Dr. Gerson attended Brandeis University in Waltham, MA and received his B.A. in Philosophy. He then travelled to Europe and eventually to India where he met one of his early teachers, the highly renown vaidya Dr. V.N. Pandey, the director of the Central Council For Research in Ayurveda and Siddha Medicine. Through this friendship, Dr. Gerson began to earnestly study Ayurveda and eventually continued his studies at the College of Ayurveda in Trivandrum, where he spent almost three years. As his knowledge and insight into Ayurvedic principles developed, Dr. Gerson's interest started to become focused in the area of Panchakarma Chikitsa--the science of detoxification and rejuvenation. He therefore took up residence for some time in Kottakkal, India the home of the famous Panchakarma facility, the Arya Vaidya Sala, directed by the late Dr. P.N. Varier who became Dr. Gerson's second important mentor. Based on his understanding of the importance of Panchakarma and the imminent danger of its attrition and disappearance, Dr. Gerson began to travel throughout India to various centers of Panchakarma, both large and small. He found many nuances and variations shaped by the intuitive wisdom of various vaidyas and their ancestors throughout the ages who lived in different regions of the subcontinent. For two years he personally experienced Panchakarma treatments at these facilities and shared ideas with many doctors, ethnobotanists, and patients. He gradually catalogued in great detail the many pieces of practical knowledge of these purification procedures which had somehow survived thirty or more centuries to appear in our present era. He returned to the United States and attended medical school once again, this time at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in his native New York and continued his education for three additional years with residency positions at several teaching hospitals including New York University Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, and New York Downtown Hospital, completing the requirements for training in the specialty of Internal Medicine. Dr. Gerson founded Ayurvedic Medicine of New York in 1982 and since that time has integrated Ayurveda with conventional allopathic medicine. He does not travel extensively except for trips to India once a year. He prefers to remain as quiet and still as possible and to assists his patients with their understanding of their health conditions. The primary activity in his life is to be available as an Ayurvedic consultant and physician for his patients. He supports the spread of Ayurveda through the research and educational activities of The National Institiute of Ayurvedic Medicine, where he gives regular seminars and workshops on Ayurvedic Medicine and related complementary medicine topics. Currently, Dr. Gerson is preparing his Ph.D. thesis in Panchakarma Chikitsa (Detoxification Therapy) which he will present jointly to the Univerity of Poona and Benaras Hindu University in 1998. He is a member of the teaching and research faculties at the prestigious Institute of Indian Medicine in Poona as well as numerous other academic affiliations including the Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha Medicine, the Indian government's principal Ayurvedic organization. He published Ayurveda: The Ancient Indian Healing Art (Element Books) in 1993 and will publish The Comprehensive Textbook of Ayurvedic Medicinal Plants in late 1997. Selected data from that latter text is available on this website in the section on Ayurvedic Medicinal Plants. |
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