Functional & Integrative Medicine: Home

WHAT IS INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE?

Integrative medicine illustrates the spectrum of therapies that come together to form the field of integrative medicine. This is a practical tool you can use in communicating with your physician and others on your healthcare team about treatment options for a given health condition, and complementary relationships among them.

This principle of complementarity is at the heart of integrative medicine. An abundance of research shows that integrating multiple forms of medicine in a complementary way can have an additive effect, and can be more effective than relying on any one approach by itself.

The eight forms of medicine on The Integrative Medicine Wheel^sm are described as follows:

• Mind/body Medicine uses the mechanisms of mind-body interaction to promote physical health. Methods include imagery, meditation, biofeedback, relaxation training, autogenic training, breath therapy, hypnosis, hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, and group therapy.
• Energy Medicine works with the energy system of the body or treats it with energies introduced from outside. Methods include acupuncture, homeopathy, hands-on healing, off-body energy field healing (Therapeutic Touch, Reiki), qi gong (chi kung), spiritual healing, magnetic therapies, flower essences, energy meridian-based approaches to psychotherapy, neuro-energetic therapies, and electrical stimulation.
• Manipulative Therapies use physical manipulation to promote healing. Methods include chiropractic, osteopathy, cranio-sacral therapy, massage therapy, bodywork, physical therapy, and hydrotherapy.
• Surgery includes all forms of invasive surgical intervention.
• Pharmaceutical Drugs includes all forms of synthetic drugs, prescription and over-the-counter.
• Herbal Medicine includes Western herbs, Chinese Herbs, Ayurvedic herbs, and aromatherapy.
• Nutritional Medicine includes specific dietary therapies and nutritional supplements.
• Lifestyle & Behavior includes healthful eating habits, work habits, exercise, stress reduction, rest, sleep, social support, intimate relationships, and spiritual involvement.

Image and description taken from William Collinge, Ph.D. and the American Holistic Health Association - https://ahha.org/selfhelp-articles/the-integrative-medicine-wheel/

WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE?

Functional medicine is a systems biology–based approach that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease. Each symptom or differential diagnosis may be one of many contributing to an individual’s illness.

As the graphic illustrates, a diagnosis can be the result of more than one cause. For example, depression can be caused by many different factors, including inflammation. Likewise, a cause such as inflammation may lead to a number of different diagnoses, including depression. The precise manifestation of each cause depends on the individual’s genes, environment, and lifestyle, and only treatments that address the right cause will have lasting benefit beyond symptom suppression.

Image and description taken from: Institute For Functional Medicine. "The Functional Medicine Approach." https://www.ifm.org/functional-medicine/what-is-functional-medicine/