Integrative Medicine Merging Traditional and Alternative Care
Integrative medicine is a medical approach that combines traditional and alternative therapies when addressing and treating a patient’s health. As integrative providers, we combine the most well-researched conventional medicine with our knowledge of many evidence-based complementary therapies. It’s based on the idea that health and well-being are affected by many factors – your current environment, psychosocial factors, physical and mental state, age, genetics and most importantly, each person’s unique desires and goals.
Offering this combination allows our providers the ability to work with you as a unique individual, meet you where you are at in your health and wellness journey, and also often allows patients to have many of their healthcare needs met in one place.
At Perspective Health, this integrative combination looks like utilizing the skill and experience of traditional primary care, taking time to understand patterns, history and “root cause,” guiding you through testing options, and helping you to navigate your individual health situation.
Whether you would simply like to focus on one aspect of care you hope to fine-tune, or you’d rather take a more comprehensive approach, we can utilize a combination of treatment options that range from more traditional approaches or less-mainstream treatments like bio-identical hormone therapy, peptide therapy, detoxification, specialized nutrition plans, lifestyle adjustments, and utilizing special tools or techniques just to name a few.
Everyone deserves to “Be Seen,” and we all have different perspectives on health and wellness; we’d love to partner with you to help you meet those needs.
Functional Medicine vs. Integrative Medicine
“Functional Medicine” is a term often used instead of or interchangeably with “Integrative Medicine”.
Functional Medicine is the practice of finding and addressing the root cause(s) of a patient’s health problem.
Integrative Medicine is the collaborative practice of medicine using a combination of therapies and lifestyle changes to treat and heal the whole person.
Approaching patients in a functional way can change how the body works physiologically, by using tools that are safe/minimum side effects and by focusing on addressing triggers and promoting health rather than treating symptoms alone (often with pharmaceuticals). The main sources of treatment in a “functional medicine” plan typically focus on supplements, nutrition, stress management, self-care, and proper sleep. Integrative medicine includes the functional medicine model and “integrates” it with additional, traditional, and nontraditional, healthcare practices to make each person’s care collaborative and comprehensive.