Wellness Briefs

What is Integrative Medicine?

Integrative medicine is healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit), including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative.

The Principles of Integrative Medicine Include Following:
1. Patient and practitioner are partners in the healing process.
2. All factors that influence health, wellness, and disease are taken into consideration, including mind, spirit, and community, as well as the body.
3. Appropriate use of both conventional and alternative methods facilitates the body's innate healing response.
4. Effective interventions that are natural and less invasive should be used whenever possible.
5. Integrative medicine neither rejects conventional medicine nor accepts alternative therapies uncritically.
6. Good medicine is based in good science. It is inquiry-driven and open to new paradigms.
Alongside the concept of treatment, the broader concepts of health promotion and the prevention of illness are paramount.
7. Practitioners of integrative medicine should exemplify its principles and commit themselves to self-exploration and self-development.

Integrative Medicine has become popular; ask the provider about their training. It is taught only in a few medical schools including University of Arizona where Dr. Andrew Weil has established Program in Integrative Medicine where Dr. John Kim trained for two years.