Integrative medicine offers new approach to health

Local doctor among first in U.S. to receive board certification in specialty

LAS CRUCES >> Brenda Moore, 52, considers the decision she made to travel from her home in Midland, Texas to visit Dr. Arthur Berkson, MD, the blessing of a lifetime.

Moore said she was referred to Berkson, at the Integrative Medical Center of New Mexico in Las Cruces, by a friend, after taking a variety of prescribed medicines, such as Humira, to treat her rheumatoid arthritis for more than seven years, with no real success.

Berkson, a Las Cruces native and a board-certified family physician, is among the first physicians in the U.S. to receive a second board certification in integrative medicine, a newly recognized specialty that combines mainstream medical therapies with complimentary and alternative medicine.

Types of alternative approaches include using natural products such as herbs, vitamins and probiotics to help treat a condition, and mind and body practices such as yoga, chiropractic, meditation and massage therapy.

Like many people, Moore said she had never been to an integrative medical center before her visit with Berkson.

“He didn’t just work on my illness, he worked on my physical, mental and spiritual well being,” Moore said. “He’s concerned for my entire me; That’s just something that I’ve never had anyone do for me, and I had never experienced that before.”

Read the full story from Las Cruces Sun News.