What Is A Holistic Doctor?
Holistic medicine considers the complete person – physically, psychologically, socially, and spiritually – in the management and prevention of disease.
A holistic doctor is a fully trained medical doctor (just like your general practitioner) – with additional training in one or more areas of complementary medicine.
They can address typical medical needs like traditional medical doctors. However, they hold on to principles of holistic medicine that apply alternative methods to encourage health on an emotional, physical, and even spiritual level for an enhanced quality of life.
Holistic medicine considers the complete person – physically, psychologically, socially, and emotionally – in the management and prevention of disease.
It is underpinned by the concept that our well-being relies not just on what is going on in our body physically (in terms of illness or disease), but also on the close interrelation between your body’s physiology and our psychological, emotional, social, and environmental state.
These different states can be equally important for well-being. That’s why they should be managed together so that a person is treated as a whole. A holistic approach means that the doctor is informed about a client ‘s whole life situation.
A holistic doctor, also known as an integrative medicine doctor, goes beyond just client’ symptoms in an effort to identify the underlying root cause of any symptoms or disease.
They will integrate both conventional (pharmaceutical) medicines when absolutely necessary along with complementary medicines as part of their treatment, considering all factors that can influence both physical health as well as your emotional, mental and spiritual well-being.
A holistic doctor may still prescribe medications and refer for surgery when absolutely necessary but will also support you with a combination of vitamins, nutrients, herbal medicine and dietary and lifestyle changes for longterm health.
An excellent holistic doctor should be knowledgeable and well-rounded in various modalities – with the ability to identify and address metabolic and biochemical disorders, allergies, sensitivities, and nutrient deficiencies.
What Can A Holistic Doctor Help You With?
Holistic doctors perform complex, in-depth and thorough testing which enables them to get a comprehensive overview of your health and also has expertis in balancing the areas of your life, including healing the body, as well as working with mindset and soulful practices.
Some of the testing they may request includes vitamin and mineral levels, biochemical assessments (amino acid, antioxidant, fatty acid levels), heavy metal levels, in-depth hormonal assays, allergy and food intolerance assessments, tests of your digestive function as well as general testing like a full blood count, blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
Holistic doctors have typically longer appointment times than traditional general practitioners so they are able to spend time with you, explain the tests they are performing and go through the results, answer your questions and explain their recommended holistic treatment plans.
In addition, some holistic doctors specialize in certain areas such as cancer support, chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune diseases, degenerative disease, natural and bio-identical hormones, heavy metal toxicity, digestive disorders, fibromyalgia, chronic health conditions and thyroid and adrenal disorders.
If you are looking for holistic doctor near you who is open to and uses both conventional and complementary medicine, then Functional Vitality Health is for you!