Why integrative medicine

This article discusses the main reasons of the need for an integration between the supposed only scientific, mainstream medicine and other cheaper, more holistic, more person-centred expertise. Yet conventional doctors too have shown signs of impatience with the rigid doctrines of western medicine as practised in most of the second half of the twentieth century.

A rearguard attempt has been made by MM to maintain absolute authority in the last twenty years, in the form of the Evidence-Based Medicine EBM movement. In this regard, EBM is supposed to exclude trial and error or hit-and-miss methods. Three important aspects of EBM are generally described as 1 medical knowledge and clinical skill, 2 scientific evidence through clinical investigations, and 3 patient preferences. However, these fundamental concepts contain a paradox.

First, science will always need to be open-minded about new experience if it is to continue on empirical lines though empiricism— induction and deduction forging theory on the basis of experiment— is inevitably hit-and-miss to begin with. Secondly, patient preferences are multifactorial and multidirectional, and vary according to changing personal desires. A scientific evaluation of patient preferences cannot be done in terms of contemporary common sense [ 1 ].

It has made great progress by focusing on organs and systems, to the exclusion of the whole man. MM has done a lot in specific areas of prevention mass screening for mammary cancer, colon cancer, etc. Death is another blind pot of MM. Far from considering that it has a meaning, doctors look on death as a failure. It is with great reluctance that palliative care has been conceded a small part of the resources that it requires especially human resources: palliative care is too often seen as a career blind alley.

The distillation of scientific and medical expertise from on high cuts less and less ice in an age like the present that perceives official medicine to be failing to deliver. As a corrective to this so far largely negative assessment of public health today, it must be added that the physicians of the health system deserve a lot more sympathy than they tend to get. That MM is failing is probably the wrong phrase: it is perceived to be failing, partly for the wrong reasons.

People feel that they are well-informed but are actually victims of over- or misinformation. Bad news sticks and the picture given by the press is far too slanted towards misfortune to be taken as a reliable vision of any situation. Nowhere is this more true than in public health. Again, people have been through a period in which extravagantly funded medicine brought a peak in social services.

The latter are now perceived to be waning as the real cost of the service cuts in. In the wake of those successes e. High doses of intravenous vitamin infusions. Magnet therapy. Is Integrative Medicine the same as "Complementary medicine"? Complementary medicine is different from alternative medicine in that providers who use complementary medicine do not aim to replace conventional treatment with a complementary treatment.

Instead, the goal of complementary therapy is to help support people who receive conventional treatments through the use of well-researched and safe interventions.

Some examples of safe, effective intervention include:. Meditation, especially mindfulness-based meditationYogaMusic therapy. Integrative medicine combines the best of both worlds, with an emphasis on safety and evidence. Many integrative medicine doctors have undergone professional training that is focused on safe, evidence-based integrative therapies.

Explore Mayo Clinic studies of tests and procedures to help prevent, detect, treat or manage conditions. Integrative medicine care at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission. This content does not have an English version. This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Complementary and alternative medicine CAM is the popular name for health care practices that traditionally have not been part of conventional medicine.

Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic. Share on: Facebook Twitter. Show references AskMayoExpert. Good medicine is based in good science. It is inquiry-driven and open to new paradigms. Alongside the concept of treatment, the broader concepts of health promotion and the prevention of illness are paramount.