If you’re looking for a new way to treat your health conditions, depending on what they are, acupuncture may be the way to go. Check out this article for more information about health conditions that have been proven to be treatable by using acupuncture.
Learning how to manage stress, anxiety and all of the worries of life is essential to maintaining well-being. Using breathing exercises is essential to maintaining your health effectively and without potentially toxic medications. Since everyone has stress from their job, their personal commitments and from day to day stressors, finding a way to manage and diffuse it is essential to maintain optimal health. This article WILL help you get back to the “healthy place” that may all too often seem like a distant memory.
So you’ve researched it, mulled it over and are now ready to make some major changes in your life. You’ve decided that integrative medicine is going to be a critical part of making such changes. Now what? If you’re stumped, this article covers everything you need to know to prepare for your first appointment.
The healthcare system in America is continually growing to a system that is not concerned with quality patient care, leaving many patients looking for alternatives to this conventional model of healthcare. This type of medicine focuses on caring for an entire person, body, spirit and minds, not only the organs, bones and flesh, and is increasingly becoming a logical and desirable option for a number of people.
Integrative Medicine: Explained
Integrative medicine is a type of medicine that focuses on the whole person and then uses the appropriate approaches of therapeutic treatment in order to help a patient reach optimal healing ability and health. This type of approach to medicine combines both conventional treatments, as well as other types of therapies that have been selected and deemed safe and effective. The ultimate goal of this approach is to use the best parts of conventional medicine in addition with other types of therapies and healing systems that have been derived from both new and old cultures.
The model of integrative medicine recognizes the important role of the patient-practitioner relationship and the role that it plays in taking care of a patient. It also works to take care of the entire person by considering the interrelated nonphysical and physical factors that will affect a person’s wellness, health and disease, which include the spiritual and psychosocial dimensions of a person’s life.
What Falls Under Integrative Medicine?
There are hundreds of integrative treatment types that can be used with conventional treatments, with the key being to make the most of treatments to help a patient achieve superior health. Some of the most common types of integrative medicine techniques are highlighted here.
Acupuncture
This is when stainless steel, thin needles are inserted into your skin at specific locations in order to manipulate the energy flow into your body. Acupuncture is a proven method of treatment for nausea, pain, vomiting and a number of other conditions such as osteoarthritis, menstrual cramps and asthma.
Biofield Therapies
This is a type of technique that is used to tap into a person’s healing energy and manipulate it in a manner to encourage and increase healing. The most common type of Biofield therapies that are used includes healing touch, polarity therapy, qigong and reiki.
Guided Imagery
This is a type of visualization technique that teaches patients to focus on various mental pictures that are positive in nature. Guided imagery is a technique that is based on the belief that a person’s mind is able to affect the functions of the body. This technique can be used to help increase relaxation, reduce the stress that a patient feels and help to effect positive body changes.
Why You Should Consider Integrative Medicine
There are a number of reasons that people make the decision to seek integrative medicine. There are many studies that show that it is more in line with people’s beliefs, philosophies and values about life and health than the conventional approach. Others prefer the personalized care that is offered with integrative medicine practices. The fact is that most people that try the techniques integrative medicine become proponents for the methods and seek the services for other issues in their lives.
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In the United States, integrative medicine services have gained popularity and there are currently more than 70 percent of Americans that are actively using the treatment method in some form. The research that is linked to these alternative medical treatments have suggested that how you feel, how you think and how you live can all affect your overall health and wellness. For example, stress is linked to fibromyalgia, asthma and infections, while diets that are high in fat can lead to problems such as cancer and coronary disease. Integrative medicine may also help you if you suffer from any type of chronic illness and have the desire to reduce the frequency or severity of the disease episodes, or simply achieve a better quality of life.
Traditional medicine practices are able to diminish the consequences that result from unhealthy lifestyles, but integrative medicine can actually reverse these consequences and reduce symptoms while preventing illnesses all together, which can lead to the following benefits:
Integrated medicine is a type of health care that works to foster a relationship of cooperation with all of the factors that are involved, which can lead to superior health and wellness in all areas of your being, including emotional, physical, social, mental and spiritual. This type of medicine looks at the entire person, which includes an analysis of environmental, social, physical, spiritual and nutritional values. It also uses all modalities of treatment and diagnosis, which includes surgery and drugs, if there is no alternative treatment that is safe.
The practice of integrated medicine also focuses on the responsibility and education of each patient to achieve optimum levels of health and wellness. There are a number of different types of integrated medicine treatments including nutrition counseling, acupuncture, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, chiropractic, massage therapy, Yoga and Reiki. Some of the most common ailments that integrated medicine treatments are used to treat and manage include:
When one part of a person’s mind or body is not functioning properly, it is believed that it will affect the entire person. With integrated medicine techniques, the treatment that is used will focus on the person as a whole, rather than simply treating the illness or the part of the person’s body that is experiencing the problem.
Keep in mind, in addition to seeking treatment for health concerns, it is also important to implement a healthy lifestyle, which includes eating a nutrition optimized diet, managing stress, exercising and not smoking. Integrated medicine techniques are quickly becoming a mainstream treatment option, and often used as complementary types of care for therapy and preventative measures.
Published by of AXIOM Health Care Marketing.
If you’re suffering from stress or are looking to improve you overall health and wellness, you need to be attending the Miami Internation Integrative Health Symposium and Well-Being Expo this weekend. The Symposium addresses the needs of health care workers such as medical doctors, nurses, researchers, social workers, acupuncturists, health educators, parents, students and those who has interest of quality life. The general public will benefit from the Exposition portion of the workshops. Preventative healing arts and lifestyle demonstrations will occur on an open stage. I’ll be there. Will I see you?
Modern medicine has evolved; but let’s face it, there are still severe limitations. Not every ailment can be cured with a magic pill or surgery. So, what is one to do in these types of situations? The answer: explore mind-body medicine. Not familiar with the terminology? Check out this primer.