
Based on the novel L’Homme de Londres by Georges Simenon
Director of Photography: Fred Kelemen
Art Director: László Rajk, Ágnes Hranitzky, Jean-Pascal Chalard
Editor: Ágnes Hranitzky
Music: Mihály Vig
Sound: György Kovács
Costume Designer: János Breckl
Producers: Gábor Téni, Paul Saadoun, Miriam Zachar, Joachim von Vietinghoff, Christoph Hahnheiser

Cast: Miroslav Krobot (Maloin), Tilda Swinton (Mrs. Maloin), Erika Bók (Henriette), János Derzsi (Brown), Ági Szirtes (Mrs. Brown), István Lénárt (Morrison)

At 135 minutes, The Man from London is an ideal introduction to the work of Béla Tarr, if you haven’t seen his seven-hour masterpiece Satantango (1994).

The movie opens with a long, absorbing dockside sequence, viewed from a hidden vantage that turns out to be a signal tower manned by Maloin, a hapless lug masterfully played by Miroslav Krobot (incidentally the art director of Theatre of Dejvice in Prague). Over the next hour we meet Maloin’s wife (another tour de force performance by Tilda Swinton, albeit dubbed), daughter Henriette (Erika Bók, who debuted in Satantango at age 11), and nemesis Brown (János Derzsi). Two more key players appear in the second hour, the detective Morrison (brilliantly played by István Lénárt) and Brown’s wife (Ági Szirtes, in fearless closeup).

Tarr and photography director Fred Kelemen are heirs to the great Central European photographers of the mid-Twentieth Century, with the advantages of motion, music, and obsessively nuanced sound design. The movie took five years to produce, and none of the work was wasted.

If you’re lucky, you’ll see The Man from London with a room full of strangers, on a big screen, in the dark.

FROM THE FORTISSIMO FILMS PROGRAM

Synopsis: Maloin leads a simple life without prospects at the edge of the infinite sea; he barely notices the world around him, but has already accepted the slow and inevitable deterioration of life around him and his all but complete loneliness. When he becomes a witness to a murder, his life takes a sudden turn. He comes face to face with issues of morality, sin, punishment, the line between innocence and complicity in a crime, and this state of scepsis leads him to the ontological question of the meaning and worth of existence. The film is about desire, man’s indestructible longing for a life of freedom and happiness, about illusions never to be realised - about things that give all of us energy to continue living, to go to sleep and get up day after day… Maloin’s story is ours - all of those who doubt and are able to question our humdrum existence.

Director’s Notes: If I have to say why I like and was drawn to this story, then the direct answer is that it deals with the eternal and the everyday at one and the same time. At one and the same time, it deals with the cosmic and the realistic, the divine and the human and, to my mind, contains the totality of nature and man, just as it contains their pettiness.
I came to love Maloin. Maloin lives simply, without prospects, beside the infinite sea, takes little notice of the world around him, accepts his slow and inevitable deterioration and almost complete isolation. Gradually his contacts shrink and become mechanical, perhaps he remains closest to his daughter Henriette.
When Maloin witnesses a murder, his life changes. He has to confront the moral questions of what constitutes crime and punishment, where to draw the line between innocence and complicity in a crime, scepticism leads him to questioning the very meaning and worth of existence. The temptation of a new life of a different quality takes hold over him.
Maloin accepts the hardest test of all, and after committing the most serious crime of all, even with his innocence lost, he tries to retain his honor. Old, balding and lined in the face, yet he finally becomes a man. But manhood and wisdom may be too much to live with. His attempt to create a new and different life ends in failure.
Maloin’s story is our story, personally I feel it particularly as my own, familiar and close, unfriendly and harsh, just like the surroundings in which it is played out. The film’s tone is thus personal, each frame reflects how I see the world and through its simplicity of style, I am trying to bring to life the complexity of Maloin’s working-class surroundings, with as much authenticity and affection as possible.
If I have to describe the style and structure of the film, I would first have to say that the film’s composition and rhythm is determined by the monotony of Maloin’s working day. We are constantly at his side, we follow him around and see the world through his eyes. We climb up the steps to his signal cabin with him, and come down them with him to go to the café. We drink a brandy with him and go and buy fish for lunch with him. These uneventful days repeat themselves with a different meaning, Maloin’s duel with Brown and the rising tension puts them in a new context. Everything we have seen turns into something else, whatever was familiar becomes alien, whatever was easeful becomes hectic, whatever was comforting becomes threatening.
We enter into this spiral, following its every turn. Our attention is drawn into the inner processes of the human being. The constantly moving camera will trace the eyes, follow all signs of meta-communication and zoom in softly from open vistas to close-ups. The camer is inside and outside at the same time, it concentrates on faces, especially the eyes; yet in every scene we are always looking outwards, we see the harbour and the sea, we feel closed in and, with this, the temptation of infinite freedom.
The foggy, dank, black-and-white images, the drifting shadows under dim lights and the moonlight reflected in the bay lend a special beauty to the drama unfolding before us. The film speaks about desire, man’s indestructible longing for a life of freedom and happiness, about illusive dreams never to be realized, about what gives all of us the strength to go on living, to go to bed and get up day after day…
I am convinced that Maloin’s story belongs not just to me, but belongs to all those with doubts and questions about our humdrum existence, yet are able to resist temptation: to all that have the courage to preserve their human dignity.

29 July 2003
Béla Tarr

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Mats Ek
Memory (US Premiere)

Choreography by Mats Ek
Music by Niko Rölcke
Lighting by Jörgen Jansson

“A pas de deux: a man remembers a woman, the memory brings her onstage and the past becomes present.”

Dance as dramatic theater. A tender evocation of strong sensuality in midlife. No, not 30s but 60s. A gray set - a lamp, two tables, a television set, a bed, a chair, and a wall. Nothing more is needed.

dance dance festivals

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