Integrative Medicine:  The Best of Both Worlds of Health Care
by Gary Sandman

Throughout the United States, a quiet consumer lead revolution is occurring in Conventional Medicine. It is creating a fundamental shift in health care usage. Alternative medicine, used by over 80% of the world¹s population is now used by about half of the United States adult population according to the latest medical research published by the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. People are enjoying the benefits of alternative medicine and using them with and in some cases, instead of conventional health treatment. A recent survey of cancer patients showed that over half used some form of alternative medicine with their conventional treatment. Doctors are slowly admitting that there is a place for alternative medicine, especially in the treatment of chronic illnesses. This emerging, patient centered health system, combining both conventional and alternative treatments in health and sick care is called Integrative Medicine.

Signs of this collaborative process are showing up coast to coast. In King County, Seattle, Washington, the county government has funded an integrated community health clinic run by naturopathic doctors along with medical doctors and staffed by acupuncturists, nutritionists, chiropractors and massage therapists. In New York City, within the prestigious Columbia Presbyterian Hospital another integrative clinic operates providing alternative services in conjunction with standard medical care. In Washington DC, the first Alternative Medicine Referral Service was founded providing free referrals to the public for medical doctors, acupuncturists, chiropractors, nutritionists, homeopaths and other licensed and credentialed alternative health professionals, who are working together to provide integrative medicine outside the restrictions of an HMO. On capital hill the House Oversight Committee, chaired by congressman Burton is holding a continuous series of hearings with the National Institute of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the Veterans Administration and the FDA, to question the low research dollars allocated to alternative medicine in comparison to the extent that the public is using alternative medicine.

This new integrative medicine is formed by the collaboration of licensed and credentialed alternative and conventional doctors. It is a blending of the most appropriate treatments of conventional and alternative health care, delivered in a patient centered, whole person manner. Imagine going to see your medical doctor and having them spend an hour listening to your health concerns and working with you to discover the causes of your illness. Imagine your yearly medical check up is expanded to include an acupuncture deep pulse diagnosis and preventative treatment for suspected weaknesses in your system that are not yet manifesting themselves. And a spinal alignment and body structure/function evaluation and treatment for those recurring aches and pains that we have all learned to live with. Imagine a personalized nutritional workup designed for your health improvement, based on your inherent biochemical strengths, weaknesses and stress factors. Imagine having a personally engineered stress relief course to help you better cope and react to today¹s constant pressures. Imagine a whole host of classes and workshops to help you understand how to create greater wellness and vitality in your life. Imagine Integrative Medicine using the latest scientific knowledge of how humans learn and how they accept change, to help individuals make healthier choices and overcome that inner compulsion to 'cheat' on their health. Surprisingly all these ingredients and resources exist now. Unfortunately they are not available in one integrated delivery system of health care. Integrative medicine is slowly emerging as medical doctors and licensed and credentialed alternative practitioners learn to work together and attend to the health needs and the sick needs of the patients in a collaborate manner.

This Integrative Medicine approach affects the role of the patient. The old paradigm of going to the doctor only when you are sick is expanding to include proactive, individualized preventative care. The old belief that the doctor had the ³magic bullet cure² for our ills is evolving into the realization that we have responsibility - not blame - for the state of our health. This knowledge empowers us to make changes that can directly affect our health. We are not a victim of our illness. Our health is affected by our DNA genetic make up, the environment and our lifestyle choices. We can make healthier choices when properly informed and motived to make those changes in our lifestyle. We can compensate for inherited weaknesses to prevent an illness from occurring. And we can improve our environment or remove our self from an offending environment to a healthier one. This shift affects the patient practitioner relationship and expands our physician¹s role to coach, educator and healer. We both become involved with a process to help unlock the proper mental, spiritual and physical combination of inner and outer ³healers² to strengthen and support the body- mind- spirit, eliminate toxins and move us from a sick state to one of wellness.

Integrative Medicine not only combines the best of qualified conventional and alternative treatments, it is centered around 'new' relationship between the patient and practitioner. This relationship is the cornerstone of Integrative Medicine. It is that trusting relationship between patient and practitioner that is now being recognized as an essential component of the healing process. Known as listening medicine or compassion, it honors the fundamental need of each of us to deeply connect with another human when we need it most. The Integrative Medical practitioner whether they are a medical doctor, acupuncturist, nutritionist, homeopath, chiropractor, mind body physician, or body worker can provide the human relationship we need as well as appropriate treatments to help us regain our health. Feeling good is more than feeling no pain, yet millions of Americans have come to live with pain as normal. Integrative Medicine challenges that complacency and provides a means for all of us to become engaged in improving our health one step at a time so that we can increase the quality of our life, and the enjoyments life can provide us. Health is more than the absence of illness.

Gary D. Sandman has been involved with alternative medicine practitioners and natural products for over 25 years. He is the President of the Alternative Medicine Referral Service offering free referrals to licensed and credentialed whole person alternative medicine practitioners. His company produces alternative health care educational programs for consumers.