Conference Program
This clinically relevant, evidence-based medical conference program is designed to educate, inspire and engage integrative practitioners and those interested in learning more about alternative and complementary approaches to healthcare.
Take a look at the 2018 conference program below.
Schedule at a glance
Day 1
Feb 22 2018
Day 2
Feb 23 2018
Day 3
Feb 24 2018
8:30 am - 8:45 am
Sutton Complex
Environmental Toxins and Neurodegeneration
The incidence of virtually all neurodegenerative diseases has been increasing relentlessly the past half century. While numerous causes, such as obesity and diabetes, have been proposed as the causes, the...
Joseph Pizzorno ND
10:00 am - 10:15 am
Sutton Hall
Is There a “One Best” Diet for Humans? The Experts Speak
As the science of nutrition distances itself from commercial influence in favor of scientific validation there remains a great deal of polarization amongst healthcare professionals with respect to the fundamentals...
John Lewis PhD
Robb Wolf
Dominic D’Agostino PhD
David Perlmutter MD
12:15 pm - 1:45 pm
Sleep Apnea in Health and Wellness
Sleep disorders are epidemic around the world, and in the US alone sleep apnea represents a $200 billion a year burden to the US economy. Every medical professional and health...
Jordan Stern MD
Leading Well from Within: A Neuroscience and Mindfulness-Based Framework for Conscious Leadership
Conscious Leadership involves developing qualities to become more self-aware, present, resilient, authentic, compassionate, courageous, decisive and achievement oriented to lead with greater wisdom and a creative mindset. This results in...
Daniel Friedland MD
IFM Presents: Functional Medicine-Based Group Visits: From Personalized Medicine to Public Health
Group Visits have been shown to improve patient and practitioner satisfaction, key biomarkers, and reduce cost in a shared medical visit format. Dr. Parker will present on how to enhance...
Kara Parker MD
Using Culinary Herbs as Food and Medicine
Most people underestimate the power of food and herbs in supporting the body's healing processes. There is medicine in your kitchen. Culinary herbs have been used for centuries to help...
Andrea Beaman HHC, AADP, Chef
From Breath to Movement to Meaning
Our bodies are like a field resting in the sun. More than the vehicle that carries us through life, our body is a storehouse for our memories; a sensitive radar...
Carol Penn D.O.
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Integrating Functional and Main Stream Treatments in Chronic Endocrine Disorders
For Integrative Medicine practitioners, specifically MDs, facing the challenge of having to choose between integrative tools (supplements, diet, etc.) and medication commonly exists especially when dealing with chronic complex patients...
Heba Elnazer MD
No Bones About It: Combining Nutrigenomics with the Culinary Arts in the Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis
Each year 10 million post-menopausal American women are diagnosed with osteoporosis. Half of all post-menopausal women have an osteoporosis-related bone fracture during their lives. With millions of baby-boomer women going...
Susan Allen-Evenson RDN, CCN
Amanda Archibald, RDN
Florence Nightingale’s Legacy: Advocacy for Public Health and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
History is one of the most important aspects of any profession. Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the philosophical founder of modern nursing, was a mystic, visionary, healer, scientist, practitioner, politician, environmentalist, and...
Deva-Marie Beck PhD, RN
Barbara Dossey PhD, AHN-BC, HWNC-BC
Music Therapy for Stress and Pain Management
This session will introduce participants to the evidence-based practice of music therapy by first explaining some of the mechanisms underlying music therapy e.g., neuromatrix theory of pain, neurologic music therapy,...
Suzanne Hanser EdD, MT-BC
Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Cutting Edge Understanding and New Insights Into Lowering Risk
Breakthrough research is providing us with insights into how to lower our risk for Alzheimer's and dementia. Recently, we could NOT scientifically say we could lower our risk of developing...
Marc Milstein PhD
Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Cardiovascular Health-Confessions of an Integrative Cardiologist
There are tens and thousands of supplements ! It is over a $30 billion industry. This presentation will address ways in which we can navigate the maze of information and...
Dennis Goodman MD, ABIHM
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Exhibit Hall Floor 1 and 2
FOOD: What the Heck Should I Eat?
Why are there so many different views on a healthy diet? Should your diet be plant-based, or vegan, or paleo, or raw, or any other of the dozens of diets...
Mark Hyman MD
9:45 am - 10:45 am
The Future of Wellbeing
There is a new revolution occurring in health today. That revolution is you. In the face of environmental toxins, potential epidemics, superbugs, and the accelerated aging process, the significance of...
Deepak Chopra MD, FACP
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: The power of an Integrative Approach
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) -- which is the administration of 100% oxygen at greater than atmospheric pressure -- is one of the most powerful ways to decreasing inflammation, fight infection,...
Scott Sherr MD
Transforming Healthcare through Innovative Partnerships
The GO TO IT Model for patient-centered care may have the potential to serve as a framework for program implementation within hospitals and health care systems. The whole person and...
Deborah McElligott DNP, ANP-BC, AHN-BC, HWNC-BC, CDE
Dena Alberti MSN, RN-BC
Susan Penque PhD, RN, CNP
Joanne Turnier DNP, RN, ACNS-BC, HN-BC, HWNC-BC, CT
Integrative Therapies for Relapse Prevention in Opioid Treatment
This presentation will focus on Integrative therapies used as adjuncts in early recovery from opioid and other drug addicted clients. With a review of Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome, Loretta Butehorn...
Loretta Butehorn PhD, CCH
BurnOut Syndrome (BOS)
Stress in the healthcare profession has reached epidemic proportions. Physician BurnOut (BOS) is on the rise. Almost 1/2 of doctors experience at least 1 symptom of BurnOut and 1/3 of...
Lorraine Gahles-Kildow PhD
Nancy Gahles DC, CCH, MBSR
Integrating Music Therapy Practices into Wellness Models
The treatment of dis-ease has become increasingly reliant on the everyday practices of patients and families when they are well. As a result, clinics and centers are increasingly seeking to...
Joanne Loewy DA, LCAT, MT-BC
Making the Invisible Visible – Biomarkers in Brain Disorders
Most psychiatric diseases are made clinically without any objective testing. This leads to symptomatic management and untoward side effects, as well as intractability in a significant number of patients. Biomarkers...
Jay Lombard, D.O.
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Chronic Disease and Lymph Flow
“The Role of Lymphstasis in Atherogenesis” appeared in the Annals Of Thoracic Surgery in the March 1981 issue. It examined the significance of lymphatic involvement in arteriosclerosis. Presently, the underlying...
Gerald Lemole MD
Raising our Voices: Leading in Uncertain and Chaotic Times
In this session, Dr. Kreitzer will discuss the dynamics of system change and the importance of whole systems healing at all levels of the organization. She will highlight the opportunity...
Mary Jo Kreitzer PhD
An Integrative & Proactive Approach to Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmune disease is growing at epidemic proportions. Standard interventions are based on symptom control and immune suppression. This presentation will review a proactive integrative, systems biology, approach for the integrative...
David Brady ND, DC, CCN, DACBN
Innovative Solutions in Community Health Nursing for the Aging Population
This advanced level session will describe the rationale behind the SASH (Support And Services at Home, Burlington VT) program, how it is being utilized as a platform to transform the...
Kristi Poehlmann
Amy Moore PhD, APRN
Increasing Spirituality Through Yoga As We Age
This interactive presentation will invite the participant to sample 3 of the 8 branches of yoga, including; Pranayama (breathing), Asanas (gentle poses/movement), and a short Dhyana (meditation). Participants will remain...
Carol Hahn MSN, RN, CPT, RYT, CDP
Science behind Acupuncture and Pain Management
Science equals truth. There is no evidenced-based science documenting the stress hormone and key autonomic nervous system (ANS) changes that occur with commonly applied pain therapy modalities. This course will...
Kelly Armstrong OTR/L, SIPT, MPP
The Future of Medicine: An Integrative Perspective
Medicine is undergoing a major paradigm shift from a reactive, organ based diagnosis and disease management system to an engaged, proactive, molecularly based systems approach. This is being called “4P...
Lawrence Cheng MD, CCFP (EM), MPH
How Healing Works: And What it Means for Healthcare
We now know that most of health – possibly up to 80% – comes from factors outside of what we usually do in the clinic or hospital. The primary determinants...
Wayne Jonas MD
The Ketogenic Diet – The Latest Fad or Therapeutic Tool?
We're in the midst of a growing epidemic of dementia and Alzheimer's in the ageing population. A growing body of research is highlighting these conditions have a strong association with...
Marc Bubbs ND, CISSN, CSCS
8:30 am - 9:45 am
Clinton Suite
Illness and Spirituality: Transpersonal Nurse Coaching Skills
Medical crises generate feelings of anxiety and loss of control. Recognizing that this vulnerability is occurring in their patients, nurses can use meditation and imagery practices that tap patients' deeper...
Mary Beth White MS, RN, APHN-BC, HWNC-BC
Bonney Schaub RN, MS, PMHCNS-BC, NC-BC
Approach to Reversal of Cognitive Decline
The current state of medical therapy for cognitive decline and dementia is focused on single drug therapy. This approach has yielded unsatisfactory outcomes. A Functional Medicine approach utilizes a model...
Mark Menolascino MD, MS, ABIHM, ABAARM, IFMCP
Meditative Mind – Open Heart: Enhancing Healing Capacity for Practitioners
Integrative health practitioners are aware of the fast-growing body of research correlating favorable physiological changes with the cognitive and psychosocial effects of meditation and mind-body practices. The challenge often lies...
Isaac Eliaz MD, MS, L.Ac.
9:45 am - 10:30 am
Cannabidiol (CBD) and Brain Health
Recently, there is much renewed interest in industrial hemp-derived cannabidiol, or CBD for health maintenance and certain medical indications. Seventeen years ago, a Nobel prize winning neuroscientist at the National...
Michael Lewis MD, MPH, MBA, FACPM, FACN
Dietary Needs of the Cognitively Impaired
Cognitive impairment encompasses deficiencies in early development as well as neurological decline that is age-related. Both pathways may be impacted by nutrient deficiencies that suppress neuronal development. While enhancing the...
Laura Rokosz PhD
The Art of Jin Shin Jyutsu® Self-Care for Nurses
Nurse employee stress and burnout costs are estimated at approximately $250 to $300 billion annually. The combination of the pressing need to retain qualified registered nurses in the workforce with...
Catherine Errico, MSN, RN, HWNC-BC
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Sutton Center
Integrative Pain Panel: Four Professions’ Approach to Acute and Chronic Pain
The United States is experiencing an opioid epidemic. A number of government agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health and Human Services (HHS) produced guidelines...
Michael Cronin ND
Michael Kurisu D.O.
Gerard Clum DC
Bill Reddy L.Ac., Dipl.Ac.
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Clinton Suite
Energy Meditations for Professional Self-Care
There is increasing recognition that health professionals experience burn-out, compassion fatigue and vicarious suffering. Practical energy meditations, based in the energy sciences of Chinese medicine and modernized in kiology (the...
Ching-tse Lee PhD
Bonney Schaub RN, MS, PMHCNS-BC, NC-BC
Richard Schaub PhD
Curing Root Decay and Salivary Acidity in an Aging Population
High rates of dental root decay and periodontal disease are a common problem in an aging population. The only solution to date has been Fluoride and Chlorine products. The main...
Lewis Gross DDS
12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
Energy Break!
Conference fatigue and energy depletion are common challenges to learning for conference attendees, especially at mid-morning and after lunch. After sitting and concentrating for hours, muscles tighten, attention declines, patience...
Nicole Vienneau MSN, RN, NC-BC
Aging is Not a Disease: Promoting Optimal Function Throughout Life
It is well known that people are more likely to get sick as they age, and therefore there is an assumption that aging is a disease. There is no data...
Jeffrey Bland PhD
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Leveraging Lifestyle for Brain Health
Neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease are having an ever-increasing impact on society. Despite the recent emergence of novel and effective interventional protocols, by and large attention dedicated to...
David Perlmutter MD