Integrative Medicine Resources

 

Welcome to my Integrative Medicine Resources! This site is meant to be an educational resource tool. It is a gathering of information regarding Integrative Medicine (IM): using Functional Medicine and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), which includes Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) – both Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine – along with Homeopathy, Naturopathy, and Diet/Nutrition/Food Therapy along with our standard system of medical care, allopathy, or biomedicine.  Other integrative therapies such as Massage, Yoga, Tai Chi and Qi Gong are also represented in these pages.  The goal is to help educate patients as to the many options that are available to them to help them take charge of their health – as quoted by Caroline Myss years ago

“You alone can help yourself Heal”!!

Integrative Medicine can be defined in many ways as noted in an article in Acupuncture Today, October, 2011, Vol. 12, Issue 10, Integrative Care – One Clinic at a Time” by Bill Reddy, LAc, Dipl. Ac., to wit:

“John Weeks, who writes and coordinates www.theintegratorblog.com offered the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine’s (CAHCIM) definition:

“Integrative Medicine is the practice of medicine that reaffirms the importance of the relationship between practitioner and patient, focuses on the whole person, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapeutic approaches, healthcare professionals and disciplines to achieve optimal health and healing.”

or

“Dr. Andrew Weil also offers another in-depth definition of IM on his website:

“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.”

or better yet as outlined by Bill Reddy:

“The principles of integrative medicine are:

  • A partnership between patient and practitioner in the healing process.
  • Appropriate use of conventional and alternative methods to facilitate the body’s innate healing response.
  • Consideration of all factors that influence health, wellness and disease, including mind, spirit and community as well as body.
  • A philosophy that neither rejects conventional medicine nor accepts alternative therapies uncritically.
  • Recognition that good medicine should be based in good science, be inquiry driven, and be open to new paradigms.
  • Use of natural, effective, less-invasive interventions whenever possible.
  • Use of the broader concepts of promotion of health and the prevention of illness as well as the treatment of disease.
  • Training of practitioners to be models of health and healing, committed to the process of self-exploration and self-development.””

This last list of IM principles covers all of what I believe to be the best model of healthcare, and what I hope to provide to my patients when they come to me for help, whether it be for a minor pain syndrome or for a chronic illness or condition!