What Is Integrative Medicine
The Defining Principles of Integrative Medicine
- Patient and practitioner are partners in the healing process
- All factors that influence health, wellness, and disease are taken into consideration, including mind, spirit, and community, as well as the body
- Appropriate use of both conventional and alternative methods facilitates the body’s innate healing response
- Effective interventions that are natural and less invasive should be used whenever possible
- Integrative medicine neither rejects conventional medicine nor accepts alternative therapies uncritically
- Good medicine is based in good science. It is inquiry-driven and open to new paradigms
- Alongside the concept of treatment, the broader concepts of health promotion and the prevention of illness are paramount
- Practitioners of integrative medicine should exemplify its principles and commit themselves to self-exploration and self-development. -Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine
