Integrative medicine is catching on in America. More people are turning to it for both symptom relief and improving overall wellness. But strangely enough, they are not talking to their doctors about it. That puzzles me. Why would a person not discuss integrative medicine with their doctor?
The Integrative of Medicine Concept
If you are unsure of what integrative medicine actually is, don’t stress over it. The concept is simple enough to understand. Integrative medicine is an approach to delivering healthcare services that goes beyond traditional medicine. Conventional treatments are combined with complementary therapies with the goal of treating the whole person, rather than just a single condition and the symptoms that come with it.
Integrative medicine is typified by:
- A Holistic View – Integrative practitioners tend to view treatment holistically. They prefer to treat the whole person in mind, body, and spirit.
- Collaboration – Both doctor and patient take an active role in what some have described as a healthcare partnership. They collaborate for the patient’s wellbeing.
- An Emphasis on Wellness – Integrative medicine is designed to improve overall wellness. In contrast, conventional medicine is largely reactive. Rather than promoting wellness, conventional medicine treats sickness, disease, and injury after the fact.
- Personalization – To make integrative medicine work for each patient, doctors need to avoid the one-size-fits-all mentality. They must put together personalized wellness plans for every patient.
Clinicians at Utah’s KindlyMD clinics practice both integrative medicine and complete care. They emphasize the importance of maintaining an open mind willing to seriously look at a wide range of practices that might help a patient. They also explain that, by its nature, integrative medicine seeks to be as minimally invasive as possible.
Patients Seem to Be on Board
So how do patients feel about integrative medicine? According to the research I have looked at, they seem to be on board. One survey taken by the University of Michigan in 2022 revealed that two-thirds of adults between 50 and 80 have utilized at least one form of integrative medicine. Incidentally, the survey was taken among more than 2,200 respondents.
The survey also revealed that:
- 92% credit integrative medicine as be either ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ helpful.
- Fewer than 20% of patients talk to the doctors about integrative care options.
Survey data seems to indicate that patients accessed integrative services, like meditation and psychotherapy, on their own. They also do not tell their doctors about the services they accessed or how those services help them. Given the role that GPs play in helping their patients maintain overall wellbeing, this surprises me.
Possible Explanations
The University of Michigan survey did not get into the reasons patients might access integrative medicine without talking to their doctors about it. That leaves me to speculate. But as someone who has considered integrative therapies in the past, I can offer some educated guesses:
- Fear – I would be willing to bet that a good number of the surveyed patients failed to talk to their doctors about integrative medicine because they were afraid of how those doctors might react.
- Lack of Confidence – Some patients may decide to keep things to themselves because they still lack confidence in integrative medicine. They want to try it before they speak up.
- Lack of Primary Care – Some patients, like me, don’t make regular use of primary care. I do not see my GP frequently enough to have such discussions.
Whatever the case might be, it would appear as though integrative medicine is catching on in the U.S. Patients are accessing integrative services even if they are not telling their doctors about it.
