What does it mean to practice ‘integrative medicine’?

Have you heard the term, “integrative medicine”? Do you know what it means, or what the benefits are to taking an integrative approach to medical care and treatment?

Simply put, integrative medicine is a medical care that puts the patient at the center of treatment. It’s an approach that tries to consider and address the full range of physical, social, emotional, environmental, and even spiritual reasons for illness. In short, integrative medicine tries to recognize that each individual is unique and is facing unique circumstances that may be impacting their health and wellness.

Here are some of the founding principles of integrative medicine:

• The practitioner and patient should be partners in the process
• The best medicine should seek to find natural solutions first, and provide the least invasive and harmful treatment
• Healthcare providers should use ALL available healing sciences – including behavioral, nutrition-based, and other knowledge of wellness best practices – to promote the body’s own healing response when possible
• All factors of health, such as emotional, spiritual, and environmental, should be considered to take a whole-body, or holistic approach

Here, at Proactive Wellness Centers, we believe that promoting the health of the body takes a complete approach to lifestyle, nutrition, addressing physical activity levels and sleep quality, and looking for any allergies or intolerances.

We know that it makes no difference if you treat the symptoms, if you allow ongoing problems like stress, lack of rest, or poor eating habits to cause continued issues overall.

We feel that it’s important to address issues that are often overlooked, such as environmental stressors such as mold, allergies, intolerances. We think it’s important to promote health by providing good information for healthy living, such as how to eat, sleep, and manage wellness through knowledge and self-care.

We know that sometimes it takes management of issues that traditional medicine overlooks, such as inflammation, to improve health. We use therapies that are grounded in science, but seek to break ground to get results, such as use of advanced peptide therapies.

If you’re ready to try a holistic, integrative approach to health please don’t hesitate to reach reach out to us. Visit us online to learn more and feel free to reach out with any questions.