Dr. John Lear Randall, a dear friend and one of the founding spirits of the Nova Institute for Health, was known as a perpetual optimist with a profound love of service, care for people, and a heartfelt commitment to health.
On June 18, 2024, Nova Scholar Claudia Witt at the University of Zurich was elected to the Senate of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS).
A clinical conversation between Dr. Chris D’Adamo and Robert Rountree, Editor in Chief at Integrative and Complementary Therapies, on the topics of nutritional epidemiology, culinary medicine, and community-based health promotion.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Professor George A. Kaplan, our friend and Nova Institute’s Senior Advisor to the Scholars and Fellows Program, for receiving
Institute Scholar Dr. Steven Woolf‘s recent study revealed that between 2018-2020 U.S. life expectancy dropped by a huge margin and disproportionately impacted Black and Hispanic populations,
Institute Scholar Rebecca Etz was recognized for her commitment to “comprehensive, coordinated, person-focused care” and awarded the Barbara Starfield Primary Care Leadership Award. Watch the video here.
Dr. Chris D’Adamo, Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Medicine and Program Director at the Institute for Integrative Health, joined
Dr. D’Adamo, Director at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Program Director at the Institute for Integrative Health, was featured on Baltimore’s FOX45 Morning News and WTOP News Radio to discuss the upcoming publication in the Food Quality and Preference Journal.
This paper merges life expectancy data from several decades with the annual data on 18 state-level policies to ascertain why life expectancy across the nation has declined in recent years and become unequal across states.
The paper, Assessing Quantitative Comparisons of Health and Social Care Between Countries, is published in JAMA.
Healing is facilitated through safety, persistence, and trust.
Resources support us as we heal. They include reframing, responsibility, and positivity. “Making connections enabled participants to acquire and refine resources and skills that were essential in their healing journey. People also brought their own personal strengths to the journey.”
“Connection to others was an essential part of all the healing journeys.” Humans are social creatures, and even the most introverted of us need close relationships. Friends and family add meaning and value to life and help support us, in good times and bad.
When we experience relational trauma, relationships can feel scary, but reestablishing safety and trust in relationships is where the healing happens. (To be clear, we do not mean reestablishing safety and trust with abusers, but rather finding other healing relationships.)
“When safety and trust had been established, people were able to connect with helpers. The nature of the behaviours of helpers that fostered healing ranged from small acts of kindness to unconditional love.”
Healing probably means different things to different people, but one definition that emerged from the study is: “The re-establishment of a sense of integrity and wholeness.”
Healing was an emergent property that resulted from each individuals’ complex healing journey, a result of bridged connections between resources and relationships. “…they gradually found relief from suffering and began to exhibit emergent characteristics: a sense of hope, self-acceptance, and a desire to help others—the immediate precursors to healing.”
In varying degrees, “they were able to transcend their suffering and in some sense to flourish.”
Suffering is the ongoing pain from wounding.
There is some debate about whether people always experience suffering on the path to healing.
Wounding happens when we experience physical or emotional harm. It can stem from chronic illness or by physical or psychological trauma for which we do not have the tools to cope, or a combination of those factors.
“The degree and quality of suffering experienced by each individual is framed by contextual factors that include personal characteristics, timing of their initial or ongoing wounding in the developmental life cycle and prior and current relationships.”
Characteristics: How predisposed someone may be to wounding/how many tools and resources someone may have to deal with trauma/illness.
Lifestages: Developmental timing plays an important role in the impact of trauma — young children often do not have the same resources as older adults.
Relationships: Relationships can provide solace and support for those suffering, while lack of healthy relationships can prolong suffering.
