Integrative Medicine: a new way of understanding medicine
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What is integrative medicine?
By integrative medicine we understand the synergy between Western medicine and natural medicine. It involves the use of procedures endorsed by scientific rigor from both traditional western medicine that we all know and natural medicine. In our case we use techniques from traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, phytotherapy, homeopathy and medical nutrition, as well as neurosensory stimulation techniques, specifically from psychophonoaudiology or Tomatis technique.. It is a new paradigm or archetype in the evaluation and assessment of the processes that affect health and disease since it supposes the overcoming of this artificial conceptual barrier that separates conventional medicine from natural medicine and we merge it into a unitary concept.
How is the patient's problem addressed?
Integrative medicine unites the best of western medicine, which is its technical preciosity and its great knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the person, a special sensitivity, a sensitivity that consists of considering the person as a holistic being, where his physical world is valued, as well as his psychic world, as his emotional world. Integrative medicine also strives to offer an individualized treatment because we are very clear that several different people in front of the same disease can react in different ways, this is what is called the reactionary mode. Then, uniting the technical preciousness of conventional medicine with the emotional and personal sensitivity of integrative medicine, we are able to offer effective, efficient treatments and, above all, a low rate of side effects.
What type of patients is integrative medicine aimed at?
Integrative medicine is aimed at those patients who appreciate the great value that has to join a deep knowledge of physiology and anatomy, health and disease, a holistic knowledge of the person where they are valued in equal conditions both psychic aspects, as physical, as emotional of the person. It is also aimed at patients who value being treated effectively, efficiently and with a low rate of side effects.. It is also aimed at those patients who value the fact that integrative medicine is in medical hands, which avoids the potentially serious side effects derived from the treatment of these diseases by non-medical naturopaths who, due to obvious lack of training, are unaware of the details of the diseases that can come to treat.
What concrete pathologies have been treated with integrative medicine?
As pioneers in integrative medicine in Spain I can contribute our experience in the treatment of the following processes:Alterations of stability and balance, hearing loss, deafness, ear noises also called tinnitus, hyperacusis, voice alterations, speech, language, hearing and swallowing, repeat infections, allergies, nasal and / or oral breathing problems, chronic serous otitis, problems of child development, psychomotor retardation, school maladjustment, hyperactivity, attention disorders, problems of intelligibility with or without hearing loss, alterations in listening, alterations in mood, anxiety, headaches, migraines, chronic pain , fibromyalgia, alterations of the jaw joint, sleep disorders, insomnia, apneas during sleep, facial paralysis, trigeminal neuralgia, infertility, to stop smoking and also in the prevention and treatment of adverse physical, psychological and emotional derivatives of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
I am one of those who believes that integrative medicine, given its ability to adapt to different complex areas of the human being is one of the medicines called to be medicine of the future.
Can you illustrate us with a concrete example of integrative medicine?
I can explain several. I will tell the example of a girl who had fibromyalgia who became pregnant. So, during the time of pregnancy we promote homeopathic treatments since they are safe, while after pregnancy we use other therapeutic techniques depending on the evolution of your case.
We can also talk about certain cases of instability, anxiety and mood alterations, which through a combined protocol between acupuncture, phytotherapy and homeopathy we achieved very convincing results so that we could avoid much of the side effects derived from the use of antidepressants and anxiolytics.
Another interesting case is the case of chronic pains that benefit very well from acupuncture so that we can avoid the side effects of taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, the classic Ibuprofen and derivatives, for a long time, without for that reason we renounce its timely taking in certain specific cases.
I could talk more but the list could be long and I think that for a sample it is worth a button.