What is Integrative Health?
Integrative Health brings conventional and complementary approaches together in a coordinated way. Integrative health also emphasizes multimodal interventions, which are two or more interventions such as conventional health care approaches (like medication, physical rehabilitation, psychotherapy), and complementary health approaches (like acupuncture, yoga, and probiotics) in various combinations, with an emphasis on treating the whole person rather than, for example, one organ system. Integrative health aims for well-coordinated care among different providers and institutions by bringing conventional and complementary approaches together to care for the whole person.
Integrative Health aims to complement conventional health care, not serve as an alternative. Scientific investigations in Integrative Health may include the effects of diet, physical activity, sleep, stress, and the environment on health outcomes. Effects of complementary therapies on symptoms such as pain, anxiety, fatigue, for example, are important areas of study, with an emphasis on mechanism of action, translational science, implementation, and health equity. Personalization of care and delivery of care, including innovative and technological adaptations are areas of interest.