How is integrative medicine different from conventional medicine?
Let’s hear from a pioneer in functional medicine.
There’s a lot in a name. Let’s get right down to it.
Integrative/functional medicine is healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit), including all aspects of lifestyle, nutrition and environmental factors. It emphasizes a deep therapeutic relationship and incorporates all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative.
Conventional medicine tends to look at the constellation of symptoms first (the branches and leaves of a tree), which usually results in a disease diagnosis. Often, this diagnosis is associated with pharmaceutical drugs that can be prescribed to treat this constellation of symptoms, and that is the end of the story. According to the Institute of Functional Medicine, this approach neglects the more fundamental aspects of health that reside in the center trunk of the tree or in its roots.
The biggest difference is in the personalization of integrative medicine. Conventional medicine will often neglect the inherent differences among patients as well as the myriad of possible causes that a “disease” can have. But at the end of the day, there is only one kind of medicine we should embrace in this world — medicine that works.
Below is a great video by Mark Hyman, the chairman of the Institute for Functional Medicine, explaining the difference between functional medicine and conventional medicine.
