Healing Ourselves:
Denver’s Holistic Healers Tackle The Black Health Crisis
By Iya Ta’Shia Asanti

Like most people, African Americans generally have turned to primary care physicians and emergency rooms to manage their health concerns. That could be changing, as many look to holistic medicine and other alternative remedies. Denver is no exception.
When Abayomi Meeks transferred his practice to Denver from New York nearly 20 years ago, he was among the few to offer nontraditional health care. Today, the area boasts several holistic healing centers – and several that are Black-owned.
“When I began my practice clients were mainly Europeans. Knowledge of holistic medicine was almost non-existent [among African Americans],” says Meeks, founder and CEO of Moyo Nguvu Cultural and Healing Arts Center.
The Moyo Center is one of the oldest and best known holistic clinics in Denver (“Moyo Nguvu” is an African word that means, “spiritual strength”). Meeks, a Doctor of Oriental Medicine and acupuncture, has studied various forms of Eastern and holistic medicine. His center has been a source of education in traditional African wisdom, martial arts, nutrition and herbology.
“My first and foremost goal is to educate people about the benefits of holistic medicine,” says Meeks, whose practice has grown steadily over the past two decades. “I’ve performed over 22,000 treatments. African Americans are becoming more aware and less fearful of the benefits of holistic medicine – especially African American women. “Early detection is the key to longevity and holistic medicine is one of the keys to preventing illness from ever taking place,” says Meeks.
“They’re coming for preventative health care a lot earlier, before they’re in a crisis,” he says. “Eastern life philosophy teaches us to do something for our health before we get sick.”
Meeks says holistic healers use a number of common remedies in treating their patients. These include onions under the armpit to relieve flu symptoms; garlic skins in the shoes to relieve fever; castor oil or ginger to relieve digestive problems; and lemon juice, garlic, cayenne pepper and olive oil to stop sinus congestion. There are literally thousands of so-called home remedies in Black, Latino and other communities of color that have never been written down but have been used by millions for hundreds of years, he says.
“African Americans have and have always had a wealth of home, family and culturally-based healing remedies for common ailments and everyday illnesses,” Meeks says. “Cures for illnesses such as the common cold, fever, minor injury, headaches and menstrual cramps are among the most common. It’s rare for one of these remedies to have been cleared by a physician. But they’ve been used for centuries with amazingly successful results.”
Meeks says alternative medicine is cost effective. That may change, he says, as the healthcare industry, and groups such as the American Medical Association, seeks to commercialize the methods.
In November 1963, in response to a growing interest in chiropractic medicine, the AMA formed the Committee on Quackery. Interestingly enough, the committee's original name was the Committee on Chiropractic. It would later be renamed the Scope of Practice Committee.
“They realized there were big bucks in this,” Meeks says. “Sadly, Colorado is one of the states that is backing the new committee. Large sums of money are behind this committee whose ultimate aim is to prevent all forms of alternative medicine from being practiced. Maybe they’re afraid people will actually stop getting sick.”
Meeks says education about what alternative medicine is, how it works, and its history, is imperative. He believes education will help African American and Latino communities release what he calls “unfounded fears” about holistic healing methods.

“They don’t understand that folk medicine has played a significant role in the survival of indigenous communities,” he says. “Why did grandma’s soup make us well in 24 hours?  It was the herbs she put inside that pot. Ultimately it’s all about communication between healthcare providers and holistic practitioners. And people of color need to talk about healing each other too. Each of us plays a significant role in our own healing and the healing of our families.”
There are a few prominent Black-owned holistic healing centers in Denver. One of the more popular is The Source, run by Sister Nanana. She and her staff conduct a variety of holistic healing treatments including colon therapy, nutritional counseling and iridology. The Source also offers herbal supplements as a support to clients who express the desire to transition off Western medication.
The Source is clear -- it is not trying to replace Western medicine, nor would it ever tell anyone to discontinue his or her doctor’s recommendations. But The Source, just like Moyo Nguvu, affirms that Western medicine is not the end-all-be-all for African-Americans. Most of the clients who come to The Source and to Moyo Nguvu with critical health challenges have been using Western medicine for years. And most are still as sick as they were the day they went on medication for their illnesses.
Several years ago, community activist Jeff Fard founded The Neighborhood Health Initiative as a way to respond to the health crisis in Denver’s communities of color. From this initiative came the Proactive for Change Conference, which has attracted thousands of participants and healthcare professionals from across the country. Though the conference’s focus was HIV and AIDS, Fard focused on broader issues such low self-esteem and domestic violence.
In Five Points, Devin Fasina Meade, Nanina Ra and Iya Ta’Shia Asanti have joined forces to launch a new wellness center and cultural education outlet that explores the principles taught at the Proactive For Change Conference. The new Serenity Wellness Center is located next to the Akente Express Gift Shop on Park Avenue West and Champa Street, a few doors from Fard’s health center.
Serenity Wellness Center (SWC), in collaboration with the Colorado Institute for Indigenous Cultural Studies, will open in October. The center will offer holistic and wellness treatments including a combination of massage, reflexology, reiki and raindrop therapy along with a bathing treatment that combines meditation, affirmation, organic essence oils, herbs, aromatherapy and detoxification soaks that aid in stress reduction and cleanse and purify the body.
“We wanted to create an institution that would not only heal but unite the cultural community in Denver,” says Meade, a master Reiki specialist certified in herbal medicine. “If your body is well but your mind still harbors negative thoughts, eventually your body will return to its old state of sickness.”
SWC’s sister organization, the Colorado Institute for Indigenous Cultural Studies, will be housed on one side and Serenity Wellness Center on the other. Meade hopes to attract cultural leaders from Denver and across the country to be guest lecturers and workshop presenters.
“We’ve tried everything else. Our community is still dying in alarming numbers,” says Meade. “[Holistic] medicine was healing people long before slavery, long before a pill ever got put into a bottle. It worked for our grandmothers and grandfathers. Perhaps it will work for us too, if we give it a try.” 
          
For more information, call The Source at 303-863-9670 or the Moyo Nguvu Healing Center at 303-357-2511 or the  Serenity Wellness Center at 303-799-0506 or e-mail  serenityforyou2@aol.com. 

AIDS: The Silent Nightmare
By Emily Mukasa

For the past 15 years, Thomas Campbell, M.D, has searched for better treatment for HIV-infected people.
During the first years of his involvement with HIV patients, the associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Infectious Disease Center found that his patients were not taking the gigantic drugs normally prescribed to AIDS sufferers because they were hard to swallow. Many died sooner than expected for this reason alone.
The technology changed, and the large pills gave way to smaller, easier to digest medicines. “It has made a difference,” said Campbell, who has seen people live longer with HIV and not develop full-blown AIDS. But Campbell warns that while there is medicine to lengthen life after one contracts the disease, AIDS still has no cure. And while more Americans are living longer with HIV, the disease remains a serious problem.
AIDS and HIV have infected 65 million people globally. It has claimed the lives of 200,000 Black Americans alone since it was first diagnosed 25 years ago. Twelve percent of people with HIV in Colorado are African American, which makes them the most at-risk group.
AIDS has killed more Blacks in America and Africa than any other racial group, Campbell said, who advised using proper precautions and not assuming that partners are not infected.
“HIV can stay in a person’s body for 10 years without showing any signs,” Campbell said. “It is, therefore, possible for one to spread it without knowing.”
Edward Janoff, Director of the Colorado Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), said one reason for the continuing spread of the disease among African Americans is that some Black men get involved in gay and heterosexual relationships at the same time.
Campbell said he felt sorry for young people who are contracting HIV and advised them to get educated about the health risks.
“The lifestyle young people lead should not include things that increase their risks of acquiring HIV and other diseases that are a threat to their lives,” he said. “Media spends time talking about the bird flu, which has not killed a single American, and yet they are making AIDS nonexistent.”
Both Janoff and Campbell encouraged all people – those in unstable relationships, gay men and women in heterosexual relationships, drug users sharing needles – to get tested on a regular basis to keep tabs on their HIV status and begin treatment as soon as possible if they are infected.
“In order to contract HIV, one has to first do something that puts them at risk of catching it,” Janoff said.
“For the past 25 years, thousands of people have volunteered their bodies and time in research to better understand how to treat the disease,” Campbell said. “We need more Black people to participate because they have been underrepresented. Much of what we know about HIV came from people who were not Black. It might not help some of the research participants, but will help improve the lives of other people in the future.”
Campbell said that if political leaders, churches, local communities, social clubs and media participate in publicizing the AIDS issue in America, it will become less of a problem disease in much the same way that syphilis and gonorrhea did, once campaigns were held to combat them.
Editor’s note: For more information about HIV, or to participate in its research, call Thomas Campbell at 303- 315-8311 or e-mail thomas.Campbell@uchsc.edu or Edward Janoff at edwardjanoff@uchsc.edu or visit  Www.avert.org, Www.cdc.gov and Www.who.int.