Harvey Bigelsen M.D.

As a tireless advocate for homeopathy and biological medicine, Harvey Bigelsen M.D. has courted controversy and endured legal persecution, while helping to change the public perception of healthcare. A true pioneer, Bigelsen co-authored the Arizona Homeopathic Medical Practice Act, and was appointed by then Governor Babbitt to establish a board, and while acting as president, to set the standards for holistic medicine. The law gives homeopathy equal legal status with allopathic and osteopathic medicine. For the first time holistic physicians attained true medical freedom within a peer reviewed board. To assure homeopathic physicians are well-trained, Harvey Bigelsen M.D.’s law requires that they must have an active, United States license as a medical doctor or an osteopathic physician.

Though he counseled patients to avoid surgery whenever possible, Harvey Bigelsen M.D. began his medical career as an ophthalmologist. He attended New York State University at Buffalo for his medical schooling. As a young doctor, he served his country in Vietnam, ranked as a commanding officer in charge of mass casualties, and performed hundreds of surgeries as a trauma surgeon. The war was a turning point in his life, igniting his lifelong distrust of authority. In 1971, after being honorably discharged, he began a successful practice in Princeton, New Jersey. The young doctor grew frustrated by his inability to cure his patients—he felt more like a mechanic, fixing problems but never addressing the underlying problems. He began looking for options. In 1976, after extensive exploration into other healing modalities and a life-changing appointment with Dr. John Diamond, a medical doctor who followed homeopathic philosophy, he moved his family to Arizona to work in a holistic clinic. There he began his path as one of the true medical trailblazers in the United States. In 1978, Harvey Bigelsen M.D. was elected as a member of the founding board of trustees of the American Holistic Medical Association, today the oldest holistic medical organization of its kind.

Bigelsen’s groundbreaking efforts drew detractors within the medical establishment and the American Medical Association. Subjected to three years of grand jury investigations, Medicare indicted him on 117 counts of fraud amounting to a total of $3,500. He was eventually convicted in 1994 for a grand total of $145. His own health in ruins, Bigelsen forfeited both his medical and homeopathic licenses and for a time set up a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, where he gained invaluable clinical experience treating patients whose American doctors had failed. Undeterred by the harassment, Harvey Bigelsen M.D. continued to promote his pioneering beliefs in non-traditional healthcare, and continued to consult in Nevada City, California.