Women's Health & Asian Traditional Medicine: News Bulletin 30.06.05

[Guest guest]

WOMEN’S HEALTH AND ASIAN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE (WHAT MEDICINE)

 

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, 23-25 AUGUST 2005

 

http://www.whatmedicine.org

 

WHAT’s new? NEWS BULLETIN – 30 JUNE 2005

 

Asian Traditional Medicine and Menopause

This news bulletin contains the following items:

Speaker profile – Professor Fredi Kronenberg

Yoga found to relieve menopause symptoms

Menopause Panel at WHAT Medicine 2005

Final Call for Papers

Special Offer for International Exhibitors

 

1. SPEAKER PROFILE – Pr. Fredi Kronenberg

Fredi Kronenberg is Professor of Clinical Physiology, and Director of the

Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine, at

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is also Director of

the NIH-funded Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research in

Aging and Women's Health. She was a co-founder of the North American Menopause

Society, and a founding editor of the `Journal of Alternative & Complementary

Medicine’, one of the three international peer-reviewed journals supporting WHAT

Medicine.

 

Pr. Kronenberg’s own research efforts include the examination of alternative

treatments for menopausal problems; a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual national

survey on the use of alternative medicine by women in the USA; and a study in

New York City of the use of herbal medicines from a variety of ethnic traditions

for treating women’s health problems. In 1997 she was among those who received

the “American Health for Women Award: Ten Heroes in Women’s Health”, being

recognized for bringing alternative medicine into the mainstream. She is an

International Co-Chair of WHAT Medicine 2005 and will also be co-chairing the

Menopause Panel (see below).

 

2. YOGA FOUND TO RELIEVE MENOPAUSE SYMPTOMS

A small-scale study presented earlier this month at the 52nd American College of

Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, has demonstrated

that the benefits of yoga for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women include

increased flexibility, improved quality of life and relief of the symptoms of

menopause.

 

Researchers at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Pomona studied six

women, ages 44 to 62, who participated in a one-hour-long yoga class twice a

week for eight weeks. Participants were also given a home exercise program, and

instructed to practice on the days when they were not in class. The yoga program

used in the study was lyengar, which focuses on a specific sequence of poses

that address menstrual disorders, menopause and pregnancy.

 

“Five of the six women who participated in the yoga program had an increase in

low back flexibility, and five out of six had reduced menopause symptoms,” said

M. Alysia Mastrangelo, Ph.D., PT, lead author of the study. “Those who

experienced menopause relief had a decrease in hot flashes and night sweats.”

 

Mastrangelo points out that a benefit of increased flexibility is that this

often helps reduce lower back pain. In addition, more flexibility can help one

to more easily perform activities of daily living such as housekeeping,

gardening and shopping.

 

3. MENOPAUSE PANEL AT WHAT MEDICINE 2005

The second day of the Women’s Health & Asian Traditional Medicine (WHAT

Medicine) 2005 conference will be dedicated to the theme of ‘Ageing’. This will

include sessions on degenerative disease and ageing skin, as well as a

high-level international panel on menopause, co-chaired by Professor Fredi

Kronenberg and by Dr. Ong Hean Choon, Co-Founder and Immediate Past President of

the Malaysian Menopause Society.

 

The Menopause Panel will incorporate perspectives from Traditional Chinese

Medicine, Kampo, Ayurveda and Vietnamese medicine, as well as a discussion of

cross-cultural assessment instruments for menopause symptomatology. It will

include both clinical research findings and theoretical discussions.

 

4. FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS

The final deadline for abstracts, for those wishing to give an oral or poster

presentation at WHAT Medicine 2005, is 15 July 2005. We are requesting that

full papers be submitted as early as possible. If you wish to submit your

abstract, please visit the WHAT Medicine website:

http://www.whatmedicine.org/abstractsandposters.htm. Full guidelines are

available on the site. Please note that abstracts should be a maximum of one A4

page in length, and must adhere to the stated guidelines in order to be

considered. If you experience any difficulties with the online registration

process, please contact enquiry.

 

Online registration for non-presenting delegates will remain open until the

start of the conference on 23 August 2005. The registration fee is US$300 for

both presenters and non-presenters, with a concessionary rate of US$175 for

full-time students with valid ID. Keynote speakers are exempt from paying the

registration fee.

 

5. SPECIAL OFFER FOR INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITORS

Please note that international exhibitors wishing to take advantage of our

special offer (US$2,000 for a 3m x 3m booth at the WHAT Medicine Exhibition and

five nights’ accommodation at a four-star hotel) should contact

exhibition before 10 July 2005.