Dr. Abram Hoffer
Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D., is an internationally recognized physician, author, medical researcher and pioneer in the use of vitamins and nutrients to treat disease. Dr. Hoffer has spent the past five decades conducting research related to the practice of orthomolecular medicine, which emphasizes the use of nutrients in optimum doses for the treatment of a wide range of diseases. His medical discoveries have been the topic of more than a dozen books and literally hundreds of research papers.

In 1952 he and his colleagues began developing a more effective treatment for schizophrenia that involved a biochemical hypothesis. They tried two nutrients: vitamin C and vitamin B3. He found that we could halve the two-year recovery rate of patients just by adding these vitamins to the program. This was the first major systematic attempt to use large dosages of vitamins therapeutically. In 1955 he also discovered that niacin lowered cholesterol levels.

Today, in his mid-eighties, Dr. Hoffer continues to practice medicine, prescribing orthomolecular regimens to patients in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. http://www.orthomed.org/jom/jom.html

Dr. Bruce Lipton
Dr. Lipton began his scientific career as a cell biologist. He received his Ph.D. Degree from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville before joining the Department of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine in 1973. Dr. Lipton’s research on muscular dystrophy, studies employing cloned human stem cells, focused upon the molecular mechanisms controlling cell behavior. An experimental tissue transplantation technique developed by Dr. Lipton and colleague Dr. Ed Schultz and published in the journal Science was subsequently employed as a novel form of human genetic engineering.

In 1982, Dr. Lipton began examining the principles of quantum physics and how they might be integrated into his understanding of the cell’s information processing systems. He produced breakthrough studies on the cell membrane, which revealed that this outer layer of the cell was an organic homologue of a computer chip, the cell’s equivalent of a brain. His research at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, between 1987 and 1992, revealed that the environment, operating though the membrane, controlled the behavior and physiology of the cell, turning genes on and off. His discoveries, which ran counter to the established scientific view that life is controlled by the genes, presaged one of today’s most important fields of study, the science of epigenetics. Two major scientific publications derived from these studies defined the molecular pathways connecting the mind and body. Many subsequent papers by other researchers have since validated his concepts and ideas.

http://www.brucelipton.com/

Dr. Harry Foster
Dr. Harry Foster has been a faculty member in the Department of Geography, University of Victoria, since 1967. A tenured professor, he has authored or edited some 235 publications, the majority of which focus on reducing disaster losses or identifying the causes of chronic disease. More recently he has begun to write on longevity. His numerous books include Disaster Planning: The Preservation of Life and Property, Springer Verlag: New York; Health, Disease and the Environment, Belhaven Press: London, and Reducing Cancer Mortality: A Geographical Perspective, Western Geographical Press: Victoria.

http://hdfoster.com/

Steven Carter
Following undergraduate studies in Music and Literature, and graduate work in Comparative Literature, Carter taught at Simon Fraser University and Douglas College in British Columbia, Canada. Cutbacks in the humanities led to the reduction of his department in the early 1980s, so he found myself working in the printing and publishing field. As Managing Editor of Alive Magazine and Books from 1984 to 1987, he expanded the circulation of the magazine to 150,000, and edited and published several books, including Fats that Heal; Fats that Kill by Udo Erasmus, PhD.

In July 1987, Dr Abram Hoffer invited him to become the new Executive Director for the Canadian Schizophrenia Foundation (CSF), established in 1968. He immediately moved the head office from Regina, SK, to Vancouver, BC, and began working to revive a rather failing organization. He also serves as the Managing Editor for the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine and organizes the annual international Nutritional Medicine Today conference. In 1992 he moved the Foundation to Toronto. By 1994 several countries around the world had established Orthomolecular medial societies. Along with a few colleagues, he founded the International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine (ISOM) to serve as an umbrella group to unify the various organizations. Today there are 19 societies in 17 countries, and the Nutritional Medicine Today Conference is entering its 35th year.

The name of the CSF was changed to the International Schizophrenia Foundation in January, 2003, to reflect the growing vision and expanding board. What began as a five-year contract for Carter has now become his 19th year with this important and challenging work. The ISF plays a vital role as the only major educational and research foundation dedicated to the improvement of mental and physical health through orthomolecular medicine.

Deborah Koons Garcia
Deborah Koons Garcia fell in love with filmmaking when she first picked up a Bolex at the University of North Carolina and went on to receive a M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her educational series “All About Babies,” narrated by Jane Alexander, won a Cine Golden Eagle and a Gold Medal from the John Muir Medical Film Festival. Her feature film “Poco Loco” won awards at the Philadelphia, Rivertown and Central Florida Film Festivals. She was the chief creative consultant for “Grateful Dawg” about the musical friendship between her husband Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. Her most recent film is “The Future of Food,” which chronicles the impact of the biotech revolution on America’s food supply.

Pavel Tsatsouline
Pavel Tsatsouline, Master of Sports, is a former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor, today a subject matter expert to the US Marine Corps and the US Secret Service.

Pavel makes his "low tech/high concept" fitness methods available to civilians through his seminars and books on www.PowerbyPavel.com. He is the author of the Amazon.com #2 bestseller The Naked Warrior: Master the Secrets of the Super-Strong –Using Bodyweight Exercises Only and The Russian Kettlebell Challenge that started the kettlebell revolution in the United States.

Pavel has been interviewed by CNN Headline News, the Fox News Channel, and the Associated Press and featured in media ranging from Pravda to Rolling Stone.

Marilyn Walker, PhD
Marilyn Walker, PhD, is a medical anthropologist and ethnobotanist whose research in food systems, traditional medicine, shamanism, alternative health and biodiversity has taken her to Siberia, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas and across arctic North America. An Associate Professor at Mount Allison University, she teaches courses in Indigenous Knowledge, Cultural Ecology, Health and Culture, and Development.

She is on the Advisory Board of Omega Biotech, a corporation that produces grapeseed extract nutraceuticals and is developing sustainable and low cost farming methods incorporating organic and biodynamic food production. Her book, "Harvesting The Northern Wild: A Guide to Traditional and Contemporary Forest Plants of the Northwest Territories," was a Canadian Best-Seller.

Dr. Larry George
Dr. Larry George is a Family Medicine physician with High Country Health Care in Dillon, Colorado. He received his medical degree from Mayo Medical School at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and is Board Certified in Family Medicine having completed family practice residency through the University of Utah at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah. He is the proud father of two teenagers, Aaron and Emily, and is married to Dr. Karen Wyatt, who is also a family physician practicing in Summit County, Colorado. Dr. George applies Integral concepts—the treatment of body, mind, and soul, in self, culture, and nature; based on the work of Integral Psychologist/Philosopher, Ken Wilber—to the practice of medicine. His interests outside of medicine include running, skiing, meditation, piano, drawing/painting, and hiking.