This has been an amazing experience. 600 Politicians, Senators, National Institute of Health, IOM, University Professors, Doctors, Naturopaths, TCM, Homeopaths and other practitioners coming together to talk about how our Nation’s health care system can be improved.

Some highlights are:

-          Major push in US towards an Integrative Medicine model

-          Understanding that health care needs to change, is not affordable anymore.

-          All parties (business, health insurance, health professions, patients) seem to agree.

-          President Obama has promised to reform health care with a major focus on prevention

-          Dean Ornish was by far the best speaker (before he had to rush to the Capitol for a Senate hearing to testify about how health care can be improved). His points was that he and many other renowned researchers have done plenty of high quality studies on how heart disease, diabetes, cancer can be reversed up to 70% by lifestyle changes (biopsychosocial, for example plant based diet, yoga, meditation) and that it is time to put this knowledge into action.

-          Prevention on a national scale from kids to adults is necessary and will increase quality of life and health care costs.

-          Several discussions were about yoga and how yoga incorporates many of the health benefits we all seek: physical fitness and flexibility, deep breathing, body mind relaxation, mindfulness.

National Yoga Month will play a vital part in the process of transforming health care from a disease management system to a health and prevention health care model.