Jennifer Berebitsky is a resident at NCNM Natural Health Center.  Immediately after being offered the residency position, Jennifer found that she was pregnant.  A year later, she is walking proof that it’s difficult, but it can be done!  

 “You can make time for anything,” she said, “A little bit at a time and anything is possible.”

 Recently, the OANP held it's monthly meeting with Dr. Steven Sandberg-Lewis, who covered the topics of hiatal hernia and ileocecal valve syndromes.  This CE presentation was inspired by Dr. SSL's new book on functional disorders of the gastrointestinal system.  Functional problems are often seen in natural medicine because they are a manifestation of the body's normal activities.  Although the GI may have problems caused by hypersensitive innervation, abnormal perstalsis or even central nervous system impairment, functional disorders are elusive due to normal blood tests, endoscopy and imaging studies.  This can easily lead to misdiagnosis and chronic systemic health problems.

Image courtesy Maligering's photostream

    The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) has been around since the ‘50s, and its 68,000 members have a reputation for progressive, activist work in the medical community.  For instance, in 2007 AMSA set four strategic priorities:

•    Quality, affordable healthcare for all
•    Global health equity
•    Enriching medicine through diversity
•    Professional integrity, development, and student well being
    
    In addition, AMSA’s humanistic medicine interest group has long been a voice of advocacy for CAM therapies and cooperation between conventional and CAM practitioners.  In 2005, interest in naturopathic medicine grew so strong within the group that they added a naturopathic medicine interest group.

    I, along with about a dozen other ND students, a handful of pre-meds, and about 15,000 MD and DO students, attended the national convention this March.  We heard lectures from some of the most influential and experienced voices of effective compassion in medicine, and attended workshops on interesting and relevant topics like Street Medicine, Gender Variant Children, and the Activist Medicine at Large Protests.