Welcome to Adoración Linares' blog. In this article, we'll discuss the principles of integrative medicine. First, we'll explain what this type of medicine entails.
Integrative holistic medicine (IHM) is the art and science of healing that addresses the care of the whole person: body, mind, and spirit. Thus, the practice of holistic medicine integrates conventional and complementary therapies to promote optimal health and to prevent and treat illness by addressing the factors that contribute to its development. Integrative medicine is an individualized, patient-centered model.
Traditionally, the term integrative medicine has been defined as the blending of complementary and alternative medicine methods with conventional or allopathic medicine. However, some integrative medicine centers no longer use this definition, as many leading authors emphasize that good medicine is medicine that works, regardless of whether the source is conventional, complementary, or alternative.
Therefore, there has been a trend to use the term integrative medicine, which encompasses the broader systems that affect health and disease, including family, work, social, and ecological systems.
Integrative medicine is based on safe and effective, evidence-based medications and healing approaches, along with sound lifestyle or preventive medicine principles that have been traditionally used in different places and cultures. When conventional medicine tries to help people with chronic illnesses, it often reaches its limits if the most invasive and expensive drugs or interventions don't produce the desired results, or if patients can't tolerate the side effects. This is where integrative medicine can offer more options that may not have the same level of scientific evidence but are helpful in achieving healthy outcomes.
Generally, integrative medicine options follow a process, starting with improving lifestyle, changing habits that are not good for us, moving on to gentler interventions and finally to more invasive ones as a last resort.
The burgeoning field of integrative medicine brings together collaborative practice and draws new ideas and solutions from a world of healing options, including a broad understanding of comprehensive healing systems such as naturopathic medicine and acupuncture. Integrative medicine encourages collaboration among practitioners who employ health-enhancing approaches in nutrition, diet, targeted supplementation, exercise, stress management, behavior change, health coaching, and yoga therapy. Cutting-edge approaches from functional medicine and personalized lifestyle medicine are also part of holistic healthcare.
However, holistic health seems to heal more than just a diseased system; it also fosters a better relationship between different types of medicine, as epistemological divisions are reconciled between practitioners of complementary medicine and those of conventional education. It is no wonder that holistic medicine continues to attract more patients as a preferred path to recovery from illness and relief from stressful lives.
What about the evidence?
Only 60% of conventional medicine is evidence-based; most relies on accepted protocols and historical practice. Furthermore, not everything natural (such as herbs, botanicals, and potions) is safe or effective. Safety was traditionally established through centuries of historical use, until more recent clinical trials provided increasing evidence for many complementary and alternative healing remedies.
Six Principles of Integrative Medicine
- Integrative medicine is based on a unified whole: mind is restored with body; spirit with matter; and subjective forms of knowledge are recognized and valued alongside objective ones. Integrative health practitioners combine ancient wisdom with modern science, modalities from around the world, and individual responsibility within a culturally supportive framework.
- Integrative medicine requires respectful collaboration among multiple disciplines. Integrative health practitioners restore a time-honored canon of supportive therapeutic relationships and deep levels of collaboration with other professionals. Research by the CIIS Master's Program faculty involves multidisciplinary healing circles that benefit individuals with long-term chronic illnesses.
- Integrative Medicine is patient-centered, and maintains that the patient is fundamental to healing: Shared decision-making and co-created visions of wellness are attributes that help keep the patient at the center of healing.
- Holistic health seeks to restore the dynamic equilibrium of a living system: Dynamic equilibrium is key to the processes of self-organization and self-correction within the body's micro/macrocellular, biochemical, neuroendocrine, musculoskeletal, and hemodynamic systems as they interact with their environment. Holistic health is based on the intrinsic healing capacity of all living organisms and recognizes that this capacity requires interpersonal, social, and ecological cooperation.
- Comprehensive Health aims to achieve the "triple aim" of the Institutes of Medicine: quality improvement, cost containment, and improved health outcomes within healthcare systems. Comprehensive Health is preventive and proactive. Professionals are able to consult reliable sources of information and prioritize the least invasive and least costly approach.
- Integrative health respects health equity and is based on advocating for cultural sensitivity, social justice, and health fairness. Core values include equitable access, empowered decision-making, client-centered care, and affordability. These values are championed by integrative health professionals.
That concludes the principles of integrative medicine. I hope to see you again soon on my blog. Until next time!
