"Can naturopaths deliver complementary preventive medicine?" Thus ran the headline in a recent editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The beauty of integrative medicine is it is a paradigm of health optimization. It is a paradigm that can ultimately improve the quality of the life experience. If there are people out there who object to this, then I must ask what they have to lose by embracing change.

Bravewell's report, "Integrative Medicine in America: How Integrative Medicine is Being Practiced in the United States," opens a treasure trove of riches for those intrigued by the emerging field.

If you believe that empowering health-focused, integrative approaches and practitioners can make a difference in transforming U.S. health care, the convening of this event was a beautiful thing to behold.

Medical apartheid exists on a number of other levels, first and foremost at the level of the haves and have-nots, and also between conventional and alternative forms of medical treatment.

Green medicine transcends the cookie-cutter model that erroneously believes that most, if not all, persons with the same medical condition should respond to the same treatment.

Green medicine brings together the best of conventional and alternative resources. It's not about eliminating one in favor of the other, but achieving a balanced approach -- unity and diversity.

Green medicine seeks to stretch beyond its environmental connotation to include that which is beyond physical medicine. The emotional, energetic and physical become equally important.

Those of us who believe in preventive health care, integrated health care, functional medicine, and complementary and alternative medicine have special reasons to celebrate the health care reform bill.