Allina News

[Star Tribune, November 20, 2010] Several years ago Dr. Henry Emmons spotted a bumper sticker while driving his teenage son to a soccer game. “Surely,” it read, “joy is the condition of life.” At the time, Emmons, a psychiatrist at Allina’s Penny George Institute for Health and Healing, was preparing a talk on depression. But [...]

[Northfield News, November 3, 2010] Whether you’re already a full-fledged denizen of Prozac Nation or merely striving to maintain sanity in the wake of our economic earthquake, Northfield psychiatrist Dr. Henry Emmons has your prescription for peace. It’s called “The Chemistry of Calm.” Like his best-selling first book, “The Chemistry of Joy: a Three Step [...]

[WCCO-TV, Oct. 13, 2010] Anna Linck’s life was renewed Easter morning when the 24-year-old graduate student she was given a donor heart. Just in time says her cardiologist. “At the time her (donor) heart became available, she probably had less than 48 hours to live,” said David Feldman MD, with the Minneapolis Heart Institute. During [...]

[Star Tribune, October 2, 2010] Dr. Marcus Thygeson once wrote his patients countless prescriptions for heartburn drugs such as Prevacid, Prilosec and Nexium — the “little purple pills” of TV ads. But several months ago, when his own doctor advised him to start taking the pills, he refused. “It was all I could do to [...]

[Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, August 3, 2010] The George Family Foundation, the foundation launched by former Medtronic CEO Bill George and his wife, has donated $556,000 to the University of Minnesota to provide nurses with integrative-medicine training. The dollars will go to the university’s Center for Spirituality & Healing and the School of Nursing. The [...]

[New York Times, posted July 26, 2010] Common sense will go far. Plants should be presumed dangerous for consumption unless proved otherwise. “Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s safe,” said Dr. Gregory Plotnikoff, 49, a medical researcher and a physician at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing in Minneapolis. Dr. Plotnikoff has [...]

[Allina Newsroom, April 23, 2010] Working as a character designer and concept artist, Chris Ayers, 35, has been involved in projects such as Men In Black II, Fantastic Four, and The Santa Clause 2. In addition, he has published two books, “The Daily Zoo: Keeping the Doctor at Bay with a Drawing a Day.” Ayers [...]

[Minnesota Monthly, April 2010] Integrative medicine is starting to transform the Western world. And here in Minnesota, it’s blooming like crazy. When it comes to your health, the best thing you can do is protect and defend against future problems. Six local health experts say smart thinking about nutrition, supplements, and mind-body connections can make [...]

[St. Paul Pioneer Press, April 14, 2010] Five patients — with three new knees and two new hips among them — were rolled into a dimmed, windowless room at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis for group acupuncture. None had received the treatment before, but Cynthia Miller, a clinical acupuncturist, quickly had thin needles protruding from [...]

[Star Tribune, April 2, 2010] Tanning salon owners are angry over a little-known piece of the new health care bill that place a new 10 percent tax on tanning businesses. Dr. Greg Plotnikoff, medical director of Allina’s Penny George Institute for Health and Healing, is an evangelist for pushing people to get more Vitamin D, [...]

[Massage Magazine, March 25, 2010] A new study shows complementary therapies—including massage therapy—relieve pain as much as 50 percent among a wide range of hospitalized patients. The study shows that an inpatient integrative medicine program—one that includes complementary and alternative medicine alongside traditional Western medical approaches—can significantly address pain. “Roughly 80 percent of patients report [...]

[KARE-TV, March 16, 2010] Being in the hospital is never really a pleasant experience. But what if you could get a massage while you were there or try a bit of acupuncture? Abbott Northwestern Hospital offers just that in the largest integrative medicine program in a hospital in the country. And now it’s researchers have published [...]