Elan Vital Longevity Institute

What is Integrative Medicine?

Integrative Medicine is the integration or combination of Allopathic Medicine (as practice by conventional MDs and relying heavily on pharmaceuticals) and Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The idea is to use the best of each when appropriate for each patient. But why not rely solely on Allopathic Medicine? Because of its reliance on pharmaceuticals with side effects, Allopathic Medicine might be best characterized generally as Rescue Medicine. When you are acutely ill, it can be lifesaving. In the short term a side effect may be tolerable, but in the long term it can cause its own problems and need for additional treatments.

Sometimes Allopathic Medicine is characterized as scientific and CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) is characterized as quackery. However this is not an accurate assessment. The US Government Office of Technology Assessment some 20 years ago pointed out that a high percent of current medical practice was NOT based on scientific study. And there are many studies, both human and other studies about different types of CAM. Complete generalization is not possible about Allopathic vs. CAM studies, which is why I employ Integrative Medicine, choosing the best of both for the particular patient. Some of the confusion about studies has to do with the idea of the gold standard of scientific clinical study, the "Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Randomized Study." The pharmaceutical industry, with the lure of exclusive marketing rights, can afford to do large studies which are impressive on paper from a scientific point of view. That there may have been purposeful bias has not escapes the notice of some prominent conventional medical observers. Nevertheless, by asking the questions, the pharmaceutical industry does influence the perspective on what medicine is. And, since the US Food and Drug Administration must approve pharmaceuticals, everyone begins to consider the FDA the arbiter of what medicine is, rather than just the approver of drugs.

In Anti-Aging Medicine, we are trying to help people live a long time, while also improving their quality of life. Thus Rescue Medicine strategies for dealing with chronic problems are not appropriate (an example would be repetitive course of corticosteroids for inflammatory or autoimmune conditions like arthritis). More suited for Anti-Aging Medicine are natural medicine techniques utilizing nutraceuticals and functional medical foods.

Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is important in Anti-Aging Medicine, but your Anti-Aging Doctor should have a perspective which also includes Integrative Medicine.