Benjamin Kligler, MD, MPH, is a family medicine doctor at The Center for Health and Healing in lower Manhattan. He uses the integrative medicine method of treating patients. In this article, Dr. Kligler remembers how he became interested in this form of medicine and talks about his practice.

Q: How did you become interested in integrative medicine?

A: My interest began when I was in college. I majored in botany because I liked biology and going out in the woods to look at and learn about plants. I took a course in "ethno-botany," which is about how different cultures use plants. That particular course focused a lot on how different cultures use plants for medicine. I got interested in Chinese herbal medicine and did research on it, exposing myself to a whole new world about how different cultures approach healing. I still feel there are a million more things I want to learn about in this area.

Q: What do you do?

A: I am a family practitioner so I see families, kids and adults and treat them according to the attitude of integrative medicine. I do what a ‘regular' doctor does in the sense of trying to prevent disease, give vaccinations and taking care of my patients when they are sick. But I do my work knowing that there are many different ways to treat people. I don't only think about giving my patients antibiotics, I look at them as a whole person and try to help them find the best result based on what is going on in their life in order to keep them healthy.

Q: What is the Center for Health and Healing?

A: The Center for Health and Healing, part of the Beth Israel Medical Center, is an integrative healthcare practice where we have about 22 health providers made up of biomedical doctors and practitioners of other kinds of healing arts. These include family practice doctors, gynecologists, sports medicine physicians, acupuncturists, chiropractors, a nutritionist and a psychologist. We all work together to take the best care of our patients.

At the Center for Health and Healing, we have education programs where we teach health professionals and we also have a research division where we try to understand if and how some of these different healing therapies work for people. I am involved in both the education and research programs.

Read more from Dr. Kligler by clicking the links below:

• Integrative medicine
• Help your doctor understand CAM
• Information that should be shared with your doctor and CAM provider
• The difference between CAM and conventional medicine

To listen to our interview with Dr. Ben Kligler, click here for our podcast page.

Harlem Word is a series of interviews with Harlem health experts, written by HHPC and reviewed by our Health Advisory Board.