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New Age techniques for a new age of soldiers

Oct- 5-2004 » Filed Under:

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BY RICK JERVIS, Chicago Tribune

MOSUL, Iraq - (KRT) - Lt. Col. Damon Arnold's hands spin magic in this northern Iraqi city.

They unlock backs twisted from carrying too much gear and body armor. They ease stomach pains and knotted necks. Sometimes they even chase away the nightmares.

As medical director of the first aid station at Camp Freedom, headquarters for the 7,500 American troops in northern Iraq, Arnold leads a team of seven medics who treat the usual cases of dehydration, diarrhea, rashes and allergies. They also treat the wounds of soldiers returning from battle.

But his specialty has turned increasingly toward curing common combat ailments, such as hurt backs and combat fatigue, through a medley of deep-tissue massage therapy, acupressure, acupuncture, Eastern philosophy and meditation. A medical director at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, Arnold picked up the alternative techniques during a two-year course at the Chicago School of Massage Therapy.

Now the methods are reaping impressive results, he said, on patients ranging from infantry soldiers to civilians to Iraqi prisoners of war. Arnold has made believers out of skeptics and has become known as an unconventional doctor in an unconventional war.

"Skin is the window to the soul," said Arnold, 47, an Illinois Army National Guardsman working with the Army's 118th Medical Brigade attached to the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, also known as the Stryker Brigade.

"We concentrate so much on the longevity of life, keeping people alive, and not the quality of that life," he said.

Holistic medicine has enjoyed a steady rise in popularity in the U.S. A recent study commissioned by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine showed that 36 percent of adults nationwide use some sort of "complementary and alternative medicine." That number jumps to 62 percent when prayer is included.

But the holistic approach is still relatively unused in the U.S. military, Arnold said. He said that when he volunteered to come to Iraq in February, he wanted to try his alternative techniques on soldiers.

His first chance arrived shortly after he did in June, when a soldier visited him complaining of sharp pain in his lower back. He was an infantry soldier and had spent months jumping in and out of Strykers, the Army's new assault vehicle, loaded with gear and body armor.

Arnold said he performed shiatsu massage techniques, working pressure points from the upper to the lower spine. The next day, the soldier told him the pain was gone, said Arnold.

"He started ringing the bell," Arnold said. "Then everyone started coming in."


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