What in the world is Integrative Medicine?

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Integrate by definition means combining one thing with another so that it becomes whole. Doesn't that make about the most sense of anything ever? There are so many different types of medicine.

Western Medicine is what most of us would consider standard here in the US. It is comprised of doctor visits where limited amounts of information are gathered continuously to create the chart, physical assessment occurs during a visit, brief interactions, prescriptions, and monitoring by way of labs/diagnostics/etc. People frequently complain because they get more and more medication, health is NOT improved, they do not know what is wrong, and they don't feel like anyone listened to them. Patients are either stable/maintained/chronic or sick. I have worked in this system for nearly 20 years and it hasn't been very successful for me either.

Eastern Medicine is a holistic approach. Its definitely not designed to work with insurance. Insurance dictates pricing, overpricing, & more, but I'll talk about that in a minute. Holistic medicine is considered a form of healing - mind, body, spirit, emotion. Healing is absolutely against the "rules of insurance" which is a vicious cycle.

Pharmaceuticals are chemical laden creations which often mimic herbal medications. Herbals are natural (or can be) which require knowledge to use appropriately. Vitamins are another source with potential benefit, but quality and purity are a consideration needed. Physical therapy and chiropractic treatments can offer great benefit, the general population has no problem with physical therapy and somehow chiropractic is still taboo for many. Social interaction is such an overlooked variable. I believe this became the most apparent during the recent pandemic. Video visits were a mainstay of contact and I spent hours visiting that way and office visits were longer and more complicated. People need interaction. Emotional pain and chronic diseases increase the significance of chronic pain without a doubt.

Insurance. Insurance has to be the biggest pitfall of health. In the last few years, there have been good and bad things happen. One of the very few good, preventative medicine or screenings have become included in many health plans without additional cost. However, the consumer cost has exploded. From a logic standpoint, look at those monthly premiums and consider how sick we are. For many, they have no option because of the medications they are on along with frequent doctor visits or hospital stays. Those people may be perfectly happy with how things are going for them. For the rest of us, we were stuck paying those premiums (penalized if we didn't) and didn't even use the services especially with the outrageous deductibles. Catastrophic care at best.

Here's a little more about insurance. You pay a lot of money so they can create a price they pay your provider, for your medicine/lab/diagnostic, hospital visits, surgery, etc. Insurance requires that paperwork be numeric so a computer can interpret. This requires the provider (NP, MD, etc) to "code" your visit on top of entering all the elements that are needed to meet insurance requirements. If you have ever looked at the explanation of benefits, you see a horribly over inflated bill from the provider followed by the contractual price, what the insurance paid, and what you may be responsible for.

Similarly, at the pharmacy you will see the retail cost, insurance pays, and your responsibility. Two steps back, have you ever looked at GoodRx. This is a contract price program which requires $0. My favorite insured example was going to pick up levocetirizine, an allergy medicine, prescribed by my physician which had to have an insurance authorization. It was nearly $300 with my "insurance". It was $50 over the counter for same quantity and $40 with good rx at that pharmacy. I transferred by prescription which was <$30 using GoodRx. There are a few conditions that I feel need to keep insurance - diabetics who require insulin, COPD, and dialysis.

Integrative medicine is what I consider best of care. Can every single patient use alternative medicine? I feel most can. There are a few conditions that it could be devastating/life threatening to not treat which is why I use Western Medicine when appropriate and support complimentary alternatives. I am well versed in many chronic issues like Hashimoto's. I enjoy unlocking health mysteries and finding things that others have overlooked. My 2022 pricing is affordable, so book a space today! Let's see if we can get you on the right track.