A University of Denver OLLI LECTURE SERIES 

Community Med School: The Oxford Study Lectures

As health care costs continue to skyrocket, it is of international importance to find new approaches in preventive medicine. The Oxford study lectures are part of a longterm study in Integrative Medicine and Lifelong Learning. Students can participate in important research and provide input on future directions for health promotion and lifelong learning through the the Oxford International Round Table, Harris Manchester College in the University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School’s, Osher Institute on Integrative Medicine. The purpose of these studies is to bridge the gap between world class research and community health promotion. 

April 1st thru May 24th

Tuesdays 9:30am-11: 30 am – Park Hill United Methodist Church 5209 Montview Blvd.

To register click here

A disease of accelerated aging, more than 29 million people in the United States have diabetes and 86 million adults aged 20 years and older have prediabetes.

In ancient China diabetes used to be a fairly rare disease occurring only in old age because people were physically active. Still diabetes (Xiao Ke) was treated as far back as the Yellow Emperors classic and many of China’s top anti aging remedies such as ginseng were used. Much modern research shows that these remedies were somewhat effective and may be of real use in modern times helping folks with what is considered pre-diabetes manage their health and avoid full blown diabetes with more natural methods.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a long history, literally thousands of years, and abundant experience with regard to treating hypertension or high blood pressure (BP). TCM also has a unique way of diagnosing and treating this disease with a variety of techniques including Chinese herbal formulas, acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, qigong, Tai Chi, diet and exercise therapy. Current research demonstrates that Chinese herbal formulas possess the advantage of treating the whole person including the stress and other factors that can aggravate hypertension. Chinese herbal formulas have been shown to help stabilize BP but also improve related symptoms, such as insomnia, constipation, mood swings, obesity, and pain. Antihypertensive therapy research on Chinese herbal formulas for treating hypertension has made rapid progress over the past 30 years, but certain problems remain that seriously limit the progress of this research the clinical hypertensive treatment trials using TCM have been limited to small samples and multicenter, large-scale random samples with controlled methods are rarely employed.

Recent research has shown improvements in brain structure in long-term meditation practitioners compared to controls. This is not an isolated study and, over the past decade, evidence suggests that meditation may help us keep our brains younger. None of us are getting any younger and daily meditation could be an effective means to better maintain brain tissue, preserve cognitive, and emotional function and to diminish the risk of dementia and other age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

Tai Chi and Qigong Viable for Post traumatic Stress Disorder (review of 16 studies)

Mind-body practices are increasingly used to provide stress reduction for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mind-body practice encompasses activities with the intent to use the mind to impact physical functioning and improve health.

Researchers conducted a literature review of 16 studies in the published literature on Traumatic Stress to identify the effects of mind-body intervention modalities, such as yoga, tai chi, qigong, mindfulness-based stress reduction, meditation, and deep breathing, as interventions for PTSD.