NCCIH Director’s Page
Helene M. Langevin, M.D.
NCCIH Director’s Message
Considering Health Where It Starts—In Childhood
February 6, 2023
An existing and growing body of research underscores the imperative to better understand how exposures starting at fetal development through infancy and childhood impact the health we experience into adulthood. At our annual Straus Lecture in December, we had the opportunity to hear from Laura Stroud, Ph.D. of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and The Miriam Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island. During her virtual presentation, she provided a thoughtful overview of the available body of evidence on the long-term implications of stress and adversity experienced during early development on our physiology, brain, and health across the lifespan.
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Director’s Message from the NCCIH Strategic Plan FY 2021-2025
This unprecedented year has been a reminder of the importance of rigorous scientific investigation in ensuring and promoting human health. COVID-19 may be the first major pandemic we have seen in our lifetimes, but Americans have been facing the realities of “noncommunicable epidemics” for some time–opioid abuse, chronic pain, obesity, diabetes, and suicide.
Director’s Profile & Publications
Helene M. Langevin, M.D., is director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). As NCCIH director, Dr. Langevin oversees the Federal Government’s lead agency for research on the fundamental science, usefulness, and safety of complementary and integrative health approaches and their roles in improving health and health care. With an annual budget of approximately $170 million, NCCIH funds and conducts research to help answer important scientific and public health questions within the context of whole person health. The Center also coordinates and collaborates with other research institutes and Federal programs on research into complementary and integrative health.Read more
Dr. Langevin’s Research Interests
Dr. Langevin also serves as an intramural senior investigator at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Dr. Langevin is exploring how to keep connective tissue flexible and free from pain, slow aging, and increase the health of the whole body.
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News and Upcoming Events
- Focusing on whole-person health: a conversation between Hélène Langevin and Ramsey Badawi (NCCIH Director Dr. Helene M. Langevin’s conversation on whole person health in the March 2023 issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine)
- Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee Meeting (NCCIH Director Dr. Helene M. Langevin chaired the recent meeting of the Federal advisory committee on pain research efforts)
- Women in acupuncture research: interviews with leaders of the field (NCCIH Director Dr. Helene M. Langevin participates in a group interview, published in the journal Medical Acupuncture)
- Spotlight: an interview with NCCIH Director, Dr. Helene M. Langevin, on whole person health (Q and A with Dr. Langevin published in Challenges journal)
- Moving the Complementary and Integrative Health Research Field Toward Whole Person Health (Commentary by Dr. Helene M. Langevin published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine)
Videos
Under the Magnifying Glass Podcast—Immune Supplements: Looking at Whole Person Health
Dr. Helene M. Langevin participates in a podcast on March 2, 2023, to discuss dietary supplements with claims for immune health from the perspective of whole person health and within the context of resilience.
Grand Rounds, University of California, San Francisco Osher Center for Integrative Health
Dr. Helene M. Langevin presents “NCCIH Strategic Plan FY 2021–25: Mapping a Pathway to Research on Whole Person Health” at University of California, San Francisco Osher Center for Integrative Health on February 15, 2023.
2022 Fascia Research Congress (Keynote)
Dr. Helene M. Langevin presents “Fascia Mobility, Inflammation, and Musculoskeletal Pain” at the Sixth International Fascia Research Congress held September 10–14, 2022.
Integrating Concepts of Whole Person and Whole Planet Health (Keynote)
Dr. Helene M. Langevin presents at “Flourishing Futures,” the Nova Institute for Health Annual Conference 2022.
Stakeholder Meeting for Research on Whole Person Health
Dr. Helene M. Langevin gives the opening address at the Stakeholder Meeting for Research on Whole Person Health, which was held virtually October 17–18, 2022. Whole person health is the central component of NCCIH’s current strategic plan and is defined as empowering individuals, families, communities, and populations to improve their health in multiple interconnected domains.
Lessons Learned and Future Directions for Manual Therapy Research
Dr. Helene M. Langevin presents at the International Consortium on Manual Therapies Conference on May 20, 2022.
Integrative medicine and improving resilience to COVID-19 or reducing risk of developing long COVID
Dr. Helene M. Langevin discusses NIH’s RECOVER research program regarding long COVID and the role of integrative approaches and whole person health. Dr. Langevin provided her remarks on June 14, 2022 to EUROCAM, which runs the secretariat of the Interest Group on Integrative Medicine and Health, a group of members of the European Parliament.