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Ornish explains support for WHCCAMP report.

Article Excerpt
Dean Ornish, MD is the president and director of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Sausalito, California and author of five best-selling books. He served on the White House Commission for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy (WHCCAMP) which issued recommendations to the President. NCAHF issued a position paper March 25th critical of the recommendations (www.ncahf.org/ pp/whcpp.html). Former NCAHF President William M. London, EdD, MPH, who testified at a WHCCAMP public hearing last year, initiated the following e-mail exchange with Dr. Ornish. The exchange is published with Dr. Ornish's permission.

(April 24) London: Dean: I'm disappointed that the WHCCAMP never defined CAM; failed to acknowledge that CAM is marketing doublespeak used to conceal from consumers the shortcomings of a melange of mostly irrational, nonvalidated and invalidated methods; referred to CAM as if it is a genuine field of medicine needing special (i.e. legitimizing) regulation, oversight, and, most ominously, integration into our healthcare and medical education system; called for the President to establish an office at the "highest possible level" within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and recommended increased funding for research on "CAM practice and products" without regard to the likelihood that...