About The Gerson Institute Of Ayurvedic Medicine
Yesterday...
GIAM is recognized as the largest and most authentic resource of information on Ayurveda in the United States. It was established in 1982 by Scott Gerson, M.D., Ph.D. (Ayurveda) who is the nation's only medical doctor to hold degrees in both Ayurveda and conventional allopathic medicine. Dr. Gerson is widely regarded as this nation's most experienced Ayurvedic physician and researcher and works principally as a physician specializing in diagnostically difficult cases. For the past 21 years, Dr. Gerson’s practice was located in Brewster, NY; for 12 years prior to that it had been in Manhattan. Dr. Gerson's medical practice has combined authentic Ayurveda and state-of-the-art conventional medicine for more than thirty years. The facility was also the location of The Foundation for Holistic Medical Research (FHMR), a registered 501 (c)3 charitable organization dedicated to contributing to the scientific bedrock of alternative medicine through original research of the highest caliber. Dr. Gerson recently published part of his work on the antifungal activities of certain Ayurvedic plants (Gerson, S, Green, LH, Preliminary Evaluation Of Antimicrobial Activity of Extracts of Morinda citrifolia Linn., Abstr. Am. Soc. Microbiol. A-66:13 May 2002). He also submitted another study for publication in 2013: Efficacy Of Selected Essential Oils In Modifying Anxiety Neurosis As Assessed By EEG Analysis. His current research interest is in the metabolomic and epigenetic actions of Ayurvedic herbs and therapies in cancer and chronic disease.
Today…
Today GIAM (The Gerson Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine) is located in the Dunedin, Florida area. The facility comprises medical and administrative offices, a complete Ayurvedic herbal dispensary, and a comprehensive Panchakarma unit outfitted with state-of-the-art panchakarma equipment (selected by Dr. Gerson), an Ayurvedic Spa, and Dr. Scott Gerson’s medical office’s. He also has an office at Jupiter Medical Center in Jupiter, FL.
The Gerson Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine (GIAM) is operating in association and with the blessings and under the auspices of the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH), a part of the Central Government of India. Together with AYUSH Minister Shri Shripad Yesso Naik, Dr. Gerson is working on the cultivation and regeneration of Ayurvedic medicinal plants as well as to promote original Ayurvedic research into treatments for diseases which afflict humanity.
The Gerson Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine goals:
About Scott Gerson, M.D., Ph.D. (Ayu), M.Phil. (Ayu), F.I.I.M.
"There are three types of physicians. Those who are known as physicians simply by virtue of possessing a doctor’s box containing medicines and medical books and by imitating and posing. They are ignorant and are the counterfeit physicians. Those who acquire the title ‘physician’ from their association with those with wealth, fame, and knowledge, though they themselves are not accomplished. They are regarded as feigned physicians. Those accomplished in knowledge, insight and applying therapies who are attendants of life, who bring happiness to patients, and who have infallible success preserving life. These are the genuine physicians." Caraka Samhita, Su. IX/50-53
Dr. Scott Gerson was born in New York City where he was raised and attended elementary and secondary school. At an early age he became interested simultaneously in the subjects pertaining to consciousness, science, and Eastern philosophy. At age fourteen he began exploring hypnosis; at age fifteen he acquired a prototype of one of the first primitive biofeedback instruments and began to make observations on the connection between mind and body. Even today, he continues to employ these two modalities in his medical practice. At age seventeen he became acquainted with the work of the mystic/philosopher George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff and became aware of a strong yearning to find the connection between higher states of consciousness and the science of healing.
Dr. Gerson attended Brandeis University in Waltham, MA and received his B.A. in Philosophy. He then traveled to Europe and eventually to India where he met one of his early teachers, the highly renown vaidya Dr. V.N. Pandey, the director of the Central Council For Research in Ayurveda and Siddha Medicine. Through this friendship, Dr. Gerson began to earnestly study Ayurveda and eventually continued his studies at the College of Ayurveda in Trivandrum, where he spent almost three years. He completed his full Ayurvedic training at the Tilak Ayurved Mahavidyalaya in Pune. As his knowledge and insight into Ayurvedic principles developed, Dr. Gerson's interest started to become focused in the area of Panchakarma Chikitsa--the science of detoxification and rejuvenation. He therefore took up residence for some time in Kottakkal, India the home of the famous Panchakarma facility, the Arya Vaidya Sala, directed by the late Dr. P.N. Varier who became Dr. Gerson¹s second important mentor.
Based on his understanding of the importance of Panchakarma and the imminent danger of its attrition and disappearance, Dr. Gerson began to travel throughout India to various centers of Panchakarma, both large and small. He found many nuances and variations shaped by the intuitive wisdom of various vaidyas and their ancestors throughout the ages who lived in different regions of the subcontinent. For two years he personally experienced Panchakarma treatments at these facilities and shared ideas with many doctors, ethnobotanists, and patients. He gradually cataloged in great detail the many pieces of practical knowledge of these purification procedures which had somehow survived thirty or more centuries to appear in our present era. He was awarded the Master of Philosophy in Ayurveda jointly from the Tilak Ayurved Mahavidlaya and Pune University in 1999 and his Ph.D in the subject of panchakarma from Pune University in 2003. He returned to the United States and attended medical school once again, this time at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in his native New York and continued his education for three additional years with residency positions at several teaching hospitals including New York University Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, and New York Downtown Hospital, completing the requirements for training in the specialty of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Scott Gerson founded his private medical practice in 1982, and since that time has integrated Ayurveda with conventional allopathic medicine. He does not travel extensively except for trips to India once a year. He prefers to remain as quiet and still as possible and to assists his patients with their understanding of their health conditions. The primary activity in his life is to be available as an Ayurvedic consultant and physician for his patients in his office, which now happens to be in Dunedin, Florida. However, he maintains an office in New York City. He supports the spread of Ayurveda worldwide through the research and educational activities of The Foundation for Holistic Medical Research, where in addition to conducting both "bench" and clinical research on a variety of holistic medical approaches, he also gives regular seminars and workshops on Ayurvedic Medicine and related complementary medicine topics.
Currently, Dr. Gerson is the only Westerner to hold both the postgraduate M. Phil. (Ayu) and a Ph.D. degree in Ayurveda--the highest level of Ayurvedic education--and the only physician in the United States to have complete formal training in both conventional and Ayurvedic medicine. His Ph.D. thesis in Panchakarma Chikitsa (Detoxification Therapy) was accepted jointly by the University of Poona and Tilak Ayurved Mahavidyalaya in 2003. He was appointed Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Ayurveda of University of Pune in 2004 where he is active in academic and research activities. Dr. Gerson is a member of the teaching and research faculties at the prestigious Institute of Indian Medicine in Poona as well as numerous other academic affiliations including the Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha Medicine, the Indian government¹s principal Ayurvedic organization. Dr. Gerson holds the position of Clinical Assistant Professor at New York Medical College in the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine. He published Ayurveda: The Ancient Indian Healing Art (Element Books) in 1993, The Ayurvedic Approach To Diet and Weight Loss (Lotus Press) in 2001, 101 Dietary Myths (Ayurveda.MD Press) in 2015 and will publish The Comprehensive Textbook of Ayurvedic Medicinal Plants in late 2019. For many years, Dr. Gerson conducted botanical research in his R&D laboratory located on the campus of SUNY Farmingdale and is on the Board of Directors of The Foundation For Holistic Medical Research. He is proud to be a Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine where he helps develop and teach aspects of Ayurveda and integrative medicine to medical students and faculty. He was Medical Director, Department of Integrative Medicine, Division or Research and Education at Jupiter Medical Center in Jupiter, FL.
Above all else, Dr. Gerson's main activity is the treatment of patients in need of medical care and direction in the widest sense. He sees patients privately in Dunedin, Florida (primarily), Jupiter Medical Center (several times a year), and New York (several times a year) and has done so for the past thirty-one years.
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