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The Integrative Health Institute is much bigger and more ambitious than CARE.

It has more than 100 associated researchers and scholars. Its community board includes Sarah Chan, wife of Mayor Don Iveson; gardening guru Jim Hole; Edmonton philanthropist Dianne Kipnes and Charlie Weaselhead, the Treaty 7 grand chief. It also has an elite scientific advisory panel that includes Glen Baker, the U of A’s associate vice-president of research, and Glenda MacQueen, the University of Calgary’s vice-dean of medicine.

On Monday, though, the institute’s most distinguished scientific adviser, virologist Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, resigned.

“I originally agreed to serve on the science advisory board thinking there would be a critical evaluation of many of the forms of alternative medicine that are available to the public,” Tyrrell told me via email Monday. “Unfortunately, rather than critical evaluation, the IHI seemed to give credibility to forms of alternative medicine that I did not agree with. I have resigned … as this has not been an institute of critical scientific evaluation.”

Photo by Larry Wong / Edmonton Journal

Tyrrell’s resignation comes in the wake of last week’sspoon-bending embarrassment,and after the institute’s first conference last month, wherekeynote speakersincluded a naturopath who lectured on using alternative therapies to reduce health costs, and a cardiologist-turned-“holistic medicine practitioner” who now runs an upscale wellness resort in La Jolla, Calif.