Integrated Medicine – New kid on the block?

I must confess that I have only recently come across the word Integrated Medicine. 

This was because a friend of mine, knowing my propensity to check out anything health related, recently forwarded a video to me of a passionate qualified American Medical Doctor, who calmly suggested on video that to ensure you remain healthy, you need to repeat positive words to yourself, 20 x 3 times each day; and focus on your spirit, soul, mind and body at the same time! Surely we know better here in the UK I thought! Integrated Medicine? Is that what they call ‘positive thinking’ now in the United States? 

I did a google search just to be sure our dear NHS was still as conventional as ever. However, the top results on google showed an integrated medicine page for the University College London (UCL) Hospitals! UCL, a world renowned citadel of professional medical practice! And UCL was not the only reputable NHS hospital offering Integrated Medicine. The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital is now called the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine. In Glasgow, there is a Centre for Integrative Care.  And in Southern England, there’s an integrated Centre for Health in Bristol.

Now, I have to take this Integrated Medicine issue serious. If these big NHS hospitals are promoting Integrated Medicine, then there must be something in it. So I got down to work to research what I can find out about it:

Integrated Medicine is defined by the British Society of Integrated Medicine as:

An approach to health and healing that provides patients with individually tailored health and wellbeing programmes which are designed to address the barriers to healing and provide the patient with the knowledge, skills and support to take better care of their physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual health.

Rather than limiting treatments to a specific specialty, Integrated Medicine uses the safest and most effective combination of approaches and treatments from the world of conventional and complementary/alternative medicine. These are selected according to, but not limited to, evidence-based practice, and the expertise, experience and insight of the individuals and team members caring for the patient.

And this is aptly described by Dr David Reilly, the clinical director at the Glasgow Integrated Medicine centre that, the work of the clinic reflects the development work in creating new models of care especially in long term conditions, with an emphasis on person centered, individualized therapeutic relationships aimed at helping people enable their own strength and self care.  That must count for something!

Integrative medicine according to the non-believers however, is …er…quackery hitting the mainstream! 

It is certainly not helpful to the cause that people have pointed out the fact that the first hospital according to history, known to practice Integrated Medicine, was the Rudolf Hess Krankenhaus hospital in Dresden, during the Third Reich. Nazi leaders had united alternative and conventional medicine under the umbrella of ‘Neue Deutsche Heilkunde’, New German Medicine, a concept which resembles our new integrated medicine of today, in so many ways.

 The hospital’s practice ended up being a total failure and many felt it lacked scientific credibility and also common sense approach. Ouch!

It seems that any therapy that is typically excluded by conventional medicine or that patients use instead of conventional medicine, is known as “alternative medicine.” It’s a catch-all term that includes hundreds of old and new practices ranging from acupuncture to homeopathy to iridology. Generally alternative therapies are closer to nature, cheaper and less invasive than conventional therapies, although there are exceptions. Some alternative therapies are scientifically validated, some are not. An alternative medicine practice that is used in conjunction with a conventional one is known as a “complementary” medicine. Example: using ginger syrup to prevent nausea during chemotherapy. Together, complementary and alternative medicines are often referred to by the acronym CAM.

Using synthetic drugs and surgery to treat health conditions was known just a few decades ago as, simply, “medicine.” Today, this system is increasingly being termed “conventional medicine.” This is the kind of medicine most people still encounter in hospitals and clinics. Some people, particularly the younger and more adventurous generation, reckon that conventional medicine is overated, can be expensive and invasive, although it may be very good in some situations e.g. in emergency situations like heart attacks; stroke or a car accident. According to Dr. Weil, himself a practitioner of Integrated Medicine, “If I were hit by a bus,” he says, “I’d want to be taken immediately to a high-tech emergency room.”

When a House of Lords (UK) scientific committee investigated complementary medicine (CM) a few years ago, it predictably highlighted the lack of proper evidence for the efficacy of treatments. But the report did not stop there but went ahead to warm about unregulated quacks and the dangers of seeking complementary (integrated medicine) treatment in place of conventional diagnosis.

None of this bothers the CM practitioners much.

"I am not sure how much credibility these pointy-heads have," snorts Dr Michael Dixon, a trustee of the Prince of Wales's Foundation for Integrated Medicine and a visiting professor in integrated health at the University of Westminster. The efficacy of complementary treatments, he insists, simply cannot be measured by standard scientific "double-blind" tests in a lab.

He is equally unfazed by the most common accusation: that CM only produces a placebo effect. "Sometimes, perhaps, the treatments may be symbolic and just appeal to people's imaginations," he says. "In practice, we are pragmatists. If something works, that is fine." 

While many may sniff at the usefulness of Integrated Medicine and call the practitioners quacks, my final note on it would be, if the practice saves a life, then surely it is worth considering. There is no harm in anyone checking out various treatment options and evaluating in clear terms the pros and cons of the different treatment options. The more treatment options are available for a condition, the better the chances. However, quackery and giving of false hopes or falsifying testimonials and results is to be frowned at, by both practitioners of conventional medicine as well as integrated medicine.

And when next you are looking at UCL’s website, do check out their integrated medicine unit link. It shows they handle among others: Acupuncture, hypnosis, mindfulness, etc. The one service that I was most unclear about was the ‘Women service’. Whatever can that be? Of certainty, it would be something quite important and may be a lifeline to many people. But with ‘women service’ as a title, nothing could be more vague. If you do find out about it, please send me a comment! I’ll be interested to know about this women service!