Integrative medicine and the future of medical practice

James E. Dalen, MD, MPH, is a professor emeritus at the
University of Arizona, Tucson. (Altern Ther Health Med.
2006(2):14-15.)

I believe that we need to make some changes in the way that
we practice medicineand I believe that the leaders in integrative
medicine should lead the way. One of the things that we need to do
is to make sure that the topics of nutrition, supplements, exercise,
stress reduction, and alternative therapies are included in the medical school curriculum and in residency training.

The practice of medicine underwent extraordinary change in the 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, there wasn't much science in the practice of medicine. There was lots of caring and compassion, but very little science. It was high-touch, but low-tech. When patients died, they weren't in an intensive care unit with a tube in every orifice, surrounded by strangers. They were usually at home, in their own beds, surrounded by family members and the family doctor.

The marriage of science and medicine in the 20th century resulted in spectacular advances in technology in the second half of the century that greatly improved our ability to diagnosis and treat disease.

Before the middle of the 20th century, definitive treatment for heart disease was almost non-existent. It didn't make any difference what type of heart disease a patient had. Patients with heart disease were called 'cardiac,' and the treatment was the same for all of them: low-salt diet, digitalis, and limited activity. Now
Our technology allows us to make a precise diagnosis of nearly every possible type of heart disease, and we have a specific effective treatment for each one.