What is Integrative Medicine?
Integrative Medicine is medical care focused on the prevention, early detection and management age and environmental related illnesses.
As we get older, our bodies change and simply don’t function as well as before. Integrative Medicine perceives this loss of function as the degeneration of the body due to various internal and external factors. Internally, our hormones are not produced in the quantity and balance necessary to maintain optimal health. Our digestion becomes less efficient resulting in poor absorption of nutrients. Externally, stress batters our systems increasing the need for certain nutrients. A nutrient-deficient diet will reduce our ability to repair damage, thus causing deterioration of our body systems. Environmental stressors include inadequate sleep, poor diet, lack of exercise, mental and emotional pressures and environmental pollutants.
Integrative Medicine differs from conventional medicine by switching its focus to optimizing function rather than treating disease. Both approaches are similarly evidence-based. As in conventional medicine, Integrative Medicine practitioners will only use treatment programs that have been scientifically proven. Although Integrative Medicine is an emerging field that is not yet embraced by all conventional practitioners, the scientific evidence for natural therapies is clear and published in scientific literature for all to read.
Integrative Medicine physicians do not reject their traditional medical training. On the contrary, medical knowledge serves as the basis of their practice. Through continuing education by the world's leading Integrative medical experts, Integrative Medicine practitioners build upon their existing knowledge of biochemistry, physiology and endocrinology. In doing so, they gain a deeper understanding of how the body is supposed to function and the most effective ways of supporting optimal function using a natural approach.