Posted by Liz Nichols on Mar 27, 2018
Karen Baker, UI College of Dentistry, spoke on the Impact of Alternative Medicine on Clinical Dentistry (and on health in general).
 
Karen Baker
Visiting Rotarians and Guests
 
Karen Baker-- Speaker
The Ashmans-- Host parents of Paula Mompio
Paula Mompio-- Exchange Student
 
Announcements
 
Get your teams together and sign up for the 3rd Annual Rotary World Mini-Golf Championship on April 2, 5:15 pm at Colonial Lanes.  Proceeds will go to purchase of playground equipment in support of our community grant.
 
Chris Knapp indicated that our youth exchange students will be attending the Ottumwa "Toast" on April 13 in the evening and will be staying over night with Rotarians.  The next day they will be planting trees.  Each student has been asked to raise at least $25 toward the cost of a tree.  It was decided by members that $100 of happy bucks this month should go toward tree planting on Paula's behalf.
 
Rotarians in the News:  Pam Ehly mentioned in a Little Village article.
 
Dick Huber recognized all the women members of the club in honor of National Women's History Month.  He showed pictures of several women who are famous who came from Iowa City.
 
John Ockenfels recognized Jim Peterson for giving an inspiring presentation at the Grants Seminar about Xicotepec and how that project got started.
 
Happy Bucks
 
Mike Messier contributed a happy $20 toward the tree planting project.  The Ashmans contributed in celebration of the wonderful trip to Chicago they were able to take with Paula.  Sue Cronin just returned from Arizona where it was cold; Liz Loeb is headed to Virginia just to hang out with old colleagues and where she hopes it will be warmer than here.
 
Speaker
 
Karen Baker works at the College of Dentistry, but her often humorous presentation was about the impact, or lack thereof of alternative medicines and over-the-counter herbal products that people take thinking they will have a health benefit.  More often than not there is limited to no health benefit, and taking too much of almost any substance can be harmful to one's health. 
 
This general field is called homeopathy or neopathic medicine.  Iowa does not license ND's or Doctors of Neopathy.  The closest college that offers a degree is in Illinois.
 
People choose to treat themselves as a way of taking charge of their own bodies.  This is a good thing, but it must be done objectively using the correct dosages, and after consulting reliable sources to determine if the product is safe and effective.  The sources of information Baker recommends are Supplement Clarity (a free source) and the writings of Jane E Brody, a health writer with the New York Times.  There is also a research service, Consumer Lab, that analyzes supplements and publishes results.  This service costs around $32/year.