Integrative Health Is the Answer

By Rudjar Good, RDH, DC

Highland Chiropractic and Patapsco Integrative Medicine and Rehab

More Complementary & Integrative Healthcare Articles

Integrative Health Is the Answer

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. According to the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine, “the field of integrative health and 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, healthcare professionals, and professions to achieve optimal health and healing.”

Integrative health is not the same as alternative medicine, in which non-mainstream health practices are used in place of conventional health care. Rather, integrative health services are used in addition to your current health care. Integrative health services include chiropractic, physical therapy, acupuncture, massage and medical services combined into one comprehensive medical system to help you meet all of your health needs – physical, emotional, and social.

Integrative Health Approaches

There are many types of integrative healthcare services, and they are not one-size-fits-all. The key is to learn what your personal health needs are and to find the service or services that are best for you and address your individual symptoms. Examples include:

• Acupuncture
• Guided imagery
• Herbal therapy
• Massage therapy
• Nutritional counseling
• Physical therapy
• Chiropractic

Chiropractic and Physical Therapy

Chiropractors view the body’s musculoskeletal and nervous system as an interconnected partnership with the ability to heal itself; their hands-on treatment method relies on identifying and treating spinal and muscular misalignments that may be causing pressure within the central nervous system that are leading to acute or chronic pain. The chiropractic adjustment realigns the vertebrae, releasing tension in the body. Unlike many treatments done by physical therapists, chiropractic adjustments have been known to provide instant pain relief, making it a great option for people who are in desperate need of acute relief. People who benefit the most from chiropractic care are patients who are experiencing joint or muscle pain in the back, neck, hips and knees.

Physical therapists, on the other hand, use a more diverse set of approaches to diagnose physical abnormalities in patients and help them restore strength, improve balance and gain greater mobility and range of motion. Whether through corrective exercise, modalities, soft mobilization or many other tools and treatments, they care for all musculoskeletal conditions that hinder the body’s movement and/or cause pain.

Why Integrating Them Works

• Unique, Customized Treatments – Both physical therapy and chiropractic follow thorough assessment protocol so that they may fully understand treatment needs and appropriate success metrics. Because each patient is different, this means these professionals will make individualized treatment plans that are tailored to the patient’s unique capabilities and the clinician’s unique competencies. When these two therapies work together, they can create complementary protocol to maximize treatment benefits of every visit.
• Better Results, No Matter the Goal – Whether the treatment is meant to prevent injury, rehabilitate an injury or just optimize movement or performance, the combination of physical therapy and chiropractic will help reach the goal more holistically. Utilizing chiropractor’s savvy in adjustment with physical therapist’s expertise in strengthening, lengthening and helping the body move better, patients will reap the benefits of allowing each professional to play off of each other’s strengths and fill in each other’s gaps.
• Unified in Providing Safer Pain Relief – Both practices are conservative methods of treating musculoskeletal pain and/or dysfunction. Instead of using invasive tactics like surgery or pushing pills like physicians, physical therapists and chiropractors both understand the benefits of treating the underlying cause of the problem before escalating to drastic or potentially addictive measures. Patients will feel confident utilizing both physical therapy and chiropractic to make better-informed decisions and potentially reduce treatment risk.