Integrative Medicine Clinic Questions and Answers

InShape Medical practitioners believe in a healing-oriented approach to wellness that considers the whole person. This approach to wellness recognizes that the mind, body, spirit, and community are all factors in optimal health.

Our integrative practitioners believe in the use of conventional, as well as alternative, therapies that are evidence-backed and appropriate for the individual patient. Health promotion and illness prevention therapies are more natural and less invasive whenever possible.

Integrative wellness goes beyond traditional medicine and pharmacology. It looks for the root causes of illness as well as the factors that result in positive health. The practitioner and patient are then partners in not only addressing current negative health issues but also in working toward the goal of optimal health and disease prevention.

Integrative and functional medicine are similar in their approach of looking at the whole person and treating them in a more holistic way, the difference is the manner in which they approach the diagnosis and treatment plan. Both functional medicine and integrative medicine use a comprehensive mind-body approach to medicine and provide treatment plans that are based around more than just the symptoms at hand. In both practices, the focus is patient-centric, supporting the whole person and not just making a diagnosis and providing medication. Integrative medicine uses a combination of alternative and conventional treatment options to treat the patients condition from a medical standpoint, but also to treat the body and mind on a larger scale through the addition of treatments such as acupuncture, meditation and other alternative options. Functional medicine works to dive deep into the patient’s medical history and current health state to get to the root cause of the condition to determine treatment. This is particularly useful in the case of chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases. Both practices look to surgical treatment as a last resort if all other treatment options have been exhausted as they operate under the idea that almost all medical conditions can be treated through a holistic approach to provide relief to the patient using a multi-faceted approach to treatment that incorporates the complete person. Functional medicine also examines a patient’s biochemistry in the deep dive into the root cause of the illness or condition to determine if there is an underlying issue that is at the source of the problem.

Integrative medicine is the idea of using a holistic approach to medicine that incorporates all aspects of a person’s health and well-being, not just looking at their physical health or the symptoms currently being experienced. Integrative medicine covers the patient’s body, mind and spirit, looking at the whole person for building a comprehensive medical plan. This plan can include treatments that are often considered as alternative treatments such as acupuncture, meditation and nutritional supplements as well as typical medical treatments where appropriate. The idea of integrative medicine is that our body functions as more than just a physical entity and that our mind and spirit can impact our physical health in a positive or negative manner. In diagnosing and providing treatment options for medical issues, integrative medicine doctors will look at the connection between the mind and body to treat the condition using a combination of alternative treatments and traditional medicine. Through this approach to treatment, patients will see an overall positive change in their life through the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of their health. Our emotional and spiritual health can have a large impact on our physical health without us realizing that the root issue of our physical symptoms is not a physical issue at all.

Integrative medicine is beneficial as it treats the whole patient from all aspects of their physical, emotional and spiritual health using a combination of conventional and alternative medicines in the treatment plan. The patient and physician develop a close partnership through integrative medicine with the ultimate goal of the physician being to help their patients reach optimal health and healing by focusing on the complete health of the patient and not just the current symptoms. Doctors trained in integrative medicine make medical diagnoses and provide treatment recommendations that are based in scientific research with an emphasis on healthy living to promote health and prevent illness. They consider any and all factors that can influence their patient’s health, wellness and development of disease in their practice. Doctors practicing in integrative medicine need to be board certified by the American Board of Physician Specialties and able to demonstrate that they have mastered integrative medicine, with adherence to the ABPS Medical Code of Ethics.

Interested in Integrative medicine? InShape Medical offers Integrative Medicine in Cary, NC. For more information, call us or book an appointment online. We serve clients from Cary NC, Raleigh NC, Durham NC, Chapel Hill NC, Apex NC, Pittsboro NC, and Garner NC.