Director’s Messages

Advancing Research on Whole Person Health

April 4, 2025

At the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), we have been working over the last half-decade to advance the concept of whole person health. From research to health care delivery, our health has historically been compartmentalized by individual conditions, organs, or other biologic systems. In the health care system, this means that co-occurring chronic diseases are usually treated separately. Once these diseases occur, the symptoms of disease progression are managed with medications or surgery, which carry the potential of side effects—too often, leaving important contributing factors unaddressed, such as poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, chronic stress, and poor sleep.  Read more

Can We Live Healthier and Spend Better on Health Care?

January 6, 2025

In December 2024, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) celebrated the close of its 25th year with a special anniversary celebration and a remarkable program focused on the economics and imperatives of whole person health. Read more

Coalition Kickoff for Whole Person Health

December 20, 2024

The inaugural stakeholder meeting of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) Coalition for Whole Person Health took place at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Natcher Center on November 1, 2024. NCCIH hosted this first meeting of the Coalition, which was attended by representatives from 60 member organizations with an interest in whole person health. My colleagues and I provided an overview of our work at NCCIH focused on whole person health and our collaborations across NIH, including with the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and with other Federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). We shared updates on our efforts to strengthen the research infrastructure for whole person health through different initiatives, including applications currently being reviewed for a funding opportunity on whole person research and the Research Across Complementary and Integrative Health (REACH) Institutions Virtual Resource Centers. I appreciated the opportunity to explore why advancing whole person health is so important right now and how doing so will help us understand how our bodies and minds respond to stressors or challenges to our health. Read more

BRAIN at 10: A View from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

November 1, 2024

This blog was originally posted on The BRAIN Blog.The BRAIN Initiative is marking a milestone—10 years of advancing neuroscience and neurotechnology research by funding innovative projects. Read more