What is Integrative Health?
Integrative health is a progressive approach to healthcare in which leading treatment services offered by modern medicine are combined with a deep understanding of the nature of illness, healing, and wellness. The combination of modern and holistic medicine can help prevent the onset of disease, address existing chronic conditions and promote healing in our patients. Integrative health is an approach that places the patient at the center of a treatment plan taking into account the physical, emotional, and social needs of that individual.
What Does Integrative Health Involve?
When creating a treatment plan, integrative healthcare providers apply healthcare strategies that include the use of complementary medicine supported by medical research. This concept is also referred to as evidence-based care.
Treatment plans may also include the use of conventional medicine, such as prescriptions, to manage chronic health conditions, as well as therapies and practices, such as yoga, meditation, acupuncture and massage therapy, as well as self-care strategies to promote healing and wellness. Additionally, patients are encouraged to develop healthy behaviors that they can use on a daily basis to improve their health and prevent the development of certain diseases.
Our Integrative Health service offers a wide variety of treatment modalities, including:
Yoga
Yoga is an ancient practice that promotes physical and mental health and well-being through physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation. Modern medical research has shown that yoga can benefit your health in a variety of ways.
Meditation and Mindfulness
Meditation is an ancient practice used to focus or clear your mind through a wide variety of techniques. Many people meditate through exercises that involve focusing on their breath, but other forms of meditation may involve focusing on physical sensations throughout the body, a specific thought or emotion, or your surroundings in the present moment, to name a few examples.
Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine
Osteopathic manipulative medicine, or OMM, may be used by your doctor to treat a variety of conditions affecting your musculoskeletal system. In medicine, the term “manipulation” refers to the therapeutic use of pressure or guided movement of parts of your body.
Nutritional Counseling
Healthy eating is an essential component of your overall health. Making healthy long-term adjustments to the food you eat can improve your blood pressure, decrease your levels of low-density lipoprotein (also known as “bad” cholesterol), bring you closer to a healthier weight, and provide you with more energy.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a therapeutic technique in traditional Chinese medicine that has been used for thousands of years to treat chronic pain and a variety of other health problems. Medical research in recent decades has shown that acupuncture can be effective for relieving various forms of chronic pain, such as low-back pain, neck pain, osteoarthritis pain, and knee pain. It has also been shown to decrease the frequency of tension headaches and prevent migraine headaches.
Massage Therapy
Massage therapy is one of the oldest known methods in human history for relieving pain, and continues to be an effective approach for treating a variety of conditions to this day. It can be effective for reducing stress, alleviating pain and muscle tension, and relieving symptoms of anxiety, digestive disorders, fibromyalgia, headaches, insomnia, and many other conditions.
Reiki
Reiki is a natural healing technique that focuses on using ki (a term used in traditional Eastern medicine to refer to vital energy found in all living things) to induce a relaxed, meditative state, stimulate the body’s immune system responses, and promote the body’s natural healing functions.
Art Therapy
Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses the process of making art to help patients express thoughts or feelings that might be difficult to convey verbally and, as a result, may not ordinarily have an effective outlet. Rather than speech, it focuses on things such as symbols, colors, and sensory perceptions. In art therapy, the final result is not what is important; the process itself is what is most beneficial.
Tai Chi
Tai chi is an ancient Chinese technique that originated as a martial art, but has since become more focused on physical health and rehabilitation. It is similar to practices such as yoga in that it involves slow, gentle movements, controlled breathing, and exercises that help you to enter a meditative state of mind.
About Our Wellness and Health Center
In our pursuit to deliver enhanced primary care, the MediSys Health Network will be opening the MediSys Center for Wellness and Health in 2024. Based on a whole person, patient-centered, advanced primary care model, our goal is to deliver integrative care to our community through a central hub that houses all of our integrative advanced primary care resources, making them easily accessible and readily available to our underserved patient population.
Meet Our Team
Jamaica Hospital’s Integrative Health Department is staffed by a diverse, experienced team of doctors with comprehensive medical expertise. All of our specialists are dedicated to providing effective, holistic treatment to our community, providing high-quality care for your mind, body, and spirit that takes your individual needs into account.
Integrative Health Resources
Integrative Health At Jamaica Hospital
Integrative Health: Supplements
Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment
The Health Benefits of Yoga
Mindful Meditation
Contact Us
If you are interested in learning more about any of our integrative health services, events, or classes, or would like to schedule an appointment, please call us at (718) 206-5675.