New Forgiveness Research Looks at its Effect on Others

Article Outline

• Best Practices in Integrative Medicine Published
  • History of the Clinical Network
  • The Delivery of Integrative Medicine
  • The Best Practices Report
• Revolution Health Embraces Integrative Care
• New Report Highlights the Economic Burden of Chronic Disease
• Diversified Business Launches New Service for Integrative Healthcare Professionals
• NCCAM Expands CAM Research Centers of Excellence
• Biography
• Copyright

Most medical practitioners would agree that forgiveness is good for people’s health. There is now a host of research pointing to its benefits, such as the recent study, “The Impact of Forgiveness on Cardiovascular Reactivity and Recovery,” published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology in March 2007. In this manuscript, authors Jennifer P. Friedberg, Sonia Suchday, and Danielle V. Shelov report that higher levels of trait forgiveness were predictive of lower diastolic blood pressure and faster diastolic blood pressure recovery. This finding is consistent with earlier research, and a new body of knowledge is beginning to emerge that demonstrates through biological markers that there is a positive relationship between forgiveness and physical healing. In the article “Forgiveness in Health Research and Medical Practice,” published in EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing in the May 2005 issue, Everett Worthington, Jr, PhD, recapped much of this research. “Theoretical and empirical research links forgiveness to better known variables such as stress and hostility,” he said in his report, noting that recent health research has begun to assess brain scans, hormones, peripheral physiology, and self-reports of health status in relation to forgiveness, all of which show some level of correlation.

But new research points to the potency of forgiveness and its effect not only on the life and health of the person doing the forgiving, but on the life of the person being forgiven as well.

To get at the effect forgiveness might have on others, researchers Harry M. Wallace, Julie Juola Exline, and Roy F. Baumeister addressed the question of whether forgiveness would deter or invite repeat transgressions. They conducted three studies, the first of which implied that “people would rather transgress against unforgiving others than forgivers.” The second study measured this same tendency but from a different pathway, finding that if committing a second transgression, people tend to do so with a person who is unforgiving. Study three, which examined the positive outcomes associated with communicated forgiveness, found that expressions of forgiveness “generally serve to deter rather than invite repeat offenses.” The article, “Interpersonal Consequences of Forgiveness: Does Forgiveness Deter or Encourage Repeat Offenses?” was published online in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology on March 12, 2007.

Researchers are also discovering that not all forgiveness is the same. In another new study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine in August 2007, “Forgiveness, Health and Well-Being: A Review of Evidence for Emotional versus Decisional Forgiveness, Dispositional Forgivingness and Reduced Unforgiveness,” Everett Worthington, Jr, et al found that “Decisional forgiveness is a behavioral intention to resist an unforgiving stance and to respond differently toward the transgressor. Emotional forgiveness is the replacement of negative, unforgiving emotions with positive other-oriented emotions.” Not unsurprisingly, the study shows that emotional forgiveness has more direct health and well-being consequences than decisional forgiveness.

Two excellent sources of information on the benefits of forgiveness are the Institute of Human Development, Greater Good Science Center, The University of California, Berkeley (http://peacecenter.berkeley.edu/research_forgiveness.html) and the Campaign for Forgiveness, John Templeton Foundation (http://www.forgiving.org/campaign/).

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Best Practices in Integrative Medicine Published 

The Bravewell Collaborative recently published a 140-page report unveiling best practices and lessons learned in integrative medicine. The report, Best Practices in Integrative Medicine: A Report from the Bravewell Clinical Network, offers an in-depth look at each of the eight centers in the Bravewell Clinical Network—how they are organized, what markets they serve, how they are financed, what services they offer, what lessons the leaders have learned along the way, and what business plan each center is using as their specialized blueprint for success.

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History of the Clinical Network 

In the latter half of 2003, knowing that it was essential to develop sustainable business models so the clinical promise of integrative medicine could be achieved on a broad basis, the Bravewell Collaborative created the Bravewell Clinical Network.

The intent was to provide technical assistance to the centers to produce effective marketing, practice management, and financial planning strategies, and to help the centers develop successful models of integrative medicine care and delivery that could be shared broadly with the field. The centers engaged in the Bravewell Clinical Network held their first meeting at the Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in the spring of 2004 and have continued to meet twice yearly in pursuit of these goals.

Today, each of the eight Bravewell Clinical Network members has developed a business and clinical model that is unique to its circumstances and market.

The Delivery of Integrative Medicine 

All of the centers in the Bravewell Clinical Network offer conventional Western interventions and care as well as complementary therapies and global medicine modalities in an integrative fashion. But each one has a unique model. Many clinical protocols have been tested, and a wide range of health conditions are now addressed by integrative medicine, as illustrated in the report. As the report notes, the strongest programs offered (ie, the most developed with the highest patient enrollment) are cardiac care, cancer care, pain management, stress management, women’s health, and the lifestyle modification and wellness programs. Of the various complementary medicine therapies offered, the most common modalities are acupuncture, massage, mindfulness-based stress reduction programs/meditation, mind-body therapies, nutritional counseling, and yoga.

The Best Practices Report 

The complete, spiral-bound report may be purchased from the Bravewell Collaborative for $50.00. Please go to: http://www.bravewell.com to learn more or to order the report.

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Revolution Health Embraces Integrative Care 

In 2005, troubled by the failing American healthcare system, AOL cofounder Steve Case created a company centered on empowering people to take more control over their health and wellness—a company known as Revolution Health. The cornerstone of the company is RevolutionHealth.com, one of the Web’s most comprehensive health destinations. RevolutionHealth.com helps consumers engage in their own health and well-being, assists them in navigating the healthcare system, and offers—for free—services such as online medical records, a variety of healthy living tools, an extensive medical library, and the ability to interact with others with similar health issues.

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• Bradley Jacobs, MD

What’s different from other healthcare Web sites, other than the fact that all the services are offered at no charge to consumers, is the strong focus on prevention and self-care. Designed with a family’s “chief health officer”—women and other caregivers—in mind, Revolution Health promotes the Five Principles of Healthy Living:

Another difference is the emphasis on integrative medicine. “One of the underlying tenets is that taking an integrative approach—which means actualizing or augmenting a person’s inner healing response, expanding treatment options, combining CAM and conventional medicine and facilitating patient-provider communication—results in better care and improved health outcomes,” explained Brad Jacobs, MD, MPH, who serves as senior medical director at Revolution Health and chief architect of the Five Principles of Healthy Living.

The integrative medicine approach and the emphasis on self-care are woven throughout the site. An extensive Medicine Chest provides a series of databases where consumers can go and search conditions and treatments, as well as compare costs and understand the evidence base for each treatment. The Healthy Living Center offers tools for losing weight, managing stress, having a healthy pregnancy, and improving sleep, among others, and the Condition & Treatment Center offers disease-specific programs and online communities for people living with cancer, diabetes, and cardiac disease. The site also provides help in finding the right provider, a tool for comparing insurance programs, daily health news, and an online store.

“While our primary alliance is with consumers, providers are an important and critical piece of the puzzle,” says Jacobs, who is working with the American Association of Family Physicians, as well as others to encourage health professionals to use Revolution Health as a resource. “We are piloting provider pages, a program through which providers can create a Web page about their practice and the specific conditions they treat,” said Jacobs. Patients, through the provider-specific sites, have access to all the information on the Revolution Health site. Providers interested in participating in this program can sign up online.

Revolution Health is also working with employers to offer health and wellness programs to employees. This is not an insurance plan, but rather an information and service plan that promotes wellness. In addition to offering access to all the information on RevolutionHealth.com, the employee program includes patient advocacy services, health coaching, and free employee access to a nurse or health coach to help problem solve.

“We believe that by creating community amongst consumers and between consumers and providers, and by also engaging employers in the process, we will create a force that will drastically improve the U.S. healthcare system,” said Jacobs.

For more information, please visit www.revolutionhealth.com.

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New Report Highlights the Economic Burden of Chronic Disease 

The Milken Institute recently released an important study that demonstrates the heavy economic burden chronic diseases place on the American economy and how much worse this burden could become in the coming decades if Americans do not take measures to improve their health and lifestyles.

An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease, published in October 2007, shows the current treatment costs of the seven most prevalent chronic diseases—cancers, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, mental disorders and pulmonary conditions. The report extrapolates the economic impacts of these diseases on lost workdays and lower employee productivity across all 50 states and the nation as a whole, and looks at how much these costs are expected to skyrocket as America’s population ages.

The human and economic toll of chronic disease on the patients, their families, and society is enormous. More than half of all Americans suffer from one or more chronic diseases. Despite dramatic improvements in therapies and treatment, the rates of disease have risen dramatically, and that rising rate is a crucial but frequently ignored contributor to rising medical expenditures. Although a number of studies have sought to estimate the economic costs of illness, until now there has not been a significant focus on estimating the costs that could be avoided through efforts to reduce the prevalence and burden of chronic disease. The purpose of the Milken study was to quantify the economic and business costs of chronic disease, including the potential impact on employers, the government, and the nation’s economy.

Institute researchers projected the costs and potential savings along two pathways: the one we are now on, and the one that would potentially occur if people took preventive steps to improve their lifestyles. The study is the first of its kind to estimate the possible avoidable costs if a serious effort were made to improve Americans’ health. Among the findings:

Founded in 1991 by Michael and Lowell Milken, the Milken Institute is an independent economic think tank whose mission is to improve the lives and economic conditions of diverse populations in the United States and around the world by helping business and public policy leaders identify and implement innovative ideas for creating broad-based prosperity.

The study is available for download and purchase on the Milken Institute Web site at www.milkeninstitute.org.

Additional state and national data may be viewed at www.chronicdiseaseimpact.com.

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Diversified Business Launches New Service for Integrative Healthcare Professionals 

Diversified Business, producers of the Integrative Healthcare Symposium (formerly known as CAM Expo), have launched a new service, Integrative Practitioner, focused on fostering collaboration and dialog among licensed practitioners and healthcare professionals who want to advance the field of integrative medicine.

Membership to Integrative Practitioner is free. “It is our goal that integrative healthcare providers will be able to improve patient care through direct interaction with peers and thought-leaders practicing integrative medicine,” said Marydale Abernathy, executive producer of Integrative Practitioners. “Through our online community, providers will also be able to gain access to evidence-based scientific research, and participate in discussions regarding best practices, clinical outcomes, protocols and policies that impact integrative medicine today.”

Advisory Board members include Robert M. Duggan, MA, MAc; Joel M. Evans, MD; Erminia “Mimi” Guarneri, MD; Nan Lu, OMD; Christaine Northrup, MD; Lawrence D. Rosen, MD; David Riley, MD; William Meeker, DC, MPH; Woodson C. Merrell, MD, ScD(hc); and Joseph E. Pizzorno, Jr, ND, among others.

Key features of the online community include:

Diversified Business began in 1949 when Horace Hildreth, Sr, the former governor of Maine, president of Bucknell University, and U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, purchased the license for Maine’s first radio station, WABI-AM. In 1953, he launched Maine’s first TV station, WABI-TV, in Bangor, Maine. Today, Diversified Business Communications, which is headquartered in Portland, Maine, is a multimedia company producing conferences and exhibitions and publishing print and online publications for sixteen different industries in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

For more information or to join the online community, please visit http://www.integrativepractitioner.com/. For more information on Diversified Business Communications, please visit http://www.divbusiness.com.

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NCCAM Expands CAM Research Centers of Excellence 

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) has added three new Centers of Excellence for research on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to its centers program. These centers will explore the biological effects of a number of plant-derived compounds and preparations found in CAM products on pancreatic diseases, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and Alzheimer’s disease.

“The addition of these centers increases the robustness of our Centers of Excellence research program and confirms our continuing commitment to rigorous CAM research,” said Ruth L. Kirschstein, MD, NCCAM acting director.” These multidisciplinary research teams will work to uncover new insights or novel treatments for health conditions that affect many people. The science conducted will be key to understanding what CAM approaches may or may not work and informing the integration of effective CAM practices into the healthcare delivery system.”

The new centers are:

This center will study plant-derived compounds found in a variety of dietary and herbal supplements and traditional herbal medicines, including antioxidants such as curcumin (a component of the spice turmeric) and lycopene (the component that gives tomatoes their color), and preparations of green tea and Scutellaria baicalensis (a plant used in Traditional Chinese Medicine). Using animal models, the investigators will study the mechanisms and effects of these plant compounds on the prevention and/or treatment of pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas).

This center will focus on the effects of plant and herbal products on preventing or arresting inflammation in diseases caused by immune system breakdown. Using an animal model, researchers will investigate the mechanisms by which resveratrol, a compound found in the skin of red grapes, might aid in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. The center will also examine anti-inflammatory mechanisms of the herb American ginseng in colitis and the actions of a compound from hemp in treating autoimmune hepatitis.

This center will conduct preclinical studies to identify natural compounds extracted from grapes, known as polyphenols, that might have a protective role in Alzheimer’s disease. Using an animal model, the research team will then investigate the biological mechanisms by which these grape-derived compounds may affect changes in the brain that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease and associated with cognitive decline.

The new center grants, which provide five years of support, bring the total number of Centers of Excellence for Research on CAM to 11. The existing Centers of Excellence look at a range of CAM practices, such as acupuncture and meditation. To learn more about NCCAM’s Research Centers program, visit: http://nccam.nih.gov/training/centers/.A full release is available at: http://nccam.nih.gov/news/2007/100507.htm