Future Perspective of Integrative Medicine

Integrative Medicine

It can be defined as a patient-centered holistic approach that addresses all parts of the patient's requirements, including physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, and it focuses on prevention and well-being through improving immunity and natural healing potential.

According to the Consortium of Academic Health Center for Integrative Medicine and Health, integrative medicine is the practice of medicine that reaffirms the importance of the practitioner-patient relationship, focuses on the whole person, is evidence-based, and employs all appropriate therapeutic and lifestyle approaches, healthcare professionals, and disciplines to achieve optimal health and healing.

There is rising interest and evidence that combining conventional medicine with traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TCAM) may be beneficial for the prevention and treatment of communicable and chronic illnesses associated with behavior and lifestyle.

The expanding use of integrative medicine has prompted the scientific community, national and global policy groups, and individuals to examine the clinical efficacy, mechanisms of action, healthcare costs, standards, procedures, and policy implications of these treatments.

Globally, there has been an increase in the public interest and the use of TCIM. TCIM is used by about half of the population in affluent countries (the United States, 42%; Australia, 48%; France, 49%; Canada, 70%), and comparable or larger percentages in developing countries (India, 70%; China, 40%; Chile, 71%; Colombia, 40%; and up to 80% in Africa). The World Health Organization and governments from several nations have formed organizations to assist TCIM research and practical use.

Role of Integrative Medicine After the COVID-19 Pandemic 

COVID-19 infections and deaths are pandemic at the time of writing. COVID-19 clinical treatment, research, and therapeutic efforts have centered on either directly combating the virus or immunizing against it. Polio, smallpox, cholera, plague, dengue, AIDS, West Nile, TB, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and now COVID-19 have all been pandemics or epidemics in the last century. Ayurveda, one of the oldest and most frequently practiced traditional healthcare systems, on the other hand, promotes preventative methods for strengthening immunity through a healthy lifestyle in addition to acute therapy as required.

Ancient Ayurvedic literature, most notably the Charaka Samhita, covers epidemic management and immune development in order to prevent sickness, stop its progression and sustain health on both the individual and public health scales. The start of pandemics is explained in Ayurvedic scriptures as a result of collective human stress that undermines endogenous preventative capacities. The underlying approach of Ayurveda is the notion of developing and maintaining healthy functioning of the mind and body to cope with internal and external stresses, including pathogenic germs.

To avoid future pandemics, an integrated approach to healthcare that focuses on prevention and immunity development is required. Such a healthcare strategy would combine contemporary medical education and practice with traditional, complementary, and alternative medical techniques such as Ayurveda, Yoga, Chinese medicine, and other traditional medical systems.

The creation of an integrated curriculum will result in a more thorough knowledge of optimal health and wellness. In current scientific terminology, this is referred to as systems medicine, which includes the person, family, community, and environment. The idea of 'Swasthya,' or completeness, is used by Ayurveda to characterize this system approach to health care. That is, good health and well-being are founded on inner completeness as well as a balance of the mind, body, social, and physical contexts.

This would necessitate a 21st-century healthcare paradigm shift from standardized prevention and treatment to personalized prevention and treatment, from short-term to long-term sustainable intervention, from single molecular targets to an integrated system of networks, and from treatment with adverse effects to prevention and holistic health promotion.

In some ways, the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a wake-up call for both scientists and governments. It has demonstrated that when confronted with a pandemic of this magnitude, the resources and knowledge, the skills and human capital, the medications, and the infrastructure all fall short of expectations. It warns us that the existing preparedness of communities and nations to accomplish the United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDG) is a mirage and unachievable unless purposeful radical and systemic adjustments are made in their approach to its pursuit.

It is obvious that unless all resources available to human society are used most effectively and appropriately, we may find ourselves developing an SDG 2050 in the year 2030 with little change in its intended consequences. Integrative medicine is thus not just an option, but also a must. Human cultures, whether technologically and financially sophisticated or impoverished, will need to develop their own integrated public health models in order to meet their health-outcome objectives by 2030.

Other Countries

In Africa, for example, an integrative model might look at training traditional practitioners to identify diseases, developing a knowledge base of available medicinal interventions, generating evidence, providing guidelines for specific clinical interventions that are safe and effective, and developing and establishing clear referral models.

In India, the birthplace of Ayurveda, the modern health care system may employ the country's range of traditional modalities (AYUSH) in disease prevention and early management, as well as health management of specific population groups such as the elderly, women, and children, healthy adults, palliative care, and so on. It may emerge in the United States, Germany, or Canada to support specific public health objectives such as cancer treatment, pain management, palliative care, and so on.

Globalize Your Innovation with the Journal of Integrative Medicine 

Journal Scope: Biomedicine, Osteopathic, Regenerative, Holistic, Naturopathic, Functional, Herbal medicine, Psychology and Counselling, Physical therapy, Homeopathy, Acupuncture and East Asian medicine, Nutrition, and Dietary therapy

Manuscript Submission: Biomedicine 

Domain: integrativemedicine@jpeerreview.org