What is integrative medicine?
Integrative medicine adopts a philosophy of using any legitimate means to improve patients’ health and well-being, regardless of the origin of the treatment. In practice, that means Dr. Eldar uses treatments from both conventional and complementary medicine to create a personalized care plan that combines the most effective elements from each approach.
Practitioners of conventional medicine and those who believe in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), often criticize each other for their rigid views, but practitioners of integrative medicine take a far more pragmatic viewpoint. If a certain therapy is likely to be beneficial for a patient, that’s the driving force behind any decision to use it, not where the therapy came from.
What is conventional medicine?
Conventional or mainstream medicine is, in fact, a more recent development in the field of human health care than most CAM therapies.
For many thousands of years, people used treatments like herbal remedies that were handed down through the generations. With the dawn of scientific enlightenment, the modern system of using evidence from extensive research replaced traditional cures, resulting in the hospitals, medical services, and pharmacological approaches that are in everyday use.
Basing health care on evidence is now the foundation of medicine and is largely responsible for the life-saving advances seen in health over the last few hundred years. People live longer and healthier lives because of the knowledge gained by conventional medicine, and such advances as immunization, organ transplant, anesthesia, and gene therapies are all saving millions of lives every year.
What is CAM?
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is an umbrella term that covers all approaches to health care not considered part of mainstream, conventional medicine. CAM practitioners use naturally derived treatments and avoid synthetic medication, in many cases relying on knowledge passed down through the ages.
Complementary therapies are those that work with conventional medicine; for example, your doctor may recommend a course of chiropractic treatment or acupuncture for lower-back pain. These complementary treatments have evidence that supports their effectiveness, whereas alternative therapies use approaches that as yet haven’t passed any rigorous scientific tests. Homeopathy, for example, is a treatment many patients swear has made a significant difference to their health, but there are no studies to back up the claims made by homeopathic practitioners.
Integrative medicine respects both approaches to health care and views them from a practical point of view. Dr. Eldar has a broad knowledge base that enables him to offer both conventional and complementary therapies for your condition, so you have a choice in whether you want to use one or the other, or a combination.
Find out more about integrative health by calling Celebrity Medical Center today, or book an appointment online.
