Integrative Medicine

Integrative medicine defined at the National Institutes of Health, combines mainstream medical therapies and complimentary and alternative medicine for which there is scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness.

The primary tenets of Integrative medicine are:

• A partnership between the patient and physician in the healing process

• Appropriately use conventional and alternative methods to facilitate the body's innate healing response

• Consideration of all factors that influence health, wellness and disease: including mind, body, spirit and community

• Recognition that effective medicine should be inquiry driven, be open to new paradigms and practiced with a scientific foundation

• Use of natural, effective, and non-invasive interventions whenever possible

• Focus on promoting health, preventing illness as well as the treatment of disease

• Training of practitioners to be models of health and healing, committed to the process of maintaining wellness within themselves and others