Today, there are many new approaches to medicine, from more traditional forms to emerging drugs and alternative treatments. The decision to choose a care approach can be overwhelming. Below, we explore some of these new types of medicine and the differences between each approach.
Integrative Medicine
Integrative medicine focuses on you as a whole person and not just your illness or disease. Like functional medicine, it aims to understand the underlying cause of your symptoms or condition, but the approach is holistic and looks at mind, body, and spirit.
Integrative medicine is an evidence-based approach to diagnosing patients. The core belief is that one’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs affect one’s health. Integrative medicine combines therapies and lifestyle changes because there are many different aspects to address.
Integrative medicine makes relationships between you and your healthcare providers vital since you are equal partners in your healing process. This approach combines conventional healthcare approaches (medication and psychotherapy) and complementary therapies (such as acupuncture and yoga). Integrative medicine “integrates” all aspects of your well-being to achieve optimal health and healing.
Functional Medicine
Functional medicine is a systems biology-based approach that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease. Each symptom or diagnosis may be one of many contributing to an individual’s illness1.
Source: The Institute for Functional Medicine
In functional medicine, a diagnosis can result from more than one cause. For example, depression can be caused by many different things, including inflammation. A condition like inflammation could lead to several other diagnoses, including depression.
How a diagnosis manifests in a person depends on the individual’s genes, environment, and lifestyle. As such, only treatments that address the right cause will have a long-lasting benefit rather than curing only symptoms. After an initial consultation, patients receive a full report detailing their health history, possible root causes for their health problems, and a “Functional Medicine Prescription” detailing their treatment plan.
Lifestyle Medicine
Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity2. Lifestyle medicine clinicians are certified professionals trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle changes to treat and reverse health conditions.
This care approach adheres to the key pillars of health:
- Nutrition: Maintain a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern to keep the body in a state of balance.
- Physical activity: Create an exercise plan that aligns with your health goals or supports healing your ailment.
- Restorative sleep: Create sleep routines that support deep, restful sleep.
- Stress management: Use tools such as meditation and mindfulness to manage your mental health through effective stress management.
- Avoidance of risky substances: Eliminate overly processed foods, minimize alcohol intake, and avoid smoking, which damages your health and leads to chronic disease.
- Positive social connections: Boost your emotional well-being through positive social relationships and activities such as walking, dancing, or joining a new social group.
Further, lifestyle medicine seeks to make changes based on these critical pillars that create a baseline of optimal health or are used to cure and manage an existing health condition. Ultimately, it’s a personal choice regarding which medical approach to take. Each approach has its merits and is unique in detecting and healing disease. Some people will align more with integrative medicine, while others may prefer functional medicine.
Hoag Compass specializes in a preventative wellness approach, providing various health specialists to support your journey to optimal health. To book an exploratory consultation and learn more about our program, contact us today at compass@hoag.org or (949) 557-0951.
1 The Institute for Functional Medicine. (2022, October 3). What is Functional Medicine? | IFM. https://www.ifm.org/functional-medicine/what-is-functional-medicine/
2 Home – American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. (2024, April 19). American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. https://ablm.org/
