A Call to Action by Dannion Brinkley
My friends, I come to you through Art Bell asking for you to take
action. Asking for you to stand up
as American Citizens and be heard. I have said to you many times to
be mindful of legislation and
to have your voice heard. We are at a junction where we as American
Citizens have an opportunity to
move health care forward by having our voice heard. I am asking for
your help in seeing that alternative
medicine research has an opportunity to move forward. As you know, I
have fully integrated
complementary and alternative therapies into my own health regimen
and because of that I, even after
lightning injury, heart and brain surgeries, I am alive and very
active today. I have been fortunate because
I have had access to many alternative practitioners and researchers.
Every American should have the
opportunity to determine whether or not they want to include
complementary and alternative therapies in
their treatment options. Only through rigorous and extensive
research can the safe and effective integration
of complementary and alternative therapies take place in this
country and good information from reliable
soures and the therapies themselves become available to everyone.
Every year, the United States Senate and House of Representatives
develop appropriation bills to fund the
activities of the various departments of the Federal Government. The
Department of Health and Human
Services' Appropriations Bill is scheduled to go to Committee next
week. This means that the members of
the Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and
Related Agencies
Appropriations from both the Senate and the House will sit down
together and look at the Senate and
House versions of the bill and bring the two bills together into one
bill.
The Senate has incorporated a measure to elevate the Office of
Alternative Medicine to become the Center
for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. In order for this to
happen, Congress must be
aware that it is what the people want-- they need to be aware of
your opinion.
Every day there is more information about alternative therapies in
the media and on the Internet - their uses
and their potential dangers. What is needed to determine efficacy
and safety is quality rigorous research
and access to research results. Research and information
dissemination takes focus and
funding.
Congress, in part because you the people were heard, created the
Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM)
(then known as the Office of Unconventional Medical Practices) in
1991 with a $2 million budget. Over
the past 7 years the budget has grown to $20 million and now
requested to be $50 million. Research is
progressing slowly. More is needed and can only happen expediently
with the advancement of OAM to a
Center with a budget and personnel to accomplish the mission - to
investigate and evaluate alternative and
complementary therapies and make those research results known.
Making OAM a Center gives it
autonomy - it means that it would have grant making authority.
Currently, OAM as a part of the Office of the Director of NIH must
go through one of the research
Institutes or Centers to provide grant funding, clearing each grant
through that Institute or Centers
advisory council, acceptance to do so is not required or guaranteed.
For example, an alternative medicine
grant to investigate an alternative cancer therapy, after being
deemed by the OAM staff to be of scientific
merit and appropriate for funding by OAM, must be processed through
the National Cancer Institute and
be cleared by that Institute's Advisory Board - a board that does
not have any alternative medicine experts.
Currently the AMPAC, (the Alternative Medicine Program Advisory
Council) - the only HHS council on
alternative medicine, whose members are alternative medicine
researchers, practitioners, and patients,
does not review alternative medicine grants and determine whether
those grants should be funded or not
-which is one of the primary activities of other NIH councils.
The Center Bill was originally submitted to the Senate as: S.2420 -
A Bill to establish within the National
Institutes of Health an agency to be known as the National Center
for Complementary and Alternative
Medicine. The bill was sponsored by Sen Harkin, the co-sponsors to
date are: Sen Hatch, Sen Daschle,
Sen Craig, Sen Mikulski, Sen D'Amato, Sen Moseley-Braun, Sen
Grassley, and Sen Wellstone.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Get involved.
Do you want alternative medicine research to advance? Do you want
OAM to become a Center? If you do,
let your Congressional Representatives know.
Call, fax, e-mail.
Be polite, be brief and clear in your communication and include your
name and contact information.
Identify yourself as an interested constituent.
Contact your own representatives as well as those on the House and
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee
on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.
Thank you very much for your help.
Art and I will report back to you very soon on how we faired with
this legislation.
Dannion Brinkley - October 1, 1998
To view legislation see S.2440 at Thomas.Loc.Gov Scroll down to near
the end to click on "Subpart 5 --
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine"
Reference S.2420 at Thomas.Loc.Gov which seems to be added to the
above bill.
Rowland Net Art Bell Talk Reading Room News and Announcements
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