Integrative Medicine: A No-Brainer For Chronic Pain Patients For Whom Standard Medications Have Failed

Today's short post from consumer.healthday.com (see link below) discusses the increasing need for an integrative approach in treating chronic pain patients (among others). The problem with diseases such as neuropathy, where there is no cure and a limited list of decades-old medications that have only limited effectiveness, is that doctors end up stuck in their ways and send people home with repeat prescriptions and instructions to learn to live with it. This is plainly not good enough and chronic pain patients with nerve damage deserve better. Fortunately, medical authorities seem to have woken up to the fact that a combination of treatments, therapies and medications is the only thing that stands a reasonable chance of working. This is called 'integrative medicine'. It's not popular among the medical profession because it demands so much more of their time and resources, both of which are under pressure in the modern world. It means that doctors have to organise several forms of treatment for individual patients and keep careful control of progress, of the lack of it, after that. Nevertheless, as we all know, neuropathy is a dead end disease as far as treatment is concerned, so patients have to begin demanding a more holistic approach to achieve better results in their health care. They'll be more than willing to work with doctors in achieving that but it has to be a two-way process.

Is Integrative Medicine Right for You?
By Len Canter  HealthDay Reporter TUESDAY, May 8, 2018 (HealthDay News)


 En Español

 -- Any approach that differs from conventional -- or Western -- medicine is typically considered complementary and alternative, or CAM.

But these practices have become much more mainstream, leading to growth in the health care approach called integrative medicine, which draws on traditional and non-traditional systems tailored to each individual's needs.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health agency that reports on CAM therapies has even changed its name to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, to better reflect this shift in philosophy. Getting familiar with integrative health will help you decide if it's the approach you want.

Integrative medicine focuses on your well-being and considers all aspects of your health: physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual and environmental. It draws on whatever medical approaches -- traditional or alternative -- will serve you best.

Integrative medicine centers are now part of many leading institutions across the United States, such as the University of Arizona, Duke, Scripps, Vanderbilt and the University of California, San Francisco. Board certification for practitioners from the American Board of Integrative Medicine was introduced in 2014. These advances have made it easier to find integrative doctors and medical centers.

Key Tenets of Integrative Medicine:
 
Creating a partnership between patient and practitioner.
Using conventional and alternative methods as needed, and less-invasive yet effective interventions when possible.
Focusing on prevention and promoting good health as well as treating illnesses.
Training practitioners to be models of health and healing.

Prevention is a hallmark of integrative care because it's easier, less expensive and better for people to avoid an illness rather than have to treat and manage one. Integrative medicine also recognizes that physical illnesses can affect you emotionally and vice versa, so all aspects of your well-being are addressed.

This, too, means a better outcome for you.

More information

To locate integrative health centers around the country, visit the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health.

Last Updated: May 8, 2018

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