Integrative medicine is the practice of medicine that focuses on whole person and makes use of appropriate therapeutic approaches, healthcare professionals, and disciplines to achieve optimal health and healing.
Integrative medicine is based on a model of health and wellness, opposed to a model of disease.
The integrative medicine model recognizes the critical role the practitioner-patient relationship plays a patient’s overall healthcare experience, and it seeks to care for the whole person by taking into account the many interrelated physical and nonphysical factors that affect health, wellness, disease, including the psychosocial and spiritual dimensions of people’s lives.
The goal of integrative medicine is to help patients achieve optimal health, even in the situations where they simply don’t feel well, but don’t have diagnosis.
The use of complementary medicine to treat conditions such as:
- Side effects of cancer treatment
- Chronic pain syndromes
- Insomnia
- Skin disorders
- Heartburn, ulcers and esophageal reflux
- Irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease
- Weight problems
- High cholesterol
- High blood pressure
- Metabolic syndrome, high blood sugars and type 2 diabetes
- Arthritis
- Allergies
- Asthma
- Sinusitis
The Wheel of Health
The Wheel of Health is made up of three concentric circles that represent the primary elements of optimal health:
Mindfulness – At the heart of health is mindfulness, practice of staying alert to your physical, mental, social, and spiritual states. This non-judgmental awareness enables individuals to recognize symptoms as they emerge, which is when they are most readily treatable.
Self-care – Individuals are encouraged to explore dynamic interplay of ways they can care for themselves and to develop the proactive strategies to improve or maintain their health. Important areas for self-care are relationships, physical environment, nutrition, movement and exercise, the mind-body connection, and personal growth and the spirituality.
Professional care – Recognizing symptoms early is to diagnosing health problems when they are most treatable, and awareness the need for professional care is an integral component of integrative approach to medicine. Professional care includes the pharmaceuticals and supplements, preventive medicine, and the conventional and CAM treatments.