Integrated Health and Natural Wellness, Mossel Bay

Meaning of Integrative Medicine

'Integrative (or integrated) medicine is the ‘deliberate practice of medicine that selectively incorporates concepts, values and practices of complementary, alternative and orthodox medicine into comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plans.’ It is not just an amalgam of orthodox medicine and complementary /alternative medicine (CAM). Rather, it emphasizes wellness and healing of the entire person as the primary outcome, rather than disease and therapy.  It regards the patient in his or her entirety, not only as a physical body, but with mental and spiritual dimensions as well.  All of these are recognized, and involved in diagnosis and treatment whenever appropriate. 

Furthermore, integrative medicine is concerned with encouraging individual responsibility for one’s own health, and tries to avoid the more authoritarian approach generally adopted in orthodox medicine. 

Finally, it accepts that the sources of good medical practice can arise from either orthodox medicine or CAM, or from both in combination. In short, integrative medicine is a partnership of equals, with the patient and the practitioner involved in the development and implementation of a comprehensive treatment plan, not just the patient’s immediate ailment.

Confusion can arise regarding the term ‘holistic health’.  How does integrative medicine square with ‘holistic health’, a term which is used extensively here in South Africa and elsewhere?  Holistic health is, according to the American Holistic Medical Association, ‘the state of well-being in which an individual’s body, mind, emotions and spirit are in tune with the natural, cosmic and social environment’. Holistic medicine therefore takes into account the physical, mental, spiritual and social factors in the patient’s illness, rather than just the disease which has been diagnosed. In other words, it has as its basic tenet the optimum health of the individual, not simply the absence of illness. Holism, therefore, is a central axiom of integrative medicine.'

Here in my practice I often say W(H)olistic - to emphasize the WHOLE (Body, Mind and Spirit) and including the whole story, the cause... it explains the effect clearly.

'One feature of integrative medicine is that it considers the origins of disease to be multi factorial in nature, possibly embracing genetic, physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual elements. An integrative medicine approach therefore seeks to identify multiple origins of a disease, and, ideally, address them all as necessary.'

As a result, the range of options in the practice of integrative medicine can go beyond standard orthodox therapeutic practice. It can transcend the patient’s spiritual life and social relationships, employ mind-body.  Often times, Spirituality exceeds in power over orthodox psychology.