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Students in the Integrative Medicine program practice the Transcendental Meditation technique to enhance their learning abilities and become models of ideal health for their patients.
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by Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, USA, The Review
12 November 2015
A new Maharishi University of Management medical program in integrative medicine offered in partnership with St. Martinus University Faculty of Medicine in Curaçao enrolled its inaugural class this fall, and instruction in this pioneering approach to medicine has now begun.
The students in the four-year program earn an MS in Maharishi AyurVeda and Integrative Medicine from MUM and an MD from St. Martinus.
"This is the first medical program that teaches integrative medicine throughout the four years of medical school," said Robert Schneider, MD, dean of the Maharishi College of Perfect Health. "There's no other program in the world that is as comprehensive and systematic in its approach."
The students spend an hour a day studying Maharishi AyurVeda and other systems of medicine, and correlate this with modern medicine, which they study the rest of the day. Twice a day they practice the Transcendental Meditation technique to enhance their learning abilities and become models of ideal health for their patients.
In addition, the modern medical curriculum at St. Martinus has been organized around the eight major organ systems that Maharishi AyurVeda identifies as the fundamental elements, or prakritis, that create the human body and the whole universe.
MUM professor and associate dean Paul Morehead taught the first course in the MD MS program on the basic principles of Maharishi AyurVeda and integrative health. Dr. Schneider joined the students and faculty in Curaçao to inaugurate, teach, and guide the new program.
In their first year, the students study the normal structure and function of human physiology. In the second, they learn about abnormal function, or pathophysiology. In their third and fourth years, they learn clinical diagnosis and treatment of the eight systems of the body.
Dr. Schneider said the need for this program is urgent because there are many chronic diseases that aren't treatable with modern medicine. Maharishi AyurVeda can have a major impact on treating and preventing chronic and lifestyle-related diseases, which make up most of a doctor's practice.
"People are searching for treatments that are effective and without harmful side effects," Dr. Schneider said. "When patients ask their doctors for advice about natural and preventive approaches, most doctors don't know how to counsel them. We train doctors to use these methods in a scientific framework with best practices of modern medicine."
Dr. Schneider has been working with Keith Wallace, Dr. Morehead, and other MUM faculty since 2008 to develop this new medical school program for a new phase of health care.
Three of the five initial students are graduates of MUM's pre-integrative medicine program.
© Copyright 2015 Maharishi University of Management
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