-----Original Message-----
From: hope4joyce
Sent: Saturday, April 4, 2009 1:03 AM
To: googleldn@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [googleldn] *Action* Everyone - Please send Comments on LDN & CAM to
IOM


Hi everyone,

If you could possibly make a difference in how CAM treatments are
funded and viewed � would you - especially if it only took about 5
minutes of your time? Well, the good news is that we (yes, you and me)
can make a difference if we ALL take an active role! I have included
my comments that I sent tonight to the Committee below. Please feel
free to copy / paste any part of my Comments that are included at the
bottom of this message that may assist you in writing your Comments to
the Committee (and replace our story with your story of using LDN and/or
CAM).



On Julia Schopick's Honest Medicine's Website
(http://www.honestmedicine.com/), she has highlighted the upcoming
`proposed' National Academies of Sciences / Institute of
Medicine (IOM) Committee that is being formed to determine
"Comparative Research of Medical Treatments". This Committee
will be a key in deciding how the U.S. Medical System will be handling
up to a billion of dollars of funding. As Julia mentions on her
website, the IOM's Committee does not have any Integrative or CAM
medical professional, as well as patient advocates who have been helped
by CAM. So how can the Committee effectively compare medical treatments
when CAM treatments (such as Low Dose Naltrexone, Probiotics, and
Antioxidants) are not even in the picture? CAM and preventative medical
has continued to show increased cost savings in both short term and long
term health care � so we all need to stand up and ask that CAM
treatments be FAIRLY represented on this proposed Committee (which is
not currently the case).



Would you please consider writing your comments to the IOM and ask
them to appoint to the Committee three or more Integrative / CAM medical
professionals, as well as patient advocates who have been helped by
Integrative / CAM medicine. Click here
<http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/FeedBack.aspx?key=49051&type=commi\
ttee> to leave your own suggestions/comments about the composition of
the proposed panel. (Comments will be accepted for only 4 more days
� until April 8, 2009.) As stated below, "formal comments on
the provisional appointments to a committee of the National Academies
are solicited (�until April 8, 2009) as described below, these
comments will be considered before committee membership is finalized. We
welcome your comments (Use the Feedback link below). Please note that
the appointments made to this committee are provisional, and changes may
be made."



So we have the opportunity � with enough input from ALL of us
� to impact who sits on the committee! PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS
AND ASK FOR FAIR COMPLEMENTARY & ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE REPRESENTATION
(BOTH FROM MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS AND PATIENTS!)





Julia sent her comments (which are posted on her website) to
the Institute of Medicine (IOM), recommending that they include people
with knowledge of integrative medicine on their panel that will be
comparing the effectiveness of medical treatments. Additionally, here
is more information from Julia's website about the Committee and her
comments, as well as links to the National Academies of Sciences/IOM
website:





http://www.honestmedicine.com/

1. Getting the Word to Washington About What REAL Comparative
Effectiveness Research Would Look Like
<http://us.mg3.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.gx=1&.rand=1uvom7scgqdr2#248360\
_0#248360_0>



1. Julia Schopick's Comment on the Institute of Medicine's
Proposed Panel: Comparative Effectiveness Research of Medical Treatments
<http://us.mg3.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.gx=1&.rand=1uvom7scgqdr2#248360\
_1#248360_1>







http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/CommitteeView.aspx?key=49051
<http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/CommitteeView.aspx?key=49051>



Recommendations on the National Priorities for Comparative Effectiveness
Research in Health Care
<http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=49051>



Project Scope:

An ad hoc committee will conduct a study to recommend national
priorities for comparative effectiveness research to be conducted or
supported with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009. The study will be informed by and extend the views of
stakeholders and the recent and ongoing IOM work relevant to comparative
effectiveness research such as that on the national capacity to identify
what works in health care, standards for systematic reviews of evidence,
and standards for developing trustworthy clinical practice guidelines.
After delivery of a report, a substantial effort will be expended to
disseminate and build public interest in, and understanding of, the
results of the project.



Comment on Provisional Committee Appointments





Viewers may communicate with the National Academies at any time over the
project's duration. In addition, formal comments on the provisional
appointments to a committee of the National Academies are solicited
during the 20-calendar day period following the posting of the
membership and, as described below, these comments will be considered
before committee membership is finalized. We welcome your comments (Use
the Feedback link below).

Please note that the appointments made to this committee are
provisional, and changes may be made. No appointment shall be considered
final until we have evaluated relevant information bearing on the
committee's composition and balance. This information will include the
confidential written disclosures to The National Academies by each
member-designate concerning potential sources of bias and conflict of
interest pertaining to his or her service on the committee; information
from discussion of the committee's composition and balance that is
conducted in closed session at its first meeting and again whenever its
membership changes; and any public comments that we have received on the
membership during the 20-calendar day formal public comment period. If
additional members are appointed to this committee, an additional
20-calendar day formal public comment period will be allowed. It is
through this process that we determine whether the committee contains
the requisite expertise to address its task and whether the points of
views of individual members are adequately balanced such that the
committee as a whole can address its charge objectively.



You have 4 day(s) remaining after today to provide comments during the
formal comment period.







Here are my Comments to the Committee:



Dear NAS/IOC,



Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Committee selection
for the "Recommendations on the National Priorities for Comparative
Effectiveness Research in Health Care
<http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=49051> ".
As an American tax payer, I am glad we are looking at ways to reduce
health care costs and evaluate what medical treatments actually are
effective.



However, I believe you are currently missing some key Members that
can dramatically bring fairness and objectivity to the Committee.
Currently there is no representation for those Medical Professionals and
patients who work and/or have been helped by Complementary & Alternative
Medicine (CAM) / Integrative / and/or Functional Medicine. That leaves
a substantial gap in your current Committee's ability to FAIRLY
compare treatments when there is no representation for CAM.



As stated on the National Institutes of Health / National Center
for Complementary & Alternative Medicine website: "In the United
States, approximately 38 percent of adults (about 4 in 10) and
approximately 12 percent of children (about 1 in 9) are using some form
of CAM". To not have adequate representation of CAM on the
Committee appears to be "Taxation with Representation" for those
many Americans that have in the past or will in the future benefit from
CAM treatments. Therefore, I am respectfully asking that at the very
least, 3 CAM Medical Professionals and 3 patients who have been helped
by CAM treatments participate on the Committee so that CAM is
representative of the American population.



Additionally, on 2/26/09 a Senate Committee Hearing on
"Integrative Care: A Pathway to a Healthier Nation" was held.
(http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2009_02_26/2009_02_26.html
<http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2009_02_26/2009_02_26.html> ). At the
hearing, Dr. Mehmet C. Oz, Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Dean Ornish, and Dr. Andy
Weil all testified. As part of their testimony, they spoke on the
incredible cost savings in health care that is due to preventative and
CAM therapies. If this is true, then why are we not further researching
and advocating for these preventative and CAM therapies on this
Committee � especially since it has the potential for savings
billions of dollars in U.S. Taxpayer funds?



Our Story with CAM:



My 8 year old daughter has incredibly benefited by using CAM
therapies. She had 3 major illnesses � very severe food allergies,
horrific eczema, and a chronic liver condition. We sought help from
many doctors without success. I finally took an active role in
researching my daughter's health treatments and sought out
CAM/Integrative Medicine to get to the root of the health problem.
That's finally when we saw a dramatic turn around in her health.
She is now in outstanding health compared to where she was 3 years ago
before CAM. Our CAM doctors were key players in helping us achieve
this significant turn around in my young daughter's health issues by
taking an integrative medical approach � so this vital part of the
medical profession needs to be properly recognized and represented on
this Committee.

This is also a David & Goliath story of the current Big
Pharmaceutical Giants against many low cost, generic drug and/or
supplements that can help so many conditions where the immune system is
not properly functioning.

We, ourselves, have seen the power of highly effective (yet low
cost) Probiotics, Antioxidants, and Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) in my
daughter's improvement in her severe food allergies, raw eczema, and
liver condition. We were very fortunate to find LDN. LDN made an
immediate impact in the condition of her liver and she has made
significant improvement (and no longer needs any liver drugs). LDN cost
us $20 a month, instead of the approximate $800/month for the other drug
she would have otherwise taken. That's a significant health savings, as
well as the dramatic improvement in her liver condition!!

Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist and already approved by the FDA
for other conditions such as drug and alcohol addition. Naltrexone has
also been proven (by NIH and other researchers) over the past few years
to also offer great benefits to the immune system in multiple diseases
(autoimmune, cancer, etc.) when used in very minimal dosages (called Low
Dose Naltrexone � LDN). The University of Pennsylvania (Hershey
Medical School, Dr. Ian Zagon, Dr. Jill Smith, and others have been
doing significant medical research into this area for years. Last year,
a LDN Crohn's Study was released where 89% showed improvement in their
condition and 69% of the Crohn's patients went into remission (and this
at the cost of approximately $1.00 a day -- yes...that's 100 pennies)!

Regular dose Naltrexone was already FDA approved many years
ago, and is now in the generic stage where it is so cheap. LDN must be
compounded to make it approximately 1/10 to 1/15 of the regular dosage
of Naltrexone. Therefore, there is no profit in any drug company doing
any of the clinical studies for LDN for any medical condition since it
can already be used in an 'off-label' use. That means that most
clinical studies specific to LDN will be sponsored by the Government
(such as National Institutes of Health, NIH).

Therefore, I am also asking that more research funding be provided
for CAM therapies such as Low Dose Naltrexone, Probiotics, Antioxidants,
etc. No Pharmaceutical company can make large profits from these
generic and very low costs items. Isn't it time that CAM treatments
that can help people with little side effects and at a very low cost
also be offered to Americans?



To summarize, I am respectfully asking that at the very least, 3
CAM Medical Professionals and 3 patients who have been helped by CAM
treatments participate on the Committee so that CAM is fairly
represented. Additionally, please secure funding for more CAM
treatments, including Low Dose Naltrexone, Antioxidants, and Probiotics.



Thank you very much!












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