Is Integrative Medicine Finally In Practice And What Can We Expect Out Of It

Article source: https://foreignpolicyi.org/is-integrative-medicine-finally-in-practice-and-what-can-we-expect-out-of-it/

Accessed from the world wide web at 13:00 hrs on 20.02.19.

For the past few decades, the healthcare system seems to be in one place, mostly residing on insurance programs that aren’t well developed and primary care health centers that do have well-educated young people but don’t have a good system to support various treatments. The problem with conventional medicine is that it is too narrow. What does this mean? Well, conventional medicine doesn’t seem to use either a preventive approach or get too familiar with the patient. On the other hand, it lies on certain principles that have been around for decades and uses the same treatments for a specific disease no matter if the factors surrounding it are different.

And the reason why patients aren’t happy with the public healthcare system and are deciding for more alternative or private health centers is exactly because they don’t feel respected enough, and there have been numerous cases where wrong diagnosis or treatments were applied due to the fact that the physicians didn’t focus on factors that affected the patient. Alternative medicine has been around for some time, but at no point was it accepted as a relevant method that can be applied in healthcare centers and be a replacement for conventional medicine and its ways. On the other hand, integrative medicine is seen as a more developed form of alternative method that uses both a holistic approach and the best techniques of conventional medicine to come up with an effective preventive and on-set treatment. But is it yet in practice, and how can it outweigh conventional medicine? Let’s have a look.

Is Integrative Medicine Yet In Practice

Well, a fact is that although it is far away from replacing the methods of conventional medicine, integrative medicine is making its way in our healthcare system and is already showing more than a few advantages that this type of approach can bring. Now, it is becoming a more popular specialty between the primary care physicians as well and in a matter of years, we can expect firm results and proofs that it is the future of our healthcare system. It is better and more effective both for the medical staff, and patients, and focuses more on the person and the environment could have an effect.

How Can it Outweigh Conventional Medicine

First and foremost, integrative medicine has a health and wellness holistic approach. What does this mean? Well, it means that instead of treating the disease once it occurs it focuses on preventing and aims for the overall well-being of potential patients. This is done through education on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle, mind-body medicine and expressing the importance of mental health and its potential (positive and negative) effect on almost any condition. Along with that, the primary care physicians focus more on forming a collaborative bond and relationship with the patient that will be based on mutual understanding and listening. This means that the physician will inspect and ask more about the environment the patient is living in, emotional well-being, and lifestyle habits, instead of solely focusing on organs that are damaged. This holistic approach leads to a more effective treatment due to the fact that all the possible factors are taking into consideration and used as a counterpart to treat the disease.

Summary

The integrative medicine has a huge potential, and as we can see after almost a decade of waiting it finally implemented in practice as well. And though it is a young specialty we should stay positive about it and hope for that it can reach its biggest potentials and start a revolution in the healthcare system that has not been changing for decades!

There are many reasons why patients are not happy with what they are getting from the current healthcare system. The lack of respect and treatment is one of those reasons why they are turning to alternative and private health centers. When we add the fact that there are a large number of documented cases where wrong diagnosis and treatments were applied, we are coming to a clear conclusion why s many people are seeking an alternative.