Traditional Chinese Medicine

An educational film that explores Traditional Chinese Medicine including acupuncture, meridians and chi.

UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
1701 Divisadero St.
Suite 150
San Francisco, CA 94115

All events are located at the Osher Center unless otherwise noted.

"By supporting the Community Care Fund,
we are able to extend the benefits of the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine to those most in need in our community."
--Bernard and Barbro Osher

The UCSF Osher Center would like to thank the Bernard Osher Foundation for its generous, $60,000 gift of support to the Community Care Fund.

The Osher Center's Community Care Fund is helping those most in need of care by providing scholarship support to reduce the cost of treatment by 50%-90%, depending on patient need. Since the Fund's inception in 2003, it has supported over 3,000 patient visits.

Christina*, an 18 year old student who suffered from cancer came to the Osher Center after a reoccurrence. She received acupuncture and nutritional care to cope with the side effects of her chemotherapy treatments and she joined the MBSR weekly group to help with her fears. Her acupuncture treatments helped relieve her nausea and the practice of mindfulness helped Christina to live in the present moment. Over time, Christina's cancer went into remission. She felt as though this bout with the disease gave her the opportunity to heal and she was able to resume her life with much less fear. Today, Christina is a national spokesperson for children living with and beyond cancer.

*Patient name has been changed to protect privacy.

If you would like more information about the UCSF Osher Center's Community Care Fund, please contact: Maureen Smith.

Special thanks to the Bernard Osher Foundation.

Thanks to support from the William K. Bowes Jr. Foundation, the Osher Center is conducting a study to examine the feasibility and effects of providing massage to children who are undergoing bone marrow transplant at UCSF. The study also teaches the resident parents (those who are living in the hospital during the course of treatment) how to massage their children. The goal of this clinical trial is to improve symptom management in patients and decrease stress and feelings of helplessness in the parents.

During the course of treatment, children receive up to three in-hospital massages per week from a certified massage therapist. Both resident parents and children complete questionnaires about psychological and physical well being.

Initial reports from bone marrow transplant patients, their parents, and nursing staff on the bone marrow transplant unit have been enthusiastic.  One young boy, originally skeptical of massage, found that massage on an acupressure point for nausea worked “like magic.”  In the coming months, Osher researchers will test how consistent these reports of symptom improvement are compared to a group that does not get massage.  If the results are promising, they will help pave the way for a larger-scale study with the potential to influence integration of massage and acupressure into standard care for these critically ill children.

This study is enrolling now through the Fall of 2009.

"We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give."
--Winston Churchill

For many years our culture has conditioned us to think that “the more we have the better we are.” Unfortunately, this thinking has led many people to equate their own personal sense of self-worth with their checking account, home address, or wardrobe.

The current financial crisis provides us with an opportunity to reassess our own values and redefine our sense of self-worth. It gives us an opportunity to reflect on where we want to spend our time, energy, and money.

I am using this time to consider what is important to me and what it is that I want to leave for my children and future generations. Giving my time, energy, talent, and resources to others keeps me rooted in what really matters to me and supports a mental framework of openness and optimism. Plus, it makes me feel good. Believe it or not, according to a study published in the magazine Science by scientists and economists at the University of Oregon, donating to charity helps stimulate the regions of the brain associated with pleasure.

To help reframe the old message that more is better, try viewing everything that is given to you as something to be used for the benefit of others. In this way, bit by bit, you can increase your own capacity to help, to serve, and while doing so, increase your own feelings of self-worth and contentment.

-Maureen Smith

Friends of the UCSF Osher Center have an unprecedented opportunity to ensure the continued growth and enrichment of the Center. Contributions to the Osher Center priorities are growing: