Science Advisory Board

Science Advisory Board

BRIAN BECKER, M.D.
Brian Becker, MD, an honors graduate of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, has worked within the field of Integrative Medicine for more than a decade. With undergraduate study in philosophy and ethics, he received his certification in Myotherapy from The Desert Institute of the Healing Arts, maintaining a private practice and conducting research in bodywork for the past 13 years. After completing medical school and an internship in Family Practice, he was recruited to work within the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, where he currently holds an appointment as clinical lecturer. He is a contributor with acknowledgement in several books authored by Dr. Andrew Weil on the subject of Integrative Medicine, including "Natural Health, Natural Medicine," "Spontaneous Healing," "Eight Weeks to Optimum Health" and "Eating Well for Optimum Health."

At present Dr. Becker heads LORIX Corporation, which was formed in 1997 to promote Integrative Medicine in the professional and private sectors, and serves as a national and international consultant in Integrative Medicine-related product development. He has a general medical practice in partnership with Dr. Andrew Weil in Vail, Ariz., focusing on natural and preventive medicine. Dr. Becker lives with his family in Tucson, Ariz.

TIERAONA LOW DOG, M.D.
Dr. Low Dog's extensive career in studying herbal medicine and its role in modern health care began more than 20 years ago. Prior to medical school, she was a well-respected herbalist and teacher, serving as President of the American Herbalist's Guild. After extensive experience with botanicals she went on to receive her Doctor of Medicine degree from the New Mexico School of Medicine with further training in family medicine. Her many honors of distinction in recognition of her work in herbal medicine include TIME magazine's award as Innovator in Complementary and Alternative Medicine for the year 2001. Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Low Dog to the White House Commission of Complementary and Alternative Medicine to provide legislative and administrative recommendations to the President to ensure that public policy maximizes Americans' benefits of complementary and alternative medicine. As the chair of the United States Pharmacopoeia Dietary Supplements and Botanicals Expert Committee, Dr. Low Dog helps oversee the evaluation of the safety and efficacy of dietary supplements. She currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board member for National Institutes of Health Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research in Aging and Women's Health, and the University of Illinois at Chicago/National Institutes of Health Center for Botanical Dietary Supplement Research in Women's Health. She is faculty through the Department of Medicine at the University of Arizona, where she works with Dr. Andrew Weil's Fellowship Program in Integrative Medicine and Adjunct Clinical Faculty with the University of New Mexico Department of Family and Community Medicine.

Dr.Low Dog has published numerous articles on women's health including integrative approaches to premenstrual syndrome, menopause and breast cancer. Dr. Low Dog has also co-published on the topic of herb usage amongst Hispanic elders, and in 1998, she was a recipient of the Martina de la Cruz Medal for her work with indigenous people and remedies. She is currently in private practice in Corrales, New Mexico.

FREDI KRONENBERG, Ph.D.
Dr.Fredi Kronenberg is Professor of Clinical Physiology, and is Director of the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine at Columbia University at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. She is a physiologist whose expertise is in the area of women's health, with a focus on menopause. Her current research involves alternative treatments for menopausal problems, especially hot flashes; and she has conducted a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual national survey on alternative medicine use by women.

Dr. Kronenberg is also the Director of the NIH-funded Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research in Aging and Women's Health. Dr. Kronenberg's research efforts include the examination of alternative treatments for menopausal problems, including a study of the herbal remedy black cohosh for hot flashes. She is also conducting a study in New York City of the use of herbal medicines used by practitioners of several ethnic traditions for treating women's health problems.

Dr. Kronenberg is director of two courses for physicians, offered annually at Columbia University: "Botanical Medicine in Modern Clinical Practice" and "Integrative Pain Medicine." She is the author of scientific and popular articles, and speaks widely across the country and abroad. In 1997 she was among those who received the "American Health for Women Award: Ten Heroes in Women's Health", being recognized "for bringing alternative medicine into the mainstream." She also received the "A Friend Indeed Award" from the North American Menopause Society; recipients demonstrate "innovation in studies about, or services to women in menopause."

Dr.Kronenberg was a co-founder of the North American Menopause Society. She is on the editorial board of the journal Menopause, Journal of Tropical and Medicinal Plants, and Alternative Therapies in Women's Health, a newsletter for clinicians. She was a founding editor of the Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine: Research on Paradigm, Practice and Policy.

IRIS BELL, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Bell graduated with an AB degree in biology from Harvard University, magna cum laude. She then received her PhD in Neuro- and Biobehavioral Sciences and her MD from Stanford University. After completing her psychiatry residency at the University of California at San Francisco, Dr. Bell served as a faculty member at the University of California at San Francisco and, later, at Harvard Medical School. She is board-certified in psychiatry, with added qualification in geriatric psychiatry. Over the past 30 years, her research interests have spanned cardiovascular biofeedback, nutritional supplements in geriatric mood and memory disorders, neural sensitization mechanisms for environmental illness, and classical homeopathy in fibromyalgia. In the past, she was the director of inpatient geriatric psychiatry and consultation services at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., and the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System in Tucson, Ariz. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, as well as more than a dozen book chapters, and a monograph on environmental chemical sensitivity. She has received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and numerous private foundations. Dr. Bell is currently Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health as well as Director of Research for the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

DR. QINGCAI ZHANG, OMD
Upon graduation from Shanghai Second Medical University in 1962, Dr. Qingcai Zhang worked as a physician in a teaching hospital, The Reijing Hospital of the Shanghai Second Medical University in Shanghai, China, and doing clinical and research work to integrate Chinese and Western medicine. He was an associate professor of medicine at the medical university. In 1980, he was awarded a World Health Organization scholarship, which supported his two-year fellowship in Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1984 he worked as a research fellow at the Wakai Clinic in Nagoya, Japan. A year later, he received a one-year appointment from the University of California at Davis as a visiting professor. Since 1986, Dr. Zhang has been the primary researcher at the Oriental Healing Arts Institute in Long Beach, Calif., where he conducted research on treating AIDS with Chinese medicine, designed herbal formulas for AIDS patients, and published two books on AIDS and Chinese medicine. He started his private practice in 1990, first in Cypress, California, and then moved to New York City in 1992. He is the founder of Zhang's Clinic in New York City and White Plains, New York. Since 1987, he has been focusing on treating chronic viral diseases with modern Chinese herbal medicine, such as viral hepatitis and AIDS, infectious diseases, such as Lyme Disease, and autoimmune diseases, such as inflammatory bowel diseases, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis. Books published: AIDS and Chinese Medicine: Applications of the Oldest Medicine to the Newest Disease, Compound Q - Trichosanthin And Its Clinical Applications and Healing Hepatitis C with Modern Chinese Medicine.

RUSSELL H. GREENFIELD, M.D.
Russell H. Greenfield, MD, is medical director of Carolinas Integrative Health in Charlotte, N.C. Dr. Greenfield is responsible for management of the center's clinicians, therapeutic and educational offerings, and new program development. He received his medical degree from The Chicago Medical School where he was a junior-year Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society inductee. Dr. Greenfield completed his residency training in emergency medicine at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center and subsequently entered into an administrative/teaching fellowship at the same institution. He moved to Charlotte and became involved in the emergency medicine residency program at Carolinas Medical Center, where he was honored as the inaugural recipient of The Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching. Dr. Greenfield was medical director of the emergency department at Presbyterian Hospital Matthews in Matthews, N.C., prior to becoming one of the first four physicians worldwide to be admitted into the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at The University of Arizona College of Medicine under the tutelage of Dr. Andrew Weil. He was a consultant to the Federation of State Medical Boards during development of model guidelines for the use of complementary and alternative therapies in medical practice, and is co-author of "Healthy Child, Whole Child" (HarperCollins 2001)

KATHLEEN JOHNSON, RD
Kathleen Johnson, MS, RD, received degrees in nutrition at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She has been working as a nutritionist for more than 23 years, beginning in public health nutrition and nutrition. She worked 12 years at Canyon Ranch and three years as the nutritionist with Dr. Andrew Weil's Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. She is now a consulting nutritionist. Kathleen has a wonderful ability to get to the heart of nutrition issues and explain them in a simple, straightforward way. She believes that everyone has unique nutritional needs and that a "one size fits all" approach does not work.