Center Director Paul J. Mills, PhD, recently served as a guest editor for Global Advances in Health and Medicine (GAHM), overseeing a special collection of articles on the topic of whole health. GAHM serves as the official journal of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Health and Medicine. In his opening commentary, Paul emphasizes that the whole health approach goes beyond disease prevention, focusing on the overall creation of health and well-being for individuals, akin to a salutogenic model.

The collection delves into the concept of the "whole person," who lies at the core of the whole health model, exploring consciousness and the transcendent nature of human beings as fundamental aspects.

Notable contributions in the special collection include a commentary by Helene Langevin, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, as well as commentaries by Tracy Gaudet, MD, founding director of the Veterans Health Administration's- National Office of Patient-Centered Care and Cultural Transformation and founding director of the Whole Health Institute; Benjamin Kligler, MD, director of the Veterans Affairs Office of Patient-Centered Care & Cultural Transformation; and Len Wisneski, MD, former chair of the Integrative Health Policy Consortium. Additionally, Deepak Chopra, MD, offers a special article titled "What Is Wholeness? The Consciousness View," where he asserts that adopting a holistic perspective of consciousness provides solutions to the current top 10 questions posed by science. Dr. Chopra underscores the significance of considering consciousness itself as a fundamental aspect when contemplating wholeness in relation to the entire person and whole health.

Other relevant articles within the collection explore topics such as psychedelic psychotherapy and healing, the role of legislative advocacy, traditional Chinese medicine, naturopathic medicine, COVID-19, and findings on whole health intervention programs from various locations throughout the United States. The special collection articles can be accessed free of charge by the public.

Paul J. Mills, PhD                                                                                    
Director
Professor of Family Medicine & Public Health and Psychiatry
pmills@ucsd.edu
858-822-1828

Kathleen Wilson, MS                                                                              
Clinical Research Coordinator
K8wilson@ucsd.edu
858-534-3487

Chris Pruitt, BS                                                                                         
Manager, IH-MMB Biomarker Laboratory
cpruitt@ucsd.edu
858-534-3365

Christine Tara Peterson, PhD, AHP, RYT 
Assistant Project Scientist                                        
chpeterson@health.ucsd.edu
858-822-2038

The center is currently supporting a number of research projects relevant to integrative health and medicine.

• A collaboration with University of California Berkeley epidemiologist professor Brenda Eskenazi, PhD, examining the 18-year longitudinal effects of glyphosate on children’s health
• A collaboration with Tom Liu, PhD, at the UC San Diego Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center on a heart-centered meditation project to determine the brain and autonomic nervous system effects of this form of meditation
• The center is working with a company to incorporate artificial intelligence into software to better customize daily wellness activity
• The center is working with a company to modify environmental sensors to validly and reliably visualize the human biofield
• Heart Exercise And Resistance Training – Peer Lead Activity (HEART-PLAY) is a National Institutes of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute supported study to examine the effects of peer leadership to improve adherence to cardiac rehabilitation in the clinic setting
• Herbicide Awareness and Research Project (HARP), including quality of life and symptom improvement of multiple sclerosis patients by guided imagery meditation
• The center is working with a company to identify novel products to metabolize and aid in the excretion of glyphosate from the body
• There are several Light-Induced Guided Healing Therapy (LIGHT) projects
• The role of osteopathic manipulation in the management of post-traumatic migraine
• Gratitude journaling in heart failure patients
• Effects of high-fat high-calorie meals on the leaky gut syndrome
• Tai chi practice for post-myocardial infarction
• Journaling in post-myocardial infarction patients: effects on health related mood and clinical outcomes
• Self-directed biological transformation initiative, an Ayurvedic Medicine study
• Traditional Tibetan medicine for multiple sclerosis
• Transcendental meditation for post traumatic stress disorder
• Alzheimer caregiving coping - mental and physical health
• Mind-body medicine in military personnel with chronic pain, pregnancy or stress
• Effects of a Single Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) on intraocular pressure reduction
• Effects of osteopathic manipulative treatment on gait and neurological function in parkinson’s disease

Research Collaborations

Through these projects, the center is working with the following institutions

• UC San Diego Centers for Integrative Health
• Naval Medical Center San Diego
• Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine
• Pacific College of Oriental Medicine:
• Pearl Integrative Health Center
• Veterans Affairs San Diego Health Care 
• Health Services Research Center
• Osteopathic Center San Diego

Research Committee 

The center receives support from clinicians and researchers committed to advancing integrative health research at UC San Diego and beyond. At UC San Diego, researchers have been independently conducting integrative health investigations across various departments and schools for several decades. The center's primary purpose is to facilitate collaboration among integrative health investigators from different departments, aiming to broaden the scope of research outcomes in areas like epigenetics, fMRI, neuroimmune, microbiome and electrophysiology. The center's research committee includes the following individuals from UC San Diego and surrounding institutions:

• Ryan Bradley, ND, UC San Diego / National College of Natural Medicine
• Dan Vicario, MD, UC San Diego / San Diego Cancer Research Institute
• Eric Groessl, PhD, UC San Diego / Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System
• Rusty Kallenberg, MD, UC San Diego / Center for Integrative Medicine
• Laura Redwine, PhD, UC San Diego / Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System
• Paul J. Mills, PhD, UC San Diego
• Shah Golshan, PhD, UC San Diego / Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System
• Christine Tara Peterson, PhD, AHP, RYT, UC San Diego 
• Shamini Jain, PhD, UC San Diego
• Samm Hurst, PhD, UC San Diego
• Thomas Rutledge, PhD, UC San Diego / Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System
• Jeffrey Millegan, MD, MPH, Naval San Diego Medical Center
• Beatrice Golumb, MD, UC San Diego
• Stacy Gomes, PhD, Pacific College of Oriental Medicine
• Jill Borman, PhD, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System
• Pam Taub, MD, UC San Diego
• Hollis King, DO, UC San Diego
• Lori Montross, PhD, UC San Diego / Moores Cancer Center
• Thomas Liu, PhD, UC San Diego / Center for Functional MRI

The UC San Diego Integrative Health and Mind-Body Biomarker Laboratory (IH-MMB) is an integral part of the center, offering biomarker assay consultation, assay performance, data processing, and interpretation services to academic and industry investigators. The lab provides these services for various biospecimen types obtained from research involving human participants. Specifically, the IH-MMB plays a crucial role in facilitating biomarker investigations related to integrative health and mind-body medicine, behavioral medicine, and brain-body connections, as well as traditional biomedical research. The laboratory's primary mission is to foster collaborative efforts in biomedical and clinical research. Located on UC San Diego’s La Jolla and Hillcrest campuses, the center envisions expanding laboratory support in the areas of fMRI, microbiome, electrophysiology and epigenetics through collaborations with research committee members who possess expertise in these domains.

• National Institutes of Health
• American Academy of Osteopathy
• Department of Defense
• Greater Good Science Center
• Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion
• Krupp Endowed Fund (UC San Diego)
• Osteopathic Center of San Diego
• The Chopra Foundation
• The Caroline Young Foundation
• The Earthing Institute
• The Hecht Memorial Foundation
• The Samueli Institute
• The Solomon Dutka Fund in the New York Community Trust
• The Westreich Foundation
• UC San Diego Academic Senate

• Herbicide May Increase Risk of Liver Cancer, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease
• Childhood exposure to common herbicide may increase the risk of disease in young adulthood
• UCSD study finds link between Roundup and liver disease, Fox 5 San Diego
• New Study Links Roundup Weed Killer to Liver Damage, UPI NEWS
• Roundup Now Linked to Liver Disease, American Legal News
• Glyphosate Residues Higher in People with Chronic Liver Disease, Biosafety Information Centre
• Study: Roundup Linked to Human Liver Damage, WebMD

Mailing Address:
Center of Excellence in Research and Training in Integrative Health
University of California San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
MC 0725
La Jolla, CA 92093-0725

Physical Location:
UC San Diego School of Medicine, Building 4