Posted on: Thursday, May 24, 2001

Health
Gathering to point Hawai'i toward good health

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writer

Ruth Sasaki-Matsumoto hopes the symposium Saturday through Wednesday on complementary medicine, scheduled at the Hawai'i Convention Center, will help the state take one more step toward becoming "a wellness destination."

But one that makes available not just the best western-style medicine, but also a comprehensive offering of alternatives.

"I want to integrate allopathic (western) medicine and complementary medicine," said Sasaki-Matsumoto, who has brought together a wide range of healing traditions from Asia, Hawai'i and beyond under the auspices of the Hawai'i Alliance for the Healing Arts. The convention includes sessions on healing touch, reiki, Taorobics, ho'oponopono, Qigong, chiropractic, yoga and much more. A daylong exposition Saturday offers hands-on demonstrations.

Speakers include Hawai'i Diet proponent and author Dr. Terry Shintani, who will discuss nutrition in the new millennium as well as putting together integrative health care; best-selling author Dr. Paul Pearsall speaking about the psychological side of healing; Manu Aluli Meyer, an assistant professor at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo who was a planning team member of the 1999 World Indigenous People's Conference on Education, discussing the healing power of aloha.

Shintani, who has helped develop an integrative health center in Wai'anae, will talk about the impact of diet on health.

"Some of the most dramatic effects on health can be made just by changing your diet," he said.

Shintani will explore what he calls "the protein controversy" and deal with how carbohydrates and protein affect the increase of blood sugar and insulin in the body. "The more fiber a food has, the slower the absorption, so blood sugar goes up less and so does insulin," he said.

One of the important aspects of maintaining good health is keeping blood sugar and insulin levels stable and fairly low.

And the key to that is eating carbohydrates in the right form, he said.

"People think all carbohydrates are the same, but there's such a wide spectrum in terms of the effects, and the form is probably the most important thing. If you eat brown rice, it probably won't raise blood sugar a whole lot. But if you grind it up into flour it will."

He will also discuss the health center, which offers Native Hawaiian healing practices alongside western ones. "We have Hawaiian healers, and that is much more culturally comfortable for a lot of our patients."