Integrative medicine focuses on the prevention, treatment and reversal of chronic illness by understanding and treating the causes of illness instead of putting a Band-Aid prescription drug and other toxic medications onto and into our bodies. These drugs, such as steroids, pain killers, anti-depressants, acne medications, acid-reflux medications, cholesterol medications, etc. don’t always work and have serious side effects.
A few years ago, I was on disability from my corporate job and was put on steroids, water pills and morphine by Western medicine doctors. It only made everything worse. That’s when I switched away from conventional medicine and started working with Integrative Medical doctors who look for the cause of the illness and use specialized lab testing (tests that Western medicine does not run). They also dive into your lifestyle including food, our environment, toxin exposure and diet. Western medicine doctors would push me out of their offices with a prescription – not an investigation as to what was going on inside my body. My whole world changed when I found my Integrative Medical doctors who did all the investigation for me and healed me instead of giving me drugs to cover up my symptoms.
To heal my immune system and my body, I had to reduce inflammation, remove toxins that I was exposed to, balance my hormones and thyroid and heal my leaky gut with food intolerances.
The saddest part about working with conventional medicine was that I spent SO much money and SO much time working with these hospitals, doctors, specialists and even venturing out to Mayo Clinic to hear that there was nothing wrong with me. It upsets me that people just follow a certain conventional medicine focus: get your colonoscopy, mammogram, etc. This only does so much and is what many doctors refer to as secondary prevention. Do what is the primary prevention? It’s working with your BODY and addressing nutrition and the effects of stress on the development of chronic disease. After almost dying of c-diff colitis in 2011, I realized conventional medicine did not have the tools to heal me the way I wanted to.
It’s amazing to see that gluten, stress, gut dysbiosis (altered gut flora) and toxins especially mercury are all associated with several different autoimmune conditions therefore in myself, mercury may trigger thyroid disease but it’s also associated with MS and lupus.
Using the Integrative Medicine approach to healing, my Integrative M.D.s looked for the underlying causes of my illness and treated the causes in a systematic way through using food as medicine, limiting stress (cortisol and adrenal health both have an impact on immune function), supporting my liver to clear out toxins because there are several environmental triggers for autoimmunity and last but not least, healing my ‘gut’ and gut flora from Leaky Gut Syndrome.
It saddens me to hear that so many people continue to pay physicians who do not work for them or help them. It took me almost 8 years to try Integrative medicine and I wish I had found it sooner (I would have saved thousands of dollars and a lot of time and pain).
Wondering how to find an Integrative Medicine Doctor? I’ve got you covered, check out my article ‘How to Find an Integrative Medicine Doctor’. And be sure to ask your M.D. important questions to make sure they are the right doctor for you! Here is a list of questions to ask your doctor.
It is essential to work with a nutritionist and an Integrative M.D. because I am sharing general information that is not intended to be medical advice. This information is only given for informational purposes.
