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Alternative healing
Demand for holistic medicine brings
By Kristi Peregoy
kperegoy@mscd.edu

A new holistic medicine degree introduced this fall will make Metro the first school in the country to offer a four-year degree in the practice.

Metro’s four-year holistic program, called Integrative Therapeutic Practices, is offered through the Health Professions Department and was created by associate professor of health professions Carol Jensen.

Jensen took it into account when she started offering ITP classes about six years ago.

She was advising 60 to 100 individualized-degree students when she noticed many of them were interested in holistic medicine. This fueled her decision to make ITP into a degree program.

“My students were so interested in the classes and so curious about helping people, they helped drive the program,” Jensen said.

When she met with the board of advisors about the program, they were hesitant due to the alternative nature of holistic medicine. “Nobody knew what to do with it. I thought it might be just a fad,” Jensen said.

“In the past, holistic medicine was viewed as a last ditch effort, but now it is being integrated into medical and scientific practices,” said Kari Radoff, a clinical herbalist and member of the American Herbalists Guild at Apothecary Tinctura in Denver.

Radoff taught a free, public herbalist class at the Saint Francis Center on the Auraria Campus on Sept. 16. She discussed herbal teas, extracts, essential oils and energy boosters, and even had an herb tasting.

Radoff received her training at a botanical medical school in Ithaca, N.Y., and then apprenticed in the field.

“There have always been the grandmothers who make herbal teas and soups, and now holistic medicine is becoming more prevalent. It’s also attracting men as well as women,” said Radoff, who taught her herbalist class to a majority of women.

Metro’s ITP program is far from a fad. “A lot of prestigious medical schools around the country are starting to offer programs like this one, and if they’re doing it then it’s a change for the medical field,” Jensen said.

According to @Metro, students in the program are required to finish holistic courses such as botanical pharmacology, acupuncture and Ayurveda, an Indian practice focused on everyday bodily health and soul cleansing employing holistic methods.

“The classes are high-quality and science-based,” Jensen said. Science-based courses in the ITP program include anatomy, biology, chemistry, organic chemistry and physiology.

Students who major in ITP have many options when choosing a minor.

Jensen said most of them choose nutrition or health care management, but that gerontology, leisure studies, journalism, human services or chemistry are all appropriate minors.

Once the four-year degree is complete, Jensen said students had no problems breaking into the job market.

Graduates can expect to work in health centers such as medical clinics, hospitals or specialty clinics such as Radoff’s. Graduates can also choose to continue their studies in hopes of becoming a medical professional in the field of general practices, acupuncture, biology or chiropractics according to @Metro.

“Nobody can help every patient with just Western medicine or holistic medicine. It has to be a blend of both for the best results,” said Radoff, who will refer her patients to other doctors if herbal medicine is not the right cure for a patient’s ailment.

The first ITP degrees will be handed out to graduates in spring 2008.