Live from the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium

By Integrative Practitioner Staff

The Integrative Healthcare Symposium took place February 17-19, 2022, at the Hilton Midtown in New York City.

Integrative Practitioner reported live from the conference sessions and the exhibit hall floor, bringing you exclusive interviews and an insider look at some of the top presentations.

If you couldn’t make it to New York City, you can still read our live coverage right here — consider this your VIP pass to IHSNY22. Enjoy!

Transforming trauma with mind-body medicine

We live in a time where trauma has come to all of us, said James Gordon, MD, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City. Trauma comes to all human beings sooner or later. It is a part of life and not apart from it.

Click here to read the whole article. 

Exploring controversies and pathways forward in COVID-19 long-haul syndrome

Long-haul COVID-19 is the challenge we need to rise to and the challenge of our time. This is a topic that is evolving by the hour, not by the day, said David Brady, ND, DC, CCN, DACBN, IFMCP, FACN at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

Brady, who is an associate professor at University of Bridgeport, and maintains a clinical practice in Fairfield, Conn., led a panel of integrative healthcare experts, including Bruce Patterson, MD, founder and chief executive of IncellDx; Richard Horowitz, MD, medical director of the Hudson Valley Healing Arts Center; Thomas Fabian, PhD, CNTP, educator and medical consultant at Diagnostic Solutions Laboratory; and Gez Medinger, a science journalist and patient advocate.

Click here to read the whole article.  

Treating eye conditions with integrative medicine

Every person should have a care team with multiple practitioners, said Marc Grossman, OD, LAc at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

Grossman, a holistic eye doctor and acupuncturist who maintains Natural Eye Care, a private practice in New Paltz, N.Y., talked about integrated approaches to vision care.

Click here to read the whole article. 

Mast cell activation syndrome interplay between immunity, neuroinflammation

It’s hard not to be obsessed with mast cells, said Tania Dempsey, MD, ABIHM, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

“They’re so important while treating our patients with multi-system symptoms.”

Mast cells are widespread in the human body and have a diverse array of functions according to Dempsey, founder of Armonk Integrative Medicine Center for Personalize Medicine in Purchase, NY. They’re heterogeneous, meaning they function differently depending on their location in the body. Mast cells are found in most tissue and organs, concentrating more densely in areas in close contact with the environment such as the skin, airways and the gastrointestinal (GI) tract to help with early recognition of pathogens.

Click here to read the whole article. 

An integrative approach to breast cancer

Breast cancer is being diagnosed earlier and earlier, said Tara Scott, MD, FACOG, FAAFM, ABOIM, CNMP, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

In this session, Scott, founder of her medical practice, Revitalize, in Fairlawn, Ohio, reviewed hormone physiology as it pertains to cancer; discussed different types of testing to assess estrogen load at the tissue levels; talked about estrogen metabolism and how it relates to cancer; and reviewed evidence about hormone-replacement therapy (HRT).

Click here to read the whole article. 

Accelerating healing and clinical results with IV nutrition therapy

Hippocrates said, “The natural forces within us are the true healers of disease,” quoted Andrew Wong, MD, IFMCP, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

“Through IV nutrient therapy, we can activate a person’s innate active healing mechanisms.”

In his presentation, Wong, co-founder of Capital Integrative Health in Bethesda, MD, described five key reasons to consider IV nutrition therapy. The first, and most obvious reason, was that it provides nutrients, particularly for patients struggling with gut malabsorption. He also explained that nutrition therapy boosts the immune system, improves energy and mood through by triggering ATP production with micronutrients. and improves metabolic health by increasing metabolic flexibility. Finally, Wong said the therapy has been shown to accelerate healing especially with complex patients.

Click here to read the whole article. 

Irritable bowel syndrome through the lens of systems biology

Practitioners should rethink about how they view irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and how they treat patients with the disease, said Robert Rountree, MD, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

Rountree who is the founder of the private healthcare consulting practice, Boulder Wellcare, in Boulder, Colo., defined irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) not as a disease, but constellation of clinical symptoms. He said these symptoms include abdominal pain and discomfort, bloating, and distension and are accompanied by altered bowel habits. These bowel problems can take the form of diarrhea, known as IBS-D, constipation, known as IBS-C or a combination of both, IBS-M. 

Click here to read the whole article. 

Andrew Weil accepts leadership award at IHSNY22

The Integrative Healthcare Symposium (IHS) awarded Andrew Weil, MD, as the recipient of its 2022 Leadership Award, which was presented to him in-person at the New York Hilton Midtown on February 18, 2022, during the IHS annual conference program.

Each year, IHS honors an integrative healthcare professional whose forward-thinking contributions have advanced their field of practice and their community.

The Leadership Award recognizes a pioneer whose contributions have shaped integrative healthcare and paved the way for other practitioners and professionals. This year, Aly Cohen, MD, FACR, a board-certified rheumatologist and integrative medicine specialist, and founder of Integrative Rheumatology Associates, presented that honor to Weil.

Click here to read the whole article. 

Avoiding adverse health effects of contaminates in U.S. drinking water 

Contamination in our drinking water is one of the biggest issues of today that we aren’t paying enough attention to, said Aly Cohen, MD, FACR, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

“How can we not get this right? Water is something that’s so critical to our health and something we will be using for the rest of our lives,” stated Cohen.

Cohen, MD, FACR, founder and medical director of Integrative Rheumatology Associates, began her presentation by explained what endocrine distributing compounds (ECDs) are. She defined ECDs as chemicals that put the endocrine system as risk, negatively affecting development, reproduction, neuronal function, and the immune system. According to Cohen, the dangers posed by ECDs put the fetus, infants, and adolescents at higher risks during their windows of development. Cohen said children are especially vulnerable to ECDs because they are closer to the ground, exhibit more had-to-mouth behavior, an immature metabolism and are still developing.

Click here to read the whole article. 

The evolution of integrative medicine

Integrative medicine has become fully accepted in academic discourse and yet an awful lot of people today have no idea what integrative medicine is, said Andrew Weil, MD, taking the stage at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

Weil, who is the founder and director of The Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, started his keynote by tracing his personal journey on how he came to develop the field of integrative medicine.

It was his interest in plants that led him to concentrate on botany during his time as an undergraduate at Harvard University. He was particularly interested in psychedelic plants and was shocked to find out the people who taught him pharmacology had no idea where these plants came from.

Click here to read the whole article. 

How lessons from elite sport can improve patient outcomes

Although there are some differences there are a lot of similarities and if we can start to learn a little bit from different areas that can be a huge leverage point for outcomes, said Marc Bubbs, ND, MSC, CISSN, CSCS, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

Bubbs, who is the director of nutrition for Canada Basketball and a consultant performance nutritionist for professional and Olympic athletes, kicked off his session asking the audience “what is really limiting human performance?”

Click here to read the whole story.

The science of oral probiotics and prebiotics

All aspects of the body are going to tie back into the skin, said Raja Sivamani, MD, MS, AP, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

In this session, Sivamani, a board-certified dermatologist and Ayurvedic practitioner who practices at the Pacific Skin Institute and Zen Dermatology in Sacramento, California, shared an overview of the gut-skin axis, explained how the gut microbiome shifts in acne and rosacea, and discussed evidence for using probiotics and prebiotics.

“I was taught food has no impact on the skin, he said, “That’s when I decided I was going to go into Ayurvedic medicine.”

Click here to read the whole article. 

Natural treatments for post-COVID-19 mental health issues

Although novel coronavirus (COVID-19) mental health problems have similar mechanisms to post-COVID syndrome, it needs to be treated differently, said Peter Bongiorno, ND, Lac, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.  

According to Bongiorno, co-director of InnerSource Natural Health and Acupuncture, since 2019, rates of anxiety and depression have increased significantly among younger adults, women, and the poor in the United States. In addition, rates of drug use, drug overdoses, and domestic violence all increased.

Click here to read the whole article. 

Benefits of incorporating culinary medicine into clinical settings 

Practitioners know how important nutrition is to health, but the immensity of it is so impressive, said Melinda Ring, MD, FACP, ABOIM, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

Ring, director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern University, defined culinary medicine as a medical practice that combines the science behind nutrition with cooking. She said it can be practiced by a range of healthcare professionals including medical doctors, behavioral healthcare providers, and dieticians.

Culinary medicine is often practiced within teaching kitchens where patients learn about nutrition and meal planning strategies, receive hands-on culinary instruction and group support.

Click here to read the whole article. 

Health coaching strategies in a global pandemic

Any time we are going to talk about any type of health coach subject it’s important to be embodied first, said Meg Jordan, PhD, RN, NBC-HWC, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

Jordan, who is professor and chair of Integrative Health at the California Institute of Integral Studies, led a brief exercise to get audience members moving. “Oh, you look so good. Bring this home to your family and friends. It just lets us know we have so much in our heads,” she said.

Click here to read the whole article. 

The functional medicine approach to chronic and acute COVID-19

Functional medicine is patient-centered, science-based, and about underlying causes, said Joel Evans, MD, at the 2022 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City.

Evans, a board-certified OB/GYN, who is the chief of medical affairs at the Institute for Functional Medicine, talked about the functional medicine approach to chronic and acute novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on Saturday morning.

The functional medicine model, he said, uses a detailed understanding of each patient’s genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors and leverages that data to direct personalized treatment plans that lead to improved patient outcomes.

Click here to read the whole story.