Integrative Health

Integrative Health and Integrative Medicine is based on the definition of human health by the World Health Organization (WHO) and which, in its constitution, defines health as a “state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and not just the absence of illness or disability”.(World Health Organization (WHO) Official Archives: No. 2, p. 100).

Summit on Integrative Medicine and Public Health, Vicki Weisfeld 2009. Background and Review of the Subject: Washington DC, Institute of Medicine, Recovery 2011-1-18.

The most important universities and hospitals have embedded in their research fields, Integrative Health & Integrative Medicine.

Universities such as Duke, Harvard, Maryland, Yale, Stamford, UCLA, Southampton, Florida, Arizona, California and Hospitals like Mayo Clinic, Royal London Hospital, Maryland Medical Center, John Hopkins Hospital etc.

Integrative Health and Medicine recognizes that the human organism is an integrated system of cells, organs and networks, thoughts and emotions, social and environmental influences. It is an integrated field (body, mind, soul) which is in constant connection and interaction through hormones, enzymes and many peptides and other complex bio-mechanisms, and with constant influences from the external environment in which it lives. In essence, man as a whole is a complex, open system (with internal and external interconnections and interactions).

‘’Modern Integrated Health and Integrative Medicine is a new approach that focuses on the whole of the person (mind, body, psyche) and addresses the full range of physical, emotional, spiritual, environmental, social factors affecting health human’s. It uses the most appropriate interventions from a range of disciplines to cure illness and help people recover and maintain their optimal health. It overcomes the treatment of symptoms and aims to address all the causes of the disease. Integrative Medicine is not the same as alternative medicine that works complementarily. Integrative Medicine targets on the entire person, regardless of the therapies used.

The basic principles of Integrative Health-Medicine are:

  • The patient and the healthcare professional are partners in the healing process.
  • All factors affecting health, well-being and illness are taken into account, includingü  body, mind, psyche, and the environment.
  • Experts use all the therapeutic methods that aim at the innate response of the body and its psyche, to balance its health.
  • In addition to the concept of illness, the concepts of preventing and promoting health are of paramount importance. Developing healthy behaviors and skills for effective self-care that people can use throughout their lives.’’

University of Duke

The dramatic increase in illnesses, the emergence of new diseases and modern multiple degenerative diseases, unknown or rarely in our recent past, is over-consumption of drugs for local relief of symptoms, often without the substantial restoration and healing of the human body as a whole, the main reasons that made the concept of Integrated Health-Integrative Medicine necessary.

Additionally, the approach of human health as an integrated field, emerged from the fact that modern medical science through too many studies and research, has discovered and documented both the in vitro and in vivo levels, the complexity of the human organism, its functioning at the biochemical, cellular and DNA level, as it is a living biosynthetic system in which everything is constantly interacting and interrelated, as well as the natural or toxic environment in which it lives. We know from research and modern scientific data of neurosciences that mind-psyche (thoughts, emotions, etc.) through complex neuro chemical and neuro metabolic systems and brain pathways influences and determines our physical health to a great extent and vice versa.

“The soul is the first complete reality (just as knowledge is) of a natural body having potentially life in it”. 

Aristotle (384bc-322bc)

NATIONAL CENTER OF COMPLEMENTARY AND INTEGRATIVE HEALTH (NCCIH)

NCCIH - National Center of Supplemental and Integrative Health is the leading organization of the United States federal government for scientific research on complementary and integrated health approaches.

MAYO CLINIC

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is the popular term for health and wellness treatments that are usually not part of conventional western medicine.

ACADEMIC CONSORTIUM FOR INTERGATIVE MEDICINE AND HEALTH

The Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health is supported by membership dues and grants from philanthropic partners including sustained support from The Bravewell Collaborative for over a decade.

JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL

Many different areas make up the practice of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). In addition, many parts of one field may overlap with the parts of another field.

Integrative Medicine & Health around the word