Top Integrative Medicine Trends

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Integrative medicine will see a number of trends this year. We spoke with two practitioners. Here’s what they had to say:

• “Integrative medicine is moving more toward a non-pharmaceutical approach to different syndromes.

• “What I tell people to do who talk with me about integrative medicine is I have people focus on the basic pillars of primary and secondary prevention.

• “Once you’ve developed a chronic disease, we look at, ‘Is my diet the healthiest it can be?’ ‘How many servings of plant-based foods do I eat?’ ‘Am I eliminating processed foods like refined sugars?’ ‘Am I eating the right amount of calories per day?’ ‘How best can I use food as source of nutrients?’

• “Exercise is definitely being recognized as important for maintaining physical and cognitive health. Exercise can reduce stress and anxiety. There are long-term benefits for reducing risk of cognitive impairment.

• “One thing we overlook is the importance of sleep and getting a good amount of total sleep and restful sleep. Impaired sleep is associated with impaired cognition and can have long-term effects on cardiovascular and cognitive health. I try to get people to focus on those. When we eat later in the day, and drink alcohol, it disrupts the sleep cycle. How can we decompress and shut off our brains? I have people focus on sleep hygiene and at least seven hours or restful sleep and work on shutting the brain down.

• “We’re recognizing the role of alcohol in health. More studies link it to certain cancers and cognitive issues later in life. The American Cancer Society recently came out with guidelines to limit alcohol to two per week. That’s my approach