ACIM Scientific Advisory Board
The Academy has endeavored to attract health professionals who have demonstrated outstanding dedication in brining the very best treatment to their own clients and who have a deep commitment to sharing what they have learned with others. These practitioners are people of courage and conviction. The Academy is proud that such people have chosen to be leaders on our Scientific Advisory Board.
The Scientific Advisory Board is charged with leading The academy in every phase of education and research including member selection, mentoring of other health professionals, and in all things scientific. The Advisory Board members' geographical and professional diversity ensures that the Board will have the diversity of thought required to lead the Academy to become the leader in advancing integrative medicine internationally. Health and wellness should know no boundaries, whether it be physical or philosophical. Knowledge should not be contained or restrained by physical boundaries, corporate greed, government interference, or ignorance. The Advisory Board members have a demonstrated record of moving the boundaries. Through their leadership, The Academy will bring together people of divergent backgrounds and divergent practices to form a powerful force advocating the best of integrative medicine throughout the world.
W. Lee Cowden, MD, MD(H)
United States
Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, Head of the School of Integrative Medicine, and Academy Professor
W. Lee Cowden, MD, MD(H), is Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board and Professor of the Academy of Comprehensive Integrative Medicine (www.acimconnect.com) since 2008. He is a USA board-certified cardiologist and internist who is internationally known for his knowledge and skill in practicing and teaching integrative medicine. He has co-authored 6 books: 1)An Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to Cancer (1997), 2)Cancer Diagnosis: What To Do Next (2000), 3)Longevity, An Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide (2001), 4)Create A Toxin-Free Body & Home (2014), 5)Foods That Fit a Unique You (2014), 6)BioEnergetic Tools for Wellness…(2014), and has contributed to several other books and publications.
Leigh Erin Connealy, MD
United States
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Academy Professor
Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy attended the University of Texas School of Public Health, and then attended the University of Health Sciences Chicago Medical School. She completed her post-graduate training at the Harbor/UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Connealy began practicing medicine in 1986. In 1992, she founded the Center for New Medicine, in 2009, she founded Cancer Center for Healing and Addiction Center for Healing – located in Irvine, California where she serves as Medical Director and has successfully treated many patients with cancer and other chronic conditions. Her practice is firmly based in the belief that strictly treating the health problems with medications does not find the root cause of the illness.
Francisco Contreras, MD
Mexico
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Academy Professor
Dr. Francisco Contreras serves as director, president and chairman of the Oasis of Hope Hospital. A distinguished oncologist and surgeon, Contreras is renowned for combining conventional and alternative medical treatments with emotional and spiritual support to provide patients with the most positive treatment experience possible. Oasis of Hope was founded by Contreras’ father, Dr. Ernesto Contreras, Sr. in 1963, and since then the hospital has provided integrative cancer treatment for more than 100,000 patients. As director, Contreras continues the practice of his father’s two fundamental principles – do no harm and treat the patient as yourself. Today, Contreras oversees the treatment of 800 cancer patients annually.
Garry Gordon, M, DO, MD(H)
United States
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Academy Professor
Dr. Garry Gordon is President of Gordon Research Institute, is on the Board of Homeopathic MEdical Examiners for Arizona, Co-Founfer of the American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM), Founder/President of the International College of Asvanced Longevity (ICALM), board member of the international Ocidative Medicine Association (IOMA), advisor to the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology (ABCMT).
Dietrich Klinghardt, MD
Germany
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Academy Professor
Dr. Klinghardt studied medicine & psychology in Freiburg, Germany, completing his PhD on the involvement of the autonomic nervous system in autoimmune disorders. Early in his career he became interested in the sequelae of chronic toxicity (especially lead, mercury, environmental pollutants & electromagnetic fields) for the course of illness. While working in India he encountered Eastern concepts of disease etiology & blended them with his Western training. This laid the foundation for his 5-level system of Integrative Medicine. In the US he spent three years as a full-time emergency physician before becoming Medical Director of the Santa Fe Pain Centre. Increasingly aware of the limitations of conventional medicine when dealing with chronic conditions, he trained in Ericksonian hypnotherapy and began to include body-oriented psychotherapeutic & counseling approaches in his work, along with neural therapy, mesotherapy injection techniques & applied psychoneurobiology
Joseph Mercola, DO
United States
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Academy Professor
Board certified in family medicine and has seen over 25K patients using natural therapies. Twenty years ago founded mercola.com which is most visited natural health web site on the planet with over 30 million unique visitors every month. Has written four NY Times bestselling books.
Domingo Perez Leon MD
Spain
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Academy Professor
Domingo Perez Leon received his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the Complutense University of Madrid. He has a Master in laser therapy by the Superior Council of Scientific Research of Madrid CSIC, a Master in biological medicine and anti-aging from the University of Alcalá de Henares and a Master in psychoneuroimmunology from the Natura Foundation. In 2016, he was appointed honorary professor researcher at the University of Alcalá de Henares. As additional training, he also did the following courses & educational seminars/conferences: Course of intensive coronary care Hospital Clinico de Madrid. Occupational medicine course at the Faculty of Medicine of Madrid. Sophrology techniques course at the Faculty of Medicine of Madrid. Hospital quality assurance control course (Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid). Ozone Therapy Seminars Professor Matasi. Seminars of neural therapy Professor Peter Dohs, and Fran-Hoffer. Specialist in colon hydrotherapy. Phytotherapy course (Soria Natural). Orthomolecular medicine course (DR Colastra.). Course in iridology (DR Gironi.). Homotoxicology courses and seminars (Phynter-Heel). Immunotherapy seminars (Labolife). Humoral medicine seminar (Dr. Abele) Germany. Seminar of dark background microscopy (Dr. Maria Blequer.). Iridology course (Salomé Method). Auriculomedicine course. Functional organometry course.
Marjo Valonen, MD
Finland
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Academy Professor
Dr. Valonen received her MD from the University of Turku in Finland. She is an expert in integrative and functional medicine and she primarily treats chronic Lyme patients who are often prior treatment failures or have symptoms that do not resolve. She is the Medical Director of Astris Medical Center in Helsinki, Finland. Her clinic concentrates on chronic Lyme and coinfections and treats patients mainly from all around Europe. She is a founding member of ILADS European Board with an aim to further the diagnostics and treatment of Lyme. She has worked in development of laboratory diagnostics for Lyme and co-infections and she has been a speaker in numerous professional and lay conferences around the world.
Simona Pop, MD, DMD
Austria
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Academy Professor
Dr. Simona Pop is a medical doctor and dentist practicing at the ECC Medical Care in Vienna, Austria. Dr. Pop currently practices as an MD, DMD, Environmental MD, and Orthomolecular MD and treats patients with a variety of illnesses, including heavy metal toxicity, allergies and all kinds of orthomolecular diseases. In addition to Internal Medicine and dentistry, she has also studied Toxicology, Oncology, ENT Medicine, Oral Surgery, Implantology, Oral Pathology and Public Health Management and is also a certified clinical nutritionist.
Gilbert Reynaud, PhD
Canada
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Academy Professor
Gilbert Renaud, PhD has been working as a Consultant in, Recall Healing/Total Biology and in Biological Deprogramming in Vancouver for over 11 years. He has thirty years of experience as a professional in the field of holistic health. Today he meets with clients and he organizes workshops & lectures to help you to understand the benefit of this concept, mainly in Vancouver (Canada), USA and Europe. He got his college degree in Montreal (1974), became Massage Therapist (1981), Naturopath in Quebec (1988) ONQ, got a PhD accreditation in 2007.
Hugh Thomson, DMD
Canada
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Academy Professor
Dr. Hugh Thomson is a holistic, mercury free and mercury safe dentist and he is dedicated to practicing safe and healthy dentistry. His mission is to treat his patients in the most healthy, caring, holistic way possible and to share information about dental wellness with his patients so that they may make educated decisions about their oral health. He also fully understands the important relationship of oral to overall health and realizes that; "You cannot be truly healthy without good oral health!"
Marth Stark, MD
United States
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Academy Professor
Dr Stark is clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a teaching and supervising analyst at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. Over the past 15 years, Dr Stark has adopted a more holistic approach to the mental and physical well-being of her patients. Her particular interests have become the mind-body connection and the body’s capacity to process and integrate the impact of environmental challenge. Additionally, she has particular expertise in the maintenance of an environmentally safe, chemical-free lifestyle. Interview by Karen Burnett and Suzanne Snyder, Dr. Stark’s photography by Mark Karlsberg. Originally published in Alternative Therapies, Vol. 17, No. 5. In addition, Stark is adjunct faculty at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies at Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Medical School), serves on the faculty of the continuing education program in the Department of Psychiatry at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Harvard Medical School), and is adjunct faculty at both the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology and the Smith College School for Social Work.