Healing

Integrative Medicine – which couples together Naturopathic and Functional Medicine.
To help make this clearer for you I will briefly explain the main differences among Naturopathic, Functional, and Integrative medicine.

Integrative medicine is a philosophy of healthcare with a focus on individual patient care. It combines the best of conventional western medicine with evidence-based complementary medicine and therapies.

Integrative Medicine 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.

It takes account the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual well-being of the person with the aim of using the most appropriate, safe, and evidence-based treatments available. For example, integrative medicines approach to mental health issues, coupled with drugs, counselling or any other therapy prescribed by your doctor, an integrative medicine approach may recommend meditation, breath-works, herbal medicine or other suitable therapies, traditional or evidence based practices from a wide number of available health and wellness holistic modalities.

Integrative medicine does not challenge or seek to replace conventional therapy, but complement for the total, mind, body and spiritual healing and recovery of the patient as an individual with specific and unique needs.

Naturopathic medicine, also called naturopathy, is exactly what it sounds like: a form of medicine that uses the healing power of nature. Naturopathy is a distinct and complete system of health care. Six foundational principles underpin the practice of naturopathy: The healing power of nature (Vis Medicatrix Naturae), First do no harm, Find, and treat the cause whenever possible, not only the symptoms (Tolle Causum), Treat the whole person, Education and Prevention. These six principles are kept in mind when a naturopath takes your case, develops a treatment plan, and also offers maintenance for long term good health.

Naturopathy is both an art and a science. Naturopaths are prevention medicine specialists. Today naturopaths use scientific evidence as well as traditional evidence in practice.

Naturopathic case-taking often uncovers dis-ease long before it has become a diagnosable pathology. Naturopaths treat both acute and chronic conditions. Naturopathic care is well suited to anyone at any age. Naturopaths have many answers for common conditions. Naturopaths use various modalities in their practice. These may include herbal medicine, nutritional medicine, dietary and lifestyle advice, massage and manipulative therapy or other therapies such as Myotherapy, Chinese (acupressure, herbals etc.) or Indian medicine (Ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention and encourages the maintenance of health through close attention to balance in one’s life, right thinking, diet, lifestyle, and the use of herbs).

In Australia, following increasing abuse, addiction and fatalities from opioids, severe regulations have been placed on doctor’s ability to prescribe long term use. Ironically, although conventional medicine would never admit and prefer to remain mostly hostile to alternative therapies, to ease patients off drugs, and to manage long term pain, many therapies already used in holistic health including music therapy, massages, aromatherapy, spa visits, acupuncture and yoga etc. already used by integrative medicine doctors and now recommended by pain management clinics and allied health as “alternatives” to opioids.

Functional medicine combines conventional medical practices with non-conventional therapies.

Conventional medicine tends to identify the patient by name the disease or illness. For example, you have the flu, you have a migraine, you have a chest infection, or a heart issue, or back pain, or something wrong with your stomach, digestion, kidneys, or you have arthritis. Medicine diagnoses the disease, illness, condition, affliction, or complaint and focuses all its vast (usually drug resources in 85{1f4545d9b77dbd5cb388b0b425e6b98aa58445f370c1fe78f4d5e3a20cf297d6} of cases) resources to remedy, remove or otherwise treat what you “have.”

Functional medicine is finding and addressing the root cause of the disease. For example, when a patient is suffering from inflammation, a functional medicine doctor would look for conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, or depression, instead of just focusing on treating the inflammation itself.

But unlike conventional medicine, functional medicine doctors take a more holistic approach to treatment, viewing patients within a holistic framework, treating the patient instead of the disease. Perhaps the most important difference between functional medicine and conventional healthcare is the understanding that chronic diseases can be reversed, rather than simply managed.

Functional medicine practitioners take a ‘cause-based’ approach to chronic disease, by understanding how diet, lifestyle and environment factors interact with genetics and biology to bring about disease. Finding out what caused a person’s disease, and treating the cause, can help bring about resolution, or improve health outcomes.

Conventional medicine asks, ‘what is the best treatment for this disease?’. Functional medicine asks, ‘why did this disease occur, and what underlying imbalances need resolving in order for the body to return to a state of health?’

Functional medicine doctors have a passion to find the source of their patients dis-ease and see their patients go from illness to health.

Neil's

Qualifications

University awarded Bachelor of Health Science
University awarded Masters of Healthcare Management and Development
Advanced Diploma:

Naturopathy
Nutritional Science and Vitamin and Mineral (Celloid) Therapeutics
Herbal Medicine
Myotherapy and Clinical Remedial Massage
Chinese Medicine (Acupressure) and Herbal Therapies

Neil's

Affiliations

Australasian Integrative and Complementary Therapies Medicine Association
Australasian College of Environmental and Nutritional Medicine
Complementary Medicine Practitioners Association Australia
Australian Natural Therapies And Complementary Medicine Australia
Complementary Therapists and Massage Association of Australia
Australian Myotherapy Association (Associate) Chinese Medicine Society (Australia)

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Who Are You To Me?

Unique. Welcomed.
You’re dis-ease, illness, condition, physical, emotional, or spiritual might have a “common” name.
But you are a unique individual with special “uncommon” unique needs to be respected and cared for uncritically.

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