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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Cjrhoads (talk | contribs) at 20:14, 23 June 2022. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Draft of Integrative Medicine

According to the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health, Integrative Medicine and Integrative Health is the branch of medicine that reaffirms the importance of the relationship between practitioner and patient, focuses on the whole person, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapeutic and lifestyle approaches, healthcare professionals and disciplines to achieve optimal health and healing. [1]


Reasons for Initial Suppression of Integrative Medicine

While Integrative Medicine has been around for a long time, it has only been in the last two decades that medical schools in the United States have adopted Integrative Medicine as a valid branch of modern western medicine. There are many proposed reasons for the rise of Integrative Medicine. For some, the increase in specialists and the increasingly reductionistic methodology of modern medicine is causing a backlash, and a yearning to return to the days when family doctors took care of all basic medical needs for everyone without the limitations of insurance companies and health network administration policies, or the need to prescribe pills or recommend surgeries. The typical multi-layer payment structure of insurance-based financing (where the "customer" is not the "payor") introduces inefficiencies and incentives for wasteful uses of prescriptions, surgeries, and technologies. [2] These inefficiencies contributed to the rise of Integrative Medicine because the out-of-control healthcare costs for an increasingly older and unhealthier population paid for by government services such as Medicare, Medicaid, and other National Health Insurance Systems could not sustain the goal of healthcare for everyone when healthcare meant only prescriptions and surgeries. According to Dr. Weil, founder of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, The economic failure of the American health care system has made doctors receptive to Integrative Medicine. When I look around the Western world, I see the same pattern happening. In all the developed countries of the West, health care costs have increased uncontrollably. Populations are getting older, the occurrence of life style related diseases are increasing, and national health care systems are beginning to crumble. Another more accessible method for healthcare needed to be found. [3]. Furthermore, Integrative Medicine was banished to the fringes in the early years because medical understanding of how it worked was non-existent. But that, too, has changed. Because of the pioneering work in the fields of immunology and neuroscience, the medical world has finally developed the type of understanding that explains the mind-body connection that is often so important in Integrative Medicine success stories. According to Dr. Sternberg, former director of Integrative Neural Immune Program and Professor at Washington University, "Even the greatest skeptic must now admit that a wealth of evidence exists to prove in the most stringent scientific terms that the functions of the mind do influence the health of the body, and that sickness in the body can affect our moods and emotions through molecules and nerve pathways." In her book, The Balance Within, Dr. Sternberg outlines the scientific medical discoveries that have, over the years, added to that wealth of evidence. Dr. Sternberg describes why it took so long for this adoption, but also why it was inevitable. Only very recently has this mind-set [rejection of integrative medicine] begun to thaw – with considerable pressure from the popular culture. The overemphasis on a narrow focus, combined with a fascination with technology to the exclusion of the personal touch, has been a toxic mix for the practice of medicine. It has led the public to seek alternative treatments, which in the right circumstances can help, but in the wrong can harm. The plethora of therapies that have sprung up to fill the vacuum, where science and academic medicine have failed the public, have caused confusion for the consumer who must try, without expertise, to make a judgment on the validity of each cure. … Until the last decade we simply did not have the tools capable of demonstrating the physical and molecular underpinnings of both emotions and disease. … But medical science is now at a mosaic of the biological basis and physiological effects of sleep, relaxation, even prayer. [4]


Several organizations have sprung up to provide the public, and the physicians who care for their patients, the type of scientific evidence necessary to know what works and what is just a fantasy (i.e. quackery). One of the most prolific is the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, which is a joint program operated by Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA. According to Matthew Kowalski, the Associate Clinical Director of the Osher Clinical Center, in the year 2000 the center had just 74 faculty, 107 publications, and 17 institutions working on the Integrative Medicine Research Network. In 2019, there were 733 faculty, 1358 publications, and 23 institutions. [5]

One of the therapies with the most scientific evidence is movement-based healthcare practices such as Tai Chi. The number of studies for just this one type of therapy has increased drastically. At the International Medical Tai Chi & Qigong Association annual meeting in 2019, Dr. Byeongsang Oh Associate Professor, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney and Research fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Harvard Medical School presented this graphic which illustrates the change in the number of studies on the topic. [Of Studies for Tai Chi].

Evidence of Efficacy of Integrative Medicine

The scientific evidence for Integrative Medicine and Healthcare is extensive and global.

An excellent overview of the different organizations and publications focusing on Integrative medicine can be found at Nordic Integrative Medicine website page: "Scientific Evidence for Integrative Medicine". [6]. https://www.nordicintegrativemedicine.com/scientific-evidence-for-integrative-medicine/ They list several high-quality academic organizations involved:


Evidence of Efficacy of Integrative Medicine


Growth of Integrative Medicine


History of Integrative Medicine


(I will be returning shortly to post my first attempt at a draft. Watch this page to see the versions)

CJ (talk) 17:24, 23 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]









==== March 2022 Discussion on Integrative Medicine ====

At Talk:Alternative medicine I requested a list of which AM practices used in IM fit under "ONLY those practices for which substantial evidence for efficacy and efficiency has been developed" but haven't received a reply. Will you help me? -- Valjean (talk) 02:08, 14 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Please help me with this information. The AM article needs it. -- Valjean (talk) 15:54, 20 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I am so sorry. I am a university professor, and I posted during Spring Break - and when classes started again, it slipped through the cracks.
Here is the list:
Nutritional support such as: botanicals, vitamins and minerals, and probiotics.
Physical Activities such as: tai chi, yoga, acupuncture, massage therapy, spinal manipulation, art therapy, music therapy, dance, mindfulness-based stress reduction, meditation, breathing exercises and guided imagery, qigong, hypnotherapy, Feldenkrais method, Alexander technique, Pilates, Rolfing Structural Integration, and Trager psychophysical integration.
Acupuncture
Cognitive Practices such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Dialectic Behavior Therapy.
That is based on the NIH (Whats In A Name) and on MantraCare
Another good source is:Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health.
Medical Schools with Integrative Medicine are:
Osher Center For Integrative Medicine
Vanderbilt Medical School
Mayo clinic
And, of course, all the members of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health
Once the page is up, I will be able to post extensive high quality systematic reviews of a variety of integrative medicine and health practices. CJ (talk) 14:41, 29 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! -- Valjean (talk) 17:46, 29 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  1. ^ 2022. "Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health." https://imconsortium.org/about/introduction/
  2. ^ Rhoads C. Telehealth in Rural Hospitals: Lessons Learned from Pennsylvania. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press; 2015.
  3. ^ Weil A. The state of the integrative medicine in the U.S. and Western World. Chinese journal of integrative medicine 2011;17(1):6-10.
  4. ^ Sternberg EM. The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company; 2001.
  5. ^ Osher Center 20th Anniversary Symposium, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, May 17, 2022. https://oshercenter.org/2022/05/31/videos-osher-center-20th-anniversary-symposium/
  6. ^ Scientific Evidence for Integrative Medicine, Nordic Integrative Medicine Center, https://www.nordicintegrativemedicine.com/scientific-evidence-for-integrative-medicine/
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