What do you think the term, integrative therapies means? Which of these options would you choose? Are they therapies that you do instead of standard medical practice? Things that you do along with standard medical practice? Or are they a part of standard medical practice? Well, let's look at these a bit. Integrative therapies do not replace standard medical practice, they are used in partnership when appropriate. As the name suggests, these therapies integrate or partner with standard medical practice, so the answer b is correct. But this can be tricky because healthcare is increasingly incorporating more integrative therapies into it's standard medical practice, and that's what we're hoping for. One common definition of integrative therapies states that there are healing practices and modalities that are not widely taught in medical schools, and not usually covered by insurance. However, the field of integrative therapies is evolving. Terms to describe the use of integrative therapies change frequently, and are subject to trends and geographic differences, making it confusing. In this video, we want to clarify some of the terminology. We also need to understand what integrative therapies are integrating with. So let's start there. The biomedical model is based on measurable, physiologic, anatomic, and biochemical principles. It seeks to provide a scientific basis for explaining the human experience. For example, Jenny who lives in Florida was experiencing a lot of stomach gas and discomfort. So her physician suggested that she have a colonoscopy to see if anything was going on with her intestines. This approach might seem self-evident if you live in North America, or Europe, or other places where biomedicine is dominant, but it would not be the approach taken by a practitioner who thought the symptoms might be due to a spiritual crisis or a disruption in energy flow. Allopathic healthcare is a system of diagnosis and treatment based upon the use of suppressives and opposites. The primary tools of allopathic healthcare are labs in imaging studies for diagnosis, and pharmaceuticals and surgery for treatment. An example of this is back pain. The allopathic approach is to begin with muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatories, and analgesics, suppressing symptoms. If it persists, the next step would be imaging, and more involved interventions like cortisone shots or even surgery. Integrative health recognizes that symptoms are actually messages from your body. They're telling us that something is wrong, and that we should intervene. In integrative approach, we choose the least invasive care first. Although there still might be prescriptions for drugs, they would be given along with referrals to chiropractic or physical therapy to look for the root cause of the pain, and work on correcting that. Here are more examples of allopathic practices. Most Western healthcare is allopathic, and uses the biomedical model. Because the biomedical and allopathic models are dominant in Western countries, it's often referred to as mainstream or conventional. However, such terms are acceptable only when understood in the ever changing contexts of the predominant culture, and economic structure within any particular community. Note that in many countries allopathic biomedicine is not dominant. In other systems of medicine, such as traditional Chinese medicine or shamanism are more common. We will use the phrases conventional care or standard medical practice for this course, but want us all to be aware of their limitations. Allopathic biomedical healthcare focuses on disease, and it's main goals are to cure illness, minimize disability, and eliminate or manage symptoms. Prevention tends to focus on early screening, and any wellness efforts center on the physical body. While allopathic healthcare has humanistic roots, the growth of technology in biomedicine in the 20th-century move the healthcare system away from these roots. This type of healthcare is generally disease and diagnosis focused. While acute and life-threatening conditions are generally treated well, this reductionistic approach is not well-suited to managing chronic disease. You might be familiar with the terms complementary and alternative therapies or CAM. This is an older term that referred to all healing therapies that fall outside of standard healthcare in the US. This term focused on how the therapies were used. The distinction was that complimentary therapies are offered in addition to conventional care, and alternative therapies are offered in place of conventional care. Note that the same modality could be used in different ways. For example, a patient using acupuncture in addition to pharmaceuticals for pain, would be using the modalities complimentary care. A patient who only used acupuncture instead of recommended pharmaceuticals, would be using it as an alternative practice. The more recent term used for these practices modalities is integrative therapies, as more and more of these therapies are being integrated into the whole plan of care. The part of the National Institutes of Health devoted to these therapies and research has changed it's name to reflect this. What used to be the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is now the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Keep the following definitions and terminology in mind as we move forward in this class. Note that integrative health and healthcare are emerging terms and practices. We will discuss integrative therapies and integrative health more in the next video. What are integrative therapies?
