Integrative Medicine: Offering Unique Healing Options

appleThe healthcare system in America is continually growing to a system that is not concerned with quality patient care, leaving many patients looking for alternatives to this conventional model of healthcare. This type of medicine focuses on caring for an entire person, body, spirit and minds, not only the organs, bones and flesh, and is increasingly becoming a logical and desirable option for a number of people.

Integrative Medicine: Explained

Integrative medicine is a type of medicine that focuses on the whole person and then uses the appropriate approaches of therapeutic treatment in order to help a patient reach optimal healing ability and health. This type of approach to medicine combines both conventional treatments, as well as other types of therapies that have been selected and deemed safe and effective. The ultimate goal of this approach is to use the best parts of conventional medicine in addition with other types of therapies and healing systems that have been derived from both new and old cultures.

The model of integrative medicine recognizes the important role of the patient-practitioner relationship and the role that it plays in taking care of a patient. It also works to take care of the entire person by considering the interrelated nonphysical and physical factors that will affect a person’s wellness, health and disease, which include the spiritual and psychosocial dimensions of a person’s life.

What Falls Under Integrative Medicine?

There are hundreds of integrative treatment types that can be used with conventional treatments, with the key being to make the most of treatments to help a patient achieve superior health. Some of the most common types of integrative medicine techniques are highlighted here.

Acupuncture

This is when stainless steel, thin needles are inserted into your skin at specific locations in order to manipulate the energy flow into your body. Acupuncture is a proven method of treatment for nausea, pain, vomiting and a number of other conditions such as osteoarthritis, menstrual cramps and asthma.

Biofield Therapies

This is a type of technique that is used to tap into a person’s healing energy and manipulate it in a manner to encourage and increase healing. The most common type of Biofield therapies that are used includes healing touch, polarity therapy, qigong and reiki.

Guided Imagery

This is a type of visualization technique that teaches patients to focus on various mental pictures that are positive in nature. Guided imagery is a technique that is based on the belief that a person’s mind is able to affect the functions of the body. This technique can be used to help increase relaxation, reduce the stress that a patient feels and help to effect positive body changes.

Why You Should Consider Integrative Medicine

There are a number of reasons that people make the decision to seek integrative medicine. There are many studies that show that it is more in line with people’s beliefs, philosophies and values about life and health than the conventional approach. Others prefer the personalized care that is offered with integrative medicine practices. The fact is that most people that try the techniques integrative medicine become proponents for the methods and seek the services for other issues in their lives.

Aromatherapy and You… What You REALLY Need to Know

AromatherapySure, you’ve likely heard a lot about aromatherapy and all its benefits.  Before you dive into all it’s therapeutic properties, check out this primer so that you’re doing so safely.

 

Exploring Aromatherapy

The practice of integrated medicine involves the use of a wide variety of approaches and treatments to help tap into the body’s own healing power to cure disease and promote optimum wellness. In recent years, one therapeutic approach that has been gaining popularity is the practice of aromatherapy, a form of alternative medicine that employs aromatic oils derived from plants to heal, improve mood and cognitive functioning, and promote relaxation. The oils may be diffused into the air, breathed directly by the patient, or applied topically as part of a massage or bath, for example.

 

aroma2Tapping Nature’s Essence

The oils used in aromatherapy, called essential oils, are extracted directly from plants either by steaming or pressing. Steam distillation, or steaming, is the most commonly used method for extracting essential oils. It involves steaming fresh plants until they decompose, producing oils that are then separated, cooled, and filtered to remove water and other impurities. Pressing, also called expression, involves crushing the plant and squeezing out the oils, in much the same way olive oil is produced. Dozens of different plant oils are used in aromatherapy. Some of the more well-known include chamomile, eucalyptus, tea tree, and lavender.

 

Aromatherapy Through the Ages

Physicians have known about the existence of essential oils for millennia. The first century AD Roman physician Padanium Dioscorides described a number of essential oils and contemporary beliefs about their therapeutic properties is his work De Materia Medica. Dioscorides’ work became the foundation of European knowledge about plant-based medicine until the advent of more scientific investigations in the 1800s. Another early precursor of aromatherapy was the great Arabic scientist and philosopher Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna. In the early 11th century, Avicenna used the newly-invented process of distillation to produce essential oils for the first time. Until that time, all essential oils were produced by expressing.

 

Although aromatherapy had been practiced popularly for centuries, the scientific medical community was slow to recognize it as a legitimate treatment. The first appearance of the word “aromatherapy” in print did not occur until the 1937 publication of the book Aromathérapie: Les Huiles Essentielles, Hormones Végétales. The author, a French chemist by the name of René-Maurice Gattefossé, claimed to have successfully treated his badly burnt hand using lavender oil. Just a few years later another Frenchman, surgeon Jean Valnet, used essential oils as antiseptics to treat wounded Allied soldiers in World War II.

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Benefits of Aromatherapy

Different essential oils are credited with different benefits and healing properties. Stress and anxiety reduction are two of the most popular applications of aromatherapy. Chamomile, jasmine, lavender, lemon and peppermint oils are commonly used for this purpose in aromatherapy. Controlled research supports the stress reducing and mood enhancing properties of lemon oil. Lavender oil is also used to treat wounds, particularly burns, and as an antiseptic ointment. Tea tree oil and thyme oil are two other popular antiseptics.

 

The exact mechanisms by which aromatherapy operates are not known, but it is thought that the aromas of the essential oils exert an influence on the limbic system, that portion of the brain that regulates emotions. Essential oils are also believed to have a direct pharmacological action on the body. Valnet’s successful application of essential oils as an antiseptic have been supported by more recent studies that confirm the oils’ anti-microbial properties. In addition, preliminary clinical studies of aromatherapy combined with other approaches have shown positive effects in reducing anxiety and improving mood.

Aromatherapy

Safety

There are several safety concerns associated with the use of essential oils. Essential oils are highly concentrated, so if not diluted they can cause skin irritation. For this reason, topically-applied oils are diluted in a “carrier” oil such as olive, coconut, or jojoba oil to protect the skin. One must also be careful not to ingest essential oils. Many are toxic, even at quite low doses. Swallowing even a small amount of eucalyptus oil, for example, can be fatal. Other essential oils that should not be taken internally include cedar, hyssop, and sage. In addition, some oils can have adverse reactions with prescription medicines. Be sure to consult with your physician before using any essential oil if you are also taking prescription or over-counter medications or if you are pregnant.

 

If you are in the Miami area and would like to get more information about aromatherapy or other aspects of integrative medicine, contact Dr. Jorge Bordenave at (305) 446-2444. Let Dr. Bordenave show you how a holistic approach to health that deals with the mind, body, and spirit, can help you achieve total wellness. Call us today to get on the path to optimum health!

 

Posted by: Axiom Healthcare Marketing