The University of Cincinnati Health Center for Integrative Health and Wellness attracted nearly 100 attendees for its inaugural Founding Friends recognition event.
“We have an amazing health care system that can do wonderful things, but it’s also broken in some ways,” said the center’s executive director, Sian Cotton, Ph.D., in a welcome address. “It pays to fix people when they are already sick instead of paying to keep people well and focusing on prevention.”
Guests at the event, co-sponsored by founding friends Barbara Gould and Anne Ilyinsky, are supporters of what Cotton calls “a new health care movement” based at the UC College of Medicine.
Evidence-based integrative medicine therapies might include such areas as nutrition, yoga, massage, music, acupuncture, meditation, Tai Chi, stress reduction and more.
Dr. John Tew, a UC professor and retired neurosurgeon who sits on the center’s advisory board, spoke about the health benefits of plant-based nutrition, exercise, spirituality and the alleviation of stress as key to “living vital, complete, fulfilling lives.”
Initiatives now in place at UC include the incorporation of integrative medicine courses into the curriculum; mindful meditation classes for faculty, staff and students; and a Findlay Market pop-up market on the medical campus to support the message of food as medicine.
Over the past year, supporters have raised approximately $200,000 to continue with medical student education and community outreach.
The end goal, said Cotton, is to change the way health care practitioners think and practice medicine. Instead of a disease as an outcome to be addressed, disease can be looked at as a state to be prevented.
Click on a thumbnail below to view photo gallery of the event.
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- Sian Cotton, executive director of UC Health Center for Integrative Health and Wellness, with event co-hosts Barbara Gould and Anne Ilyinsky
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- Barbara Gould, tai chi instructor Jennifer Woods, City Council Member Amy Murray and Sian Cotton perform a tai chi movement
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- Sian Cotton, Amy Murray, Anne Ilyinsky, opera singer Murrella Parton, accompanist John Combs, Barbara Gould
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- Dr. John Tew and Robert Edmiston
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- Barbara Hahn and Ronna Willis
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- Jeanne Parlin and Susan Wright
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- Mary Ann Barnes and Dr. Dotty Shaffer
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- Barbara Gould, Dr. Dotty Shaffer, Darlene Anderson
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- Barbara Gould and Eileen Barrett
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- Dr. John Tew, Carrie Hayden, Valerie Newell
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- Valerie Newell, Dr. John Tew and Michael Zenz
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- Sian Cotton
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- Joyce Elkus, Susan Tew, Nina Paul
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- Opera singer Murrella Parton
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- Carrie Hayden
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- Opera singer Murrella Parton, Barbara Boat, Thom Boat, accompanist John Combs
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- Nina Paul, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, Barbara Gould, Sian Cotton, Wendy Yip
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- Valerie Newell, Barbara Gould, Sian Cotton, Wendy Yip, John Husted, Dr. John Tew, Carrie Hayden
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- Baoku Moses (foreground) of the group Baoku
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- Terry Smith, Jeff Geoberti, Grace Jones
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- Elizabeth Kuresman, Dr. John Tew, Susan Tew, Meg Hopple
