Integrative MEDICINE: Integrative TO WHAT?

I'm often asked, "What is the difference between an Integrative (some circles use Holistic) VS the Conventional Practitioner. Well, OK, fair question. Here are essentially, the major differences.

1. Both disciplines are practiced by doctors with the same level of education. An Alternative Practitioner, more often than not, start out their professional careers as "Conventional" doctors and revert to the Alternative mode only after becoming disillusioned and frustrated in their desire to do more than just manage a patient's chronic illness. At that point, the paths of the conventional and alternative doctors diverge. The one continues to manage disease with drugs, while the other seeks to actually find the root cause of the disorders.

2. Healing strategies employed by the "conventional," or llopathic Practitioner are often highly invasive sorties against nature involving drugs that do nothing to heal and only serve to keep the symptoms of a disorder at bay.

3.Rather than attempting to actually cure a disease, they manage it with drugs that often demand a patient's dependence for life. And when a patient suffers from the side affects inflicted by these drugs, the doctor then prescribes another drug or two to counter them.

4. Over time, such treatment protocols lead to a slow and steady deterioration of patient health, countered again with yet another drug until the patient is encumbered with a virtual cornucopea of drugs. It's not unusual for a patient to be using a dozen prescription drugs on a routine basis.

5. Allopathic physicians are excellent at treating injuries, infections, and acute illnesses that require swift and decisive intervention. They're less good at treating chronic illnesses and this is where the "Integrative Practitioner" shines.

6. An integrative Practitioner faced with a patient complaining of insomnia, for example, might, in lieu of prescribing a sleeping pill, look at cortisol, emotional or constipation issues as a possible sleep disruptor and suggest an herb to counter that and bring about deep relaxation. Or may offer an amino acid to encourage the brain to make more of the sleep regulating hormone, melatonin.

7. While the conventional doctor will routinely prescribe a drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, expecting the patient to remain on the drug for life, the integrative physician may help the patient wean off any initially necessary drugs as quickly as possible.

8. Diet, including whole food supplements & exercise become important components of an integrative Practitioners protocol for treating diabetes and many other chronic illnesses.

9. An integrative Practitioner will never, or rarely if ever, refer a patient for heart bypass surgery, knowing full well that chelation therapy will very effectively restore normal blood circulation without such a horrendous and dangerous procedure.

10. I am aware of the environmental pesticides, the hormones being fed to food animals,and the countless health adversaries present in our processed foods. An integral part of my approach to healing is finding what caused the illness in the first place, and then removing that cause, allowing the body, the ultimate physician, to heal itself. And that, when all is said and done, is what sets the Alternative Practitioner apart - but knows the importance of working with colleagues including the Allopathic or Conventional doctor.