Posted on Tue, Oct. 05, 2004


http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/9840069.htm?1c


New Age techniques for a new age of soldiers

BY RICK JERVIS

Chicago Tribune


MOSUL, Iraq - (KRT) - Lt. Col. Damon Arnold's hands spin magic in
this northern Iraqi city.

They unlock backs twisted from carrying too much gear and body
armor. They ease stomach pains and knotted necks. Sometimes they
even chase away the nightmares.

As medical director of the first aid station at Camp Freedom,
headquarters for the 7,500 American troops in northern Iraq, Arnold
leads a team of seven medics who treat the usual cases of
dehydration, diarrhea, rashes and allergies. They also treat the
wounds of soldiers returning from battle.

But his specialty has turned increasingly toward curing common
combat ailments, such as hurt backs and combat fatigue, through a
medley of deep-tissue massage therapy, acupressure, acupuncture,
Eastern philosophy and meditation. A medical director at Mercy
Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, Arnold picked up the
alternative techniques during a two-year course at the Chicago
School of Massage Therapy.

Now the methods are reaping impressive results, he said, on patients
ranging from infantry soldiers to civilians to Iraqi prisoners of
war. Arnold has made believers out of skeptics and has become known
as an unconventional doctor in an unconventional war.

"Skin is the window to the soul," said Arnold, 47, an Illinois Army
National Guardsman working with the Army's 118th Medical Brigade
attached to the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, also known as
the Stryker Brigade.

"We concentrate so much on the longevity of life, keeping people
alive, and not the quality of that life," he said.

Holistic medicine has enjoyed a steady rise in popularity in the
U.S. A recent study commissioned by the National Institutes of
Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
showed that 36 percent of adults nationwide use some sort
of "complementary and alternative medicine." That number jumps to 62
percent when prayer is included.

But the holistic approach is still relatively unused in the U.S.
military, Arnold said. He said that when he volunteered to come to
Iraq in February, he wanted to try his alternative techniques on
soldiers.

His first chance arrived shortly after he did in June, when a
soldier visited him complaining of sharp pain in his lower back. He
was an infantry soldier and had spent months jumping in and out of
Strykers, the Army's new assault vehicle, loaded with gear and body
armor.

Arnold said he performed shiatsu massage techniques, working
pressure points from the upper to the lower spine. The next day, the
soldier told him the pain was gone, said Arnold.

"He started ringing the bell," Arnold said. "Then everyone started
coming in."

His next patient, also an infantry soldier, had abdominal pain for
three years and nothing helped, Arnold said. Arnold said he applied
a deep-tissue massage, coaxing a tightened groin muscle to relax.
Five days later, the soldier reported no more pain, Arnold said.

Soon he was seeing more soldiers, civilians and POWs and had to put
aside two days a week for massages and other alternative treatments.

Arnold said he also has treated soldiers suffering from post-
traumatic stress disorder with massages, acupuncture and tips on
meditation.

Originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., Arnold graduated with a degree in
chemistry at Howard University in Washington before studying
medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago. While in medical
school, he signed up for the Illinois National Guard to help pay his
tuition, he said.

Also during medical school, Arnold said he started taking tae kwon
do classes to relieve the stress of his studies. That training led
him to Eastern philosophy and practice such as Zen Buddhism and
meditation. The more he studied, the more his interest grew, he said.

He did his residency at Cook County Hospital and then got a master's
degree in public health at UIC. He was studying for his law degree
at DePaul University, to learn more about occupational medicine and
rights issues, when the first Gulf War broke out.

When he returned, he started working at Mercy Hospital and is now
the director of physicians for MercyWorks, the hospital's
occupational health center. Shortly after joining Mercy, Arnold
signed up for courses at the Chicago School of Massage Therapy.

In February, two months after getting a radical prostatectomy to
eradicate a small tumor in his prostate, Arnold heard the Army was
looking for physicians to be deployed to Iraq. He talked his doctor
into signing off on his health and signed his deployment papers by
March. He arrived in Mosul in June for a tour that ends in October.

"I felt like I should go," said Arnold, who lives in Hyde Park,
Ill., with his wife, Sharon Johnson-Arnold. "I didn't want these
young people coming over here with no one here for them."

Recently, Arnold launched an hour-long show on the local Army radio
station. Half the broadcast discusses theories and benefits of
meditation while the other half guides soldiers through a meditation
session to soothing New Age music.

Arnold said he hopes the military follows his lead and embraces
alternative medicine.

He said he realizes that could take a while, though, given most of
the medical community's reluctance to accept holistic techniques.

"I could see a place for dogma. You want to have a certain sense of
security," he said. "But you still have to remain open as a
scientist to new phenomena and alternate explanations for the
unexplainable."