Integrative Medicine combines conventional medicine with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including mind-body-spirit approaches to health and healing, so that patients receive a more comprehensive and holistic approach to their health care. Our mission is to enhance the public’s health and to improve effectiveness and safety of health care through the appropriate integration of comple
mentary and alternative medicine (CAM) with mainstream health-care. Areas of emphasis include research, education, clinical practice, and community collaboration. PIM serves UNC faculty, staff, students, and health professionals and the public throughout the State. Integrative Health Care brings together complementary, alternative, and mainstream medical research, knowledge, and practice to provide the safest, most effective options for patients and consumers. Your gift will help us to achieve our mission of raising the standard of integrative medicine education, research, and clinical care throughout North Carolina. We offer courses and workshops in mindfulness meditation to help you find peace and well-being in a busy world. Life is full of stressful events such as difficult relationships, demanding work, health problems, money issues, too much to do in too little time. When the level of stress exceeds your ability to cope, you may suffer from physical and emotional symptoms such as:
Headaches and backaches
Frequent illnesses or accidents
High blood pressure
Fatigue and sleep problems
Depression, anxiety, and panic
Irritability and mood swings
Chronic pain
Heart disease
Stress is responsible for lost work days, reduces your ability to perform effectively, and erodes both personal and professional relationships. Mindfulness is a way of learning to relate directly to whatever is happening in your life, a way of being responsible for your life, a way of doing something for yourself that no one else can do for you: consciously and systematically working with your own stress, pain, illness, or the challenges and demands of everyday life. You will learn how to slow down, to recognize the warning signs of stress reactions, and to stay focused and relaxed in ways that enhance the body’s natural adaptive and healing abilities and the mind’s ability to choose healthy responses. Mindfulness helps to calm people who are receiving medical care and is an essential foundation for other stress reduction techniques. Some of the benefits of learning mindfulness are:
More ease and equilibrium in every aspect of life
Increased clarity, choice, and balance
Deeper understanding of emotions and thoughts and how they interact
More refined sensory awareness
Less suffering from physical and mental difficulties
More calm and contentment
Heightened appreciation of life
Research on mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and at the Harvard Medical School shows that the majority of people who attend an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course reported lasting improvement in both physical and psychological symptoms from conditions such as heart disease, migraine headaches, some auto-immune diseases, obsessive thinking, anxiety, depression, and hostility. They also report an increased ability to relax, greater energy and enthusiasm for life, improved confidence and self-esteem, and more effective coping with both short-term and long-term stress. Mindfulness research at UNC has demonstrated benefits for individuals with irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes and those suffering with neck pain. Ongoing clinical studies examine the efficacy of mindfulness training for PTSD. To learn more about our classes and to register, visit us online at www.pim.med.unc.edu or call us at 919-966-8586.
05/22/2020
Are you a caregiver of an African American loved one with Alzheimer's or Dementia? Do you have a family member that helps you with caregiving? Then you may be eligible to participate in a research study that teaches mindfulness-based stress reduction classes over the telephone to people who live in either Wayne or Lenoir County, North Carolina. Participants will receive up to $100 for completion of the study. If interested, please contact us at (919) 370-6744 or [email protected]!
08/13/2019
07/03/2019
Start your morning with a smile, come to the Morning of Mindfulness, Saturday, August 17th, from 9-12pm, with with Paula Huffman, BS, RN, ERYT
07/02/2019
Kessonga Giscombé, Instructor a husband, father, faculty member and student, manages the stress in his life by practicing mindfulness — and teaching it, too. Podcast
Cheryl Woods Giscombe, PhD, RN, PMHNP-BC, FAAN, “Overcoming Bias and Health Disparities.” Dr. Giscombe discusses the effects of Mindfulness Training for medical students, patients & healthcare providers. https://youtu.be/hgaQogcP9Cg
The University of North Carolina School of Medicine, through the Program on Integrative Medicine, the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, has been awarded an NIH T-32 Fellowship Training Grant for Research in Complementary, Alternative and Integrative Medicine. This program, now in its third five-year funding cycle, provides support for up to 3 years of research training Fellows will have access to clinical research coursework and individualized mentoring with selected faculty from multiple UNC departments, divisions and centers.
The program’s overall goal is to recruit talented postdoctoral health professionals and allied scientists for training in research designed to examine the efficacy, effectiveness, safety, mechanisms of action and cost-benefits of complementary and integrative healthcare (CIH). Fellows receive rigorous training in research methodology as well as a firm grounding in CIH concepts and research issues. Fellows participate in the ongoing research of their mentors, develop and conduct studies that will create the foundation for future trials, and participate in the development of innovative tools and measurements for CIH approaches to care. The program continues to produce highly qualified, successful investigators whose careers contribute substantially to research in CIH.
Typically, trainees participate in a three-year interdisciplinary program designed for physicians, doctoral-level behavioral and social scientists, and doctoral level credentialed CIH practitioners. Trainees take research courses, attend seminars, and conduct individual mentored research projects along with a number of optional activities.
07/02/2019
Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!
05/03/2019
Star Wars Yoga & Jedi Mindfulness | Saturday, May 4, 5:30-6:30 PM At the American To***co Campus, Durham NC
Celebrate Star Wars day with Family Star Wars Yoga before the Durham Bulls Game! A fun approach to mindfulness for the whole family.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30416465 Researchers explored whether parents' mindful parenting skills were associated with adolescents' emotional eating and body shame. It was found that it was beneficial for adolescents with body shame and emotional eating behaviors, through self-compassion.
http://ow.ly/IJEo50rlo1r A study investigated gender and age differences on , , and self-esteem and its associations. It was found that self-esteem was inversely associated with depression and anxiety, and the association was stronger for girls than for boys.
05/22/2020
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