About Aging Optimally: Essential Tools for Healing Body, Mind, and Spirit by Dr. Carol L. Monson, DO. MS.
In “Aging Optimally: Essential Tools for Healing Pain of Body, Mind and Spirit,” Dr. Carol L. Monson, DO. MS. examines the art and science of alternative, complementary, and integrative medicine by letting you learn and use the tools of modern and ancient medical systems; you can increase your longevity, health, and wellness with scientific evidence and anecdotal information that helps you decide what tools work for you.
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Author Bio:
Growing up on a farm near Chicago, Illinois, I began my education in a one-room school. At an early age I decided to become a physician. Growing up on a farm had advantages, but obtaining a formal education was not one. Fortunately for me I was a curious child and wanted to know how things worked. Gifted with the ability to adapt to new situations and new information, I made the most of them. Unfortunately, however, I was a female. In a rural community a woman's value lay not in her intellectual ability but rather the certainty of her becoming a wife and mother. Subsequently, in ongoing battles, I had to convince parents, teachers, and counselors that I could become a physician. If it weren't for my strong spirit, stubbornness, and unrelenting desire to get what I wanted I would not have persevered and prevailed after experiencing other careers. While working as a psychotherapist, I stumbled upon osteopathic medicine. Whether by accident, coincidence or divine intervention, I was in the right place at the right time. Personally, I believe this was no coincidence.
Becoming an osteopathic physician brought many opportunities to meet people, help them, and learn from them. As a primary care physician I am able to serve others in many ways. Becoming a clinician, teacher, mentor and friend to patients, students, and colleagues, has made me a better human being. I have had opportunities to travel around the world observing and becoming educated to the diversity and spirituality of other cultures. Life is a journey from birth to death with a lot of good and happy times between them. I am enjoying that journey. Please join me in your own journey of Aging Optimally.
As a professor at Michigan State University, I served as director of the Family Medicine Residency Program, a member of the Consortium of Osteopathic Graduate Medical Education and Training (COGMET) as it became the State-Wide Campus System, and served as President of the Michigan Council of Graduate Medical Education. Later, while coordinating several undergraduate medical courses, I reviewed training grants for the Health Related Services Administration (HRSA). As a Primary Investigator for several MSU Department of Family Medicine (FCM) grants, I coordinated research of faculty, residents, and medical students. Then, as chairperson of the FCM Department for multiple years, I oversaw the clinical practice of all faculty, while maintaining my own medical practice. In our most recent training grant, FCM established a geriatric fellowship, aided our partner hospital to do the same, and added curricular content of treating body, mind, and spirit to undergraduate, residency, and attending physician medical training. My health policy fellowship training led me to the presidencies of the Michigan Association of Osteopathic Family Physicians and the Michigan Osteopathic Association. Election as a Trustee of the American Osteopathic Association followed my awards as a Fellow in the American College of Osteopathic Physicians and the American Association of Family Physicians. Learning and teaching others is a bright spot in my career and helps me to age optimally.