Dan Nevins is a warrior on a mission to save others.

Eleven years ago, while serving in Iraq, an IED exploded under his Army vehicle. The blast destroyed both his legs. Nevins spent 18 months at Walter Reed Medical Center. With the help of the Wounded Warrior Project, he learned to climb mountains and play golf. But two years ago, while recovering from another surgery, he was bedridden and started having flashbacks.

“And those thoughts of the not-so-great experiences from combat just kept coming back. I didn’t get to the point of suicide, but I finally understood in those 8 weeks at home and I knew that I needed help.”

A friend suggested yoga to Nevins.

For Nevins, now a teacher of yoga, it is much more than a job. It actually saved his life. Nevins hopes to reach both veterans and non-veterans alike.

For scientific results of Yoga for Health and Wellbeing: http://nccih.nih.gov/video/yoga

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NATO Task Force HFM 195, Integrative Medicine Interventions for Military Personnel has released their report and Overview of Integrative Medicine Practices and Policies in NATO Participant Countries  authored by Robert Petri MD, Paolo Roberti di Sarsini MD, Marion Trusselard, and Hegyi Gabriella

Simply put, medicine is culturally based and alternative medicine is a polarizing field. However, because healthcare delivery systems must constantly change to meet societal healthcare needs, consideration of different cultures and perspectives must occur to develop new paradigms in healthcare delivery. Integrative health and healing (IH2) offers a model of holistic care that has potential substantial benefit for military organizations.

IH2 is emerging as a new and much needed health care paradigm. It is a philosophy of health and healing that seeks to place patients as the preeminent players in health management, disease prevention, and injury recovery. There is an emphasis of patient responsibility, which includes a holistic approach that merges allopathic with complementary medicine. There is current available data and information regarding complementary and alternative medicine utilized in civilian and military populations as the basis for a new paradigm for a system of care-a system that empowers patients.

Conclusions: Current health care system is reactive and disease-based, with a focus on reductionism. This system is not serving us well. IH2 is a new model of cost-effective patient-centered health care.

Watch Dr. Eric Schoomaker, MD PhD discuss research collaboration with NIH NCCIH and the need for effective complementary and integrative approaches: