Integrated Medicine

Integrated Medicine –a philosophical viewpoint

Many individuals are not ill enough to be really sick and not well enough to be healthy.

They exist in the limbo of the walking wounded: carry on with life as best that they can and chalk it up to the process of getting older and with the attitude that “it is just part of living”.  This description is the syndrome of “vertical disease”.  Visits to the conventional medical doctor do not give answers to the chronic malaise.

Vertical disease

It is the ailment of the upright and moving citizen.  Energy is the down, productivity is compromised, and family life is unrewarding.  Other symptoms of this disease include: fatigue, weakness, low energy, depression, anxiety, mood swings, aggressive personality changes, headaches, insomnia, unclear thinking, poor concentration, learning difficulties, join stiffness and pain, muscle pain of unknown origin, swelling of feet, hands and face, easy bruising, poor digestion, repeated attacks of “flue-like” – illnesses, poor immunity, congestion nasal passages, and “feeling sick all over”.

Modern medicine can fall short on managing these problems.  However, integrated medicine, a discipline that addresses the illness as well as the disease, which as stated previously is not necessarily the same, can help these individuals.

The discipline of integrated medicine opens up potential therapies that have been unavailable to the not well patient.  It provides workable “know-how” that answers questions that have gone unanswered.  This medicine gives hope that better health can be achieved and maps a route to getting there.   When used with good judgement and on an individual basis, reproducible improvements results that are non-placebo and persist over time.

This concept identifies that individuals have unique needs and the impact of the environment will vary in it’s effect from one person to another, which is the idea of biochemical individuality.  Integrated medicine is for real persons, not statistical humans.

The Jaconello Health Centre for Nutritional and Preventive Medicine recognizes integrated medicine and uses the Four Pillars of Healing concept in its approach. These pillars are described in the section titled Our Role in Health Care Delivery.