At The Center our approach is to find the cause of illness and correct it rather than just treat the symptoms. We advocate creating wellness utilizing an approach that was pioneered by our founder, Dr. Hugh Riordan. Dr. Riordan believed in caring for the whole person and identifying the underlying causes of a sustained illness to restore healthy functioning. Our "Sherlock" approach seeks to find out why those who come to us have developed a particular illness or illnesses.

During your first appointment, the doctor will listen to you and review your history and symptoms and perform an in-depth evaluation, including a physical examination and a comprehensive panel of laboratory tests. Your life events are carefully reviewed, because our goal is to determine what factors came together to cause your illness. Then, we seek to find and correct the underlying reasons for your illness by evaluating you biochemically, which includes measuring your nutrient levels.

We are specialists in certain alternative approaches. These include, but are not limited to, physician services, laboratory testing, nutritional medicine, detecting and removing excessive amounts of heavy metals from the body, detecting adverse food reactions and hidden parasites, intravenous therapy (IV), injections, therapeutic massage, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, chiropractic treatment, and stress therapy. Our approach is not an alternative to traditional drug therapies; it complements other treatment methods. It can be used in conjunction with prescription medications, which may be eventually reduced or phased out altogether as the biochemistry is balanced. Any changes in medication are made under the supervision of the patient's primary physician.

We think of patients as co-learners because they are involved in a discovery process of getting well along with our doctors, health professionals, and onsite medical laboratory. In addition, our co-learners can take advantage of the extensive information available in our Mabee Library, read our informative Health Hunter Newsletter and watch streaming videos of ground breaking lectures by doctors and other health professionals over the internet. For those who live in the area, there is also the opportunity to eat at our Taste of Health restaurant for healthful, good tasting food.

Founded in 1975, The Center for the Improvement of Human Functioning International is a non-profit medical, research, and educational organization. We are located in Wichita, Kansas on over 90 acres in the heart of the nation. This ensures easy access by plane or car from anywhere in the country. Patients have visited The Center from every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 48 foreign countries.

If I were to list all the reasons that I and The Center should be grateful, it would take more than the space available here. So I will just mention a few, leaving out so many who should be personally recognized.

First, there is profound gratitude for Olive White Garvey, for providing funding to begin and sustain The Center during our early years. Those were years when enormous courage and fortitude were required by anyone who supported the notion that health and disease were linked to nutrient status. Those were years when believing that what we put into our bodies largely determined how sick or well we are was branded as pure quackery by most standard traditional authorities.

My feeling of profound gratitude extends to the hundreds of intelligent, discerning people who choose, individually or through corporations and foundations they influence, to contribute to support The Center's mission and work. They are providing the opportunity for us to seek answers that will lead to a decreased incidence and death rate from cancer and other degenerative diseases.

I have incalculable gratitude for the superb human beings who have been and are dedicated paid and volunteer staff. They are ever-changing and growing as they sustain our mission to help people who seek our approach to better health.

Those wonderful people, usually referred to as patients — whom we call co-learners — deserve enormous gratitude. They have come from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 46 foreign countries. Their awareness and appreciation of the benefits of our comprehensive Sherlock Holmes approach is essential to our capacity to be a world leader for a new emphasis in medicine — an emphasis we believe will become standard practice in the 21st century.

Lastly, let me express my gratitude for the pioneer spirit that still exists here in Wichita, where new, nonstandard approaches can flourish if they are worthwhile.