Helene M. Langevin, M.D.
Director, NCCIH
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. Dr. Langevin is currently the chair of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee.
Prior to coming to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Langevin was the director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, jointly based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and professor-in-residence of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2012 to 2018. She also previously served as professor of neurological sciences at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont.
Over her career, Dr. Langevin’s research interests have centered around the role of connective tissue in chronic musculoskeletal pain and the mechanisms of acupuncture and manual and movement-based therapies. Her more recent work has focused on the effects of stretching on inflammation resolution mechanisms within connective tissue. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Dr. Langevin received an M.D. degree from McGill University, Montreal. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in neurochemistry at the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit in Cambridge, England, and a residency in internal medicine and fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
Selected Publications
- Logan AC, Langevin HM. Spotlight: an interview with NCCIH Director, Dr. Helene M. Langevin, on whole person health. Challenges. 2022;13(2):42.
- Langevin HM. Making connections to improve health outcomes. Global Advances in Health and Medicine. 2022;11:2164957X221079792.
- Langevin HM. Moving the complementary and integrative health research field toward whole person health. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2021;27(8):623-626.
- Langevin HM. Fascia mobility, proprioception, and myofascial pain. Life (Basel). 2021;11(7):668.
- Langevin HM. Reconnecting the brain with the rest of the body in musculoskeletal pain research. Journal of Pain. 2021;22(1):1-8.
- Clark D, Edwards E, Murray P, Langevin H. Implementation science methodologies for complementary and integrative health research. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2021;(S1):S7-S13.
- Chen WG, Schloesser D, Arensdorf AM, Simmons JM, Cui C, Valentino R, Gnadt JW, Nielsen L, Hillaire-Clarke CS, Spruance V, Horowitz TS, Vallejo YF, Langevin HM. The emerging science of interoception: sensing, integrating, interpreting, and regulating signals within the self. Trends in Neuroscience. 2021;44(1):3-16.
- Berrueta L, Bergholz J, Munoz D, Muskaj I, Badger JG, Shukla A, Kim HJ, Zhao J, Langevin HM. Stretching reduces tumor growth in a mouse breast cancer model. Scientific Reports. 2018;8(1):7864.
- Berrueta L, Muskaj I, Olenich S, Butler T, Badger JG, Colas R, Spite M, Serhan CN, Langevin HM. Stretching impacts inflammation resolution in connective tissue. Journal of Cellular Physiology. 2016;231(7):1621-1627.
- Corey SM, Vizzard MA, Bouffard NA, Badger GJ, Langevin HM. Stretching of the back improves gait, mechanical sensitivity and connective tissue inflammation in a rodent model. PLOS ONE. 2012;7(1):e29831.
- Langevin HM, Fox JR, Koptiuch C, et al. Reduced thoracolumbar fascia shear strain in human chronic low back pain. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2011;12:203.
- Langevin HM, Stevens-Tuttle D, Fox JR, et al. Ultrasound evidence of altered lumbar connective tissue structure in human subjects with chronic low back pain. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2009;10:151.
- Langevin HM, Bouffard NA, Badger GJ, et al. Subcutaneous tissue fibroblast cytoskeletal remodeling induced by acupuncture: evidence for a mechanotransduction-based mechanism. Journal of Cellular Physiology. 2006;207(3):767-774.
- Langevin HM, Bouffard NA, Badger GJ, et al. Dynamic fibroblast cytoskeletal response to subcutaneous tissue stretch ex vivo and in vivo. American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology. 2005;288(3):C747-C756.
- Langevin HM, Churchill DL, Cipolla MJ. Mechanical signaling through connective tissue: a mechanism for the therapeutic effect of acupuncture. The FASEB Journal. 2001;15(12):2275-2282.
- Langevin HM, Churchill DL, Fox JR, et al. Biomechanical response to acupuncture needling in humans. Journal of Applied Physiology. 2001;91(6):2471-2478.