Integrative medicine is a blend of the best of Western allopathic medicine and the best of global healing traditions and complementary therapies. That’s what Dr. Mark Menolascino practices at The Meno Clinic Center for Advanced Medicine, which he founded 12 years ago in Jackson.

Board certified in Internal Medicine, Integrative Medicine and Holistic Medicine with a Master’s degree in pharmacology and immunology, Menolascino draws from his “integrative medicine chest” to care for his patients.

“The beauty of being a doctor in this role is that I have the medical tools, the diagnostic skills, the medicines, if I need them, and I’m able to use all in order to fit the need of the patient and the belief system of the patient to do the most benefit,” he said.

His medical center is welcoming and intimate with soft lights, warm woods and Asian tapestries – the opposite of a traditional, sterile-feeling doctor’s office. He asks his patients questions like, “Are you exercising? What do you eat? Do you have a mind-body practice? What’s the stress in your life, and how do you deal with it?”

It’s what he enjoys – seeing people as a unique, holistic person and helping them make good choices to empower them with their health. His passion is so deep that when he arrives home from a long and taxing day, he’s energized.

Becoming a doctor was a choice of a lifetime, but not one he embraced early on. Menolascino met Dr. Dean Ornish, who developed the “Reversing Heart Disease Program” and helped 100 people avoid cardiac bypass surgery by using functional medicine that led to better outcomes than patients that had the surgery. This interest in science led him to medicine and his physician father and three physician siblings, who helped guide him and build the foundation.

When you talk with “Dr. Mark” you feel his enthusiasm and trust it as he shares his passion for health and YOUR health that it’s apparent it comes from both knowledge and experience.

Some of Menolascino’s early influences were the medical pioneers he learned from, such as Drs. George Solomon, Dean Ornish, and Andrew Weil, but he credits his father for giving him the gift for the art of medicine. “They can’t teach you the art of medicine in medical school. I think you either have it or you don’t  – that passion, that empathy and that compassion. It’s not just about prescribing a medicine,” he said. “It’s about allowing people to feel that you care enough to encourage them to care about themselves too.”

He said this year has been wrought with challenges for many of his patients, but he’s seen people make a shift and empower themselves. “When they look back on this year, they will say it was the hardest time in their life, ‘but look at what I did for my life.’”