Mark Hyman, MD, who crafted and helped introduce the Take Back Your Health Act of 2009 to the U.S. Senate, has devoted his life to helping others discover optimal health and address the root causes of chronic disease through the power of functional medicine. An 11-time #1 New York Times best-selling author, he is a regular medical contributor to several television shows and networks.

His achievements in the healthcare and wellness community include having presented at the Clinton Foundation’s Health Matters, Achieving Wellness in Every Generation conference and the Clinton Global Initiative. He was awarded the Linus Pauling Award and the Nantucket Project Award. 
 
He has consulted with the surgeon general on diabetes prevention and participated in the 2009 White House Forum on Prevention and Wellness. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa nominated Hyman for the President’s Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health.
 
In his Integrative Healthcare Symposium keynote talk, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 20, 8:45 am at the New York Hilton Midtown, Hyman will lead practitioners in identifying the role of the food system in the causes of chronic disease, discuss the economic impact of chronic disease and the food system; and list the ways the food system influences policy, science, health, social justice and environment and climate change.
 
Hyman joins an esteemed community of physicians, integrative practitioners, researchers and thought leaders speaking at and attending the conference, looking to gain the very latest clinical takeaways, hear about emerging research and network with some of the biggest names in integrative health, all while earning continuing education credits. 
 
Other speakers who will share findings and clinical best-practices in nutritional medicine include Mimi Guarneri MD, FACC, ABOIM and Andrea Beaman HHC, AADP, Chef. Several others will explore the interdisciplinary approach of breaking down practice group silos and how they see the human body holistically to enable optimal patient outcomes and how practitioners should move past these perceptual limits and specialties to see patients as individuals, and not cases. 
 
Will Cole, DC, IFMCP and Alessio Fasano, MD will both address inflammation in their respective conference sessions. Cole, named one of the top 50 functional-medicine and integrative doctors in the nation and a health expert for mindbodygreen and goop—will explore the entire inflammation spectrum and the impact it has on anxiety, depression, fatigue, digestive problems, hormone imbalances, diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune conditions and more.  
 
Fasano, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, professor of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and director of the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC), will discuss why a balanced microbiome is essential for good human health and will explain what key factors are necessary and sufficient for the development of chronic inflammatory diseases. 
 
These speakers will join more than 40 others who will share the latest intelligence on subjects ranging from environmental toxicity to brain health, and more, with an audience of over 1,600 multi-disciplinary practitioners. The full conference schedule can be viewed at ihsymposium.com/conference-program.