You may have seen many of these phrases in various online searches. Our team of experts wants to help clear up any potential confusion and be a resource for you on your journey to improving your health and wellness.
What is integrative medicine/health?
Integrative medicine/health is the practice of medicine that reaffirms the importance of the relationship between practitioner and patient, focuses on the whole person, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapeutic approaches, health care professionals and disciplines to achieve optimal health and healing.
What is complementary and alternative medicine?
Complementary and alternative medicine refers to a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices and/or products that are not presently considered part of conventional medical care. Complementary approaches are used together with conventional medicine, while alternative approaches are used in place of conventional medicine.
What is functional medicine?
Functional medicine determines how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root causes of disease for each individual. It requires a detailed understanding of each patient’s genetic, biochemical and lifestyle factors and leverages that data to direct personalized treatment plans that lead to improved patient outcomes.
What is lifestyle medicine?
Lifestyle medicine is the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic intervention — including a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connection — as a primary modality, delivered by clinicians trained and certified in this specialty, to prevent, treat and often reverse chronic disease.
What is mind-body medicine?
Mind-body medicine focuses on the interactions among the brain, mind, body and behavior, and on the powerful ways in which emotional, mental, social, spiritual and behavioral factors can directly affect health.
What is naturopathy?
Naturopathy is an alternative approach that emphasizes the healing power of nature with the use of nutrition, herbs, natural remedies and other natural products in order to fit the patient profile and the clinical problem with appropriate medical systems and techniques.
What is osteopathic manipulative medicine?
Osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) or neuromusculoskeletal medicine (NMM) is the specialty of medicine that emphasizes the incorporation of osteopathic manual diagnosis and osteopathic manipulative treatment into the evaluation and treatment of the nervous, muscular and skeletal systems in their relationships to other systems of the body as well as the whole person.
What is osteopathic manipulative treatment?
Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is the therapeutic application of a set of hands-on techniques used by physicians to diagnose, treat and prevent illness or injury in which the practitioner moves a patient’s muscles and joints using manually guided forces that include stretching, gentle pressure and resistance.
What is preventive medicine?
Preventive medicine is the practice of promoting preventive health care to improve patient well-being. The goal is to ultimately prevent disease, disability and death.