The One Doctor You Don’t Have But Likely Need
In my career, I’ve been both a primary care doctor and Osteopathic Physician (D.O.). However, standard practices in these fields confused and frustrated me. You might feel the same way.
For example, some doctors simply diagnose and medicate. But prescription drugs aren’t the solution to every medical issue. Instead, I found looking for the root cause of illness and possible prevention much more challenging and rewarding. Imagine if we could decrease breast cancer rates by changing what we eat, reducing stress, and taking a look at advanced biomarkers and genetic testing. What if we can reverse diabetes and lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes and dementia?
These medical breakthroughs are what get me excited.
But like I said, not every doctor takes this alternative approach. If you’re wondering what type of doctor I’m talking about, you need to look into integrative medicine.
The term integrative medicine was born from combining the practice of so-called “conventional” medicine and “complementary medicine.” Conventional medicine is what most doctors practice. This is also called “traditional Western medicine.” Adding “outside-the-box” treatments such as chiropractic care, acupuncture, and other lifestyle recommendations like improving diet, supplements, herbs, exercise, stress management, and functional specialty labs results in the actual integration of the two disciplines.
