Integrative medicine is crucial for chronic patients.

This short article briefly overviews, in headlines only, essential principles that will enable the integration of modern medicine with self-healing medicine. The in-depth analysis points to a mirror image of modern medicine and self-healing functional medicine's weaknesses and strengths. Integrating modern medicine and self-healing functional medicine is vital to achieving optimal healthcare. Recommended link: Conventional vs. Self-healing Medicine—SWOT Analysis.

The premise is that the body has an assimilated master plan to repair any possible physical damage better than any surgeon or invasive treatment, given the appropriate conditions. (Mental and physical) but it is not always feasible for everyone and in all conditions. 

Integrating the two leading medical approaches is mandatory to optimize healthcare.

A unified philosophy is required to implement this integration successfully.

• There is a growing demand for Self-Healing alternative-functional medicine among the public.
• People usually turn to alternative-functional medicine after being disappointed and not adequately addressed in conventional medicine.

Without a unified philosophy of medicine, physicians and patients have no clear choice rules in either of the two medical approaches. Trial and error indicate a lack of direction.

The World Health Organization: Definition of Health.

Recommended link: The World Health Organization: Definition of Health.

• Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
• The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of every human being's fundamental rights, regardless of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.

Definitions of what a "disease" is are much more complicated.  

Simplified broad definitions of healthcare, self-healing Functional Medicine, Inflammation, and physical pain.

Without a philosophy of medicine, there are no uniform, simple, and exhaustive definitions for these central topics.

• "Health care or healthcare is the maintenance or improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments. Health professionals in allied health fields deliver health care."

Plus, the sentence I added to the original Wikipedia definition.

• Health care is the maintenance or improvement of health with minimal use of drugs and invasive medicine. It is the wise use of the close connection between the Body, Mind, and Spirit through the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health professionals in allied health fields deliver health care.

My broad suggested definition of Self-healing Functional Medicine.

Currently, there is no clear definition of functional medicine. Self-healing Functional Medicine eliminates the causes of the disease rather than its symptoms. 

• "Self-healing Functional Medicine - All types of methodologies and techniques of non-invasive medicine (using mainly herbal drugs and natural supplements) for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases of the body and mind, which can bring about a proven and significant improvement (without considerable side effects) in the overall health of the patient on the long run."

The broad suggested definitions (without using synonyms) of Inflammation and physical pain mirror each other.

Links: | What is Inflammation? (Inflammation vs. Infection) | Pain (Wikipedia) | 

If you look for definitions for physical pain, you will find that they are not uniform.

• "Inflammation - is a short or continuous immune response caused by temporary or permanent cell damage intended to rehabilitate the damaged tissue." 
• "Physical pain - is a short or continuous alarm sensation caused by temporary or permanent cell damage (above a certain threshold) in tissue with sensory nerves (nociceptors)." Pain is a part of the self-defense mechanism. 

Suggested integrated medicine fundamental principles: 

General principles:

Uniform, unifying, and complete. (It Explains everything!) Consistent and complies with the scientific method. Clear, simple, and speaks the "same language." Complete - In aspiration to cover all aspects. Medical philosophy is far beyond the biochemical and physical processes. 

By complying with fundamental requirements (mental & physical) — All chronic acquired (non-genetic) diseases are curable!

• The body never acts randomly; therefore, for every medical condition, there is a cause.
• The body has a master plan for the complete rehabilitation of all its organs, provided it has the appropriate conditions. (Rhythms are not uniform)
• Like all creatures in nature, humans always perform energetic optimization to conserve the energy of life.
• The body (unlike the mind)  has no self-destructive mechanism. High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, cysts, and even cancer are the body's survival mechanisms that are not adequately understood.
• "Pain is a short or continuous alarm sensation caused by temporary or permanent cell damage (above a certain threshold) in tissue with sensory nerves (nociceptors)." Pain is a part of the self-defense mechanism. 

The human body, mind, and spirit are reflections.

The subconscious is the gate that connects the mind and spirit to the body. It has an immense impact on our physical & mental health.

• A deeper understanding of the body's true nature is needed. (The human body is not just flesh and bones.) 
• Advanced use of ancient knowledge concerning meridians, Chakras, etc., will reveal another dimension of medical science.

The concept of Qi energy. (The Chinese concept of Qi is not easily translated into Western thought.)

Link: Qi and Bioelectromagnetic Energy. 

• "To live is to have Qi in every body part." To die is to be a body without Qi. For the health to be maintained, there must be a balance of Qi."
• Conventional Modern Medicine & Self-healing (Alternative-functional) medicine.

Although there are many medical fields, there are only two logical approaches to healthcare:

• Modern conventional Medicine treats with pharmaceutical drugs and invasive actions (of all kinds).
• Self-healing medicine - with no invasive intervention and only herbal remedies.
  • All alternative treatment methods are based on the body's self-healing ability.

Integrated medical philosophy should be synergetic. (Larger than the sum of its parts.)

• Takes advantage of each Medicine and Medicine to minimize its weaknesses.
  • All technologically advanced techniques & modern medicine discoveries should be applied in a unified treatment.
  • New technologies can be developed for self-healing medicine. It will hopefully open new horizons.
  • Qi energy discovery and harnessing its unique capabilities will enable medical science to leapfrog.   
• Optimizes the "total health" benefits for each patient and the general population.
  • According to their condition, the patient and doctors are directed to the best medical treatment available.
• The body has very elaborate defense mechanisms. External intervention should aim for the minimum required.

The self-defense survival mechanism and Immune system. 

The immune system is part of the self-defense survival mechanism.

A holistic approach is essential for optimal healing - The division into organs & systems is just for convenience. (Due to the enormous complexity.) The immune system is even throughout our entire body, but its manifestation may differ in our body's organs/systems.

• The body is one entity. It has to be treated as such.
• The human body operates continuously to keep us healthy and alive from birth to death.
• The human body and mind operate "randomly."
• A single organ or system cannot cure the rest of the body. The entire body's immune system has to recover as well.
• The location of symptoms does not necessarily reveal the main problem.
• All organs in the human body are needed to keep a person in good health. (There are no spare or unneeded organs.)
• The interactions between the organs, Mind, and Spirit are more complicated than physiology and anatomy sciences suggest.
• There is no such thing as a chronic acquired (non-genetic) incurable disease! (All chronic acquired diseases, not purely genetic - can be cured.)

There are many differences between men and women, so medicine adapted to gender is required.

The human body has several survival and self-defense mechanisms. It is capable of surviving even in extreme conditions.

• Mental self-defense mechanisms include many processes, such as subconscious repression, lies, and even paradoxical suicide!
• The physical phase consists of two entangled main mechanisms:
  • The immune system.
  • The Regeneration of damaged tissue.
• The regeneration process is essential for longevity and contributes to health quality.
  • All cells in the human body can regenerate. (Though at a different level) Currently, these capabilities can only be accelerated by natural means.

The distinction between symptoms, causes, and pathogenic catalysts. (Not trivial) 

The distinction between the causes and catalysts of the disease and the symptoms is fundamental.

• A symptom of one disease as a cause of another disease? The symptom of any illness may not be the cause of another disease.
• Short-term symptoms as a result of pathogens become the cause. 
• In chronic inflammatory diseases, pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites) are not the cause but only catalysts.
• The cause of any chronic Non-genetic disease is always a weak immune system.
  • All Non-genetic diseases in the human body reflected in long-term immunodeficiency are symptoms rather than the cause. 
• Chronic inflammatory diseases use pathogens as catalysts, part of self-defense mechanisms, not the "enemy."   
• "Full recovery" from any chronic Non-genetic disease requires eliminating the underlying causes. No cause >> No symptoms.
•  Successful treatments that suppress the symptoms usually do not "CURE" chronic diseases as they do not eliminate the causes.
•  Pain, fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cough, intense sweating, frequent urination, Phlegm, high blood pressure, etc., are all symptoms when they appear in the chronic stages of a disease. 

Symptoms (Not only pain) are warning signs.

• Short-term symptoms might imply that something is not "working well."
  • The patient often comes to the doctor with pain complaints; painkillers are usually only suitable for the short term. (Because it can not cure the patient.)
• Most chronic diseases have mild symptoms before the onset. However, people ignore symptoms that do not cause pain or discomfort.
• Long-term symptoms are usually a sign of a disease.
• Does being asymptomatic (mentally & physically) mean healthy? (I believe the answer is not necessary!)

Diagnosis, Diagnostic tools, all kinds of treatments, and recovery processes.

Prolonged pain indicates damage or destruction of cells or tissues. Pain is often why people go to the doctor to get a diagnosis.

Diagnosis and Diagnostic tools:

• Mild early symptoms usually precede the onset of chronic diseases, but people do not value these signs.
• Depending on the intensity of the referral, the patient's medical examination must be very focused and thorough, not only in laboratory tests, since laboratory tests often do not reflect early signs.
• Integrated Medicine uses all the advanced technology available. 

Treatments and Recovery processes should be looked at together.

The role of medications. 

You can see four main conditions where medications are in use.

• Life-saving drugs, most often in emergencies.
• Genetic diseases create a deficiency of essential proteins that require the delivery of drugs that fill the deficit.
• Short-term symptomatic treatment. (Such as toothache relief pills.)
• Medications to relieve symptoms in chronic patients. (Prolonged use)

Prolonged use of drugs and exposure to chemicals and radiation harms the body's self-defense.

•  There is often a justification for taking medication to relieve pain and other symptoms. (As short as possible.)
•  Pharmacological drugs, especially intravenous, disrupt the body's natural defense mechanisms and should be administered in fewer cases.
•  When prolonged medication is needed, consider switching to herbal medicines. (Although they are not without side effects and contradictions with other drugs.)

 Surgery (non-cosmetic) for symptom relief should be the last resort.

• Surgeries for symptomatic treatment are often ineffective (since they do not eliminate the disease's cause) and should be used in exceptional cases rather than routine.

All treatments and recoveries can be summarized in 8 possible combinations:

Urgent Medicine:

Note: Urgent therapies do not raise many philosophical issues.

• Short therapy with short recovery - Not likely to become urgent. 
• Prolonged treatment with quick recovery - probably uncommon.
• Brief treatment with a long recovery - Invasive Medicine. (Common)
• Continued therapy with a long recovery - Chronic patient deterioration (so it becomes urgent.)

Non-urgent Medicine:

• Short symptomatic treatment with quick recovery - Spontaneous recovery.  
• Prolonged therapy with speedy recovery - Probably uncommon.
• Short symptomatic treatment with a long recovery - Invasive Medicine. (Often problematic)
• Continued symptomatic treatment with a long recovery - Chronic patients. (Problematic)

Symptomatic treatments (including invasive procedures) to prevent further deterioration - often do not lead to recovery but are sometimes unavoidable.

Chronic acquired diseases and symptomatic long-term therapies paradigm. 

• The chances of having one or more chronic diseases after 50 are about 50%! (The percentage increases with age.) Chronic diseases have become the plague of the 21st century, affecting many patients' quality of life worldwide. 

Long-term treatments to relieve symptoms often raise many (complex) unanswered questions.

• Most medicines designed to alleviate symptoms harm the patients in the long term.
• Pharmaceutical medicine and medicine procedures make the patient more dependent.
• Modern medicine offers immediate solutions but must draw attention to long-term consequences.
• It is essential to explain well (requires time) the self-healing possibilities with proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.
• Taking advantage of herbal remedies over pharmaceutical drugs in chronic stages is desirable.
• Exceptions:
  • Patients are suffering from genetic diseases. 
  • Infectious diseases that require ongoing supportive care.
  • Ancient patients or terminally ill.
  • Those who suffer from unbearable pain.
  • Symptomatic treatments are designed to improve body fluid circulation. (Such as non-life-saving catheters.)
  • Invasive cosmetic treatments.
  • Populations that cannot adopt lifestyle changes. (Elderly, mental problems, etc.)

The social responsibility of the medical establishment.

Preventive medicine is one of the most challenging fields in the modern age.

• Guides & monitors the individual patient over his lifetime to prevent health deterioration into unsafe conditions.
• Preventive medicine requires a nonstop mechanism to provide the public with education, updated information & knowledge.

Effective preventive Medicine medicine for chronic diseases requires fundamental changes:

• Raise the issue of the prevention of chronic diseases on senior politicians' public agendas.    
• Simple, straightforward, and unambiguous messages.
• As broad a consensus as possible among experts on various topics. (Not yet accomplished) 
• An independent medical establishment that can express its views without fear.
• Regulation and regulators will control and supervise the food and drug industries.
• Simple language explanations of laboratory test results, significantly abnormal results.

Public education, responsibility, accountability.

• Adopting a healthier lifestyle for as vast a population as possible requires available and straightforward implementation.
• The medical establishment should be held responsible and accountable for delivering the public's appropriate updated information and knowledge.
  • Establishing a budgeted and independent consumer body of experts to counter the producer's enormous economic interests is necessary to create a simple, clear message.

Medical ethics should be an integral part of medicine. (Not a separate sub-branch of the world of ethics.)  

The ethics of the interface between both therapeutic approaches are required.

The patient should be able to decide which medicine or both are preferred. (When patients choose a combined treatment, one general practitioner is responsible for transparently transferring information to the other party.)

• In the individual patient's case, the dilemmas are relatively simple - Short & long-term patient interests are the sole consideration.
• The problems of allocating limited resources in an age where chronic morbidity rises require creativity, especially in preventive medicine. (Medicine with enormous potential) 
• The medical establishment should suggest the best option when there are few choices to improve diagnosis or treatments. (With all the information and risks involved.)

The public's lifestyle changes will not likely happen within a few years.

• The medical reality is much more complicated. I hope it will provoke a fruitful discussion; hopefully, the debate will trigger this trend.

The principles I suggested are probably quite simplistic.

• Lifestyle changes for significant populations are a matter of decades. In the meantime, many actions can be taken: 
• Implementing the unifying medical philosophy might already benefit sick people. But what about the younger generation, who is "healthy" now?
• The first step is raising public awareness of the phenomenon's scale, which responsible medical researchers and specialists lead.
• Nutritional sciences specialists must reach a consensus concerning the significant issues. (Debate will not enable these changes.) 
• The second step is to drag the senior politicians into this struggle with a deep personal commitment.
• Passing strict new laws and regulations will significantly challenge brave, independent politicians in the next era.
• The use of economic incentives is legitimate and justified.
  • For example, a statement by the patient who has moved to a healthier lifestyle and periodic tests will reduce health insurance costs!

The vision of one unifying integrated medical philosophy. 

• Modern conventional medicine suggests that current practice does not bring recovery to many chronic patients. Modern conventional medicine, medication with outstanding achievements, is merely incomplete. (Self-healing Medicine is, by definition, insufficient.) 
• In my opinion, both therapeutic approaches are reflections of each other. They should not be separated.
• Quantum mechanics was developed during the early 220'scentury, but Newtonian classical mechanics still works flawlessly. If physics science can live with that duality, it is about time that the same openness occurs in medical science.
• Combining the two main medical approaches will hopefully alleviate the suffering of many people worldwide.

Implementing the integrated medical philosophy.

• I tried to suggest the basic principles for combined medical philosophy. I hope professionals in that big field will continue this work.
• Medical philosophy is not a distinct field but a whole field in medical science. 
• I believe the continued confusion between the causes and the symptoms is due to the ambiguous medical philosophy adopted by the medical establishment. (Huge economic interests are involved.)
• Combined medical philosophy (as suggested) will considerably impact many patients' daily lives worldwide.

Such fundamental changes occur when public awareness is high and the cost of doing nothing and sitting still is vast for most people. 

Fundamental changes of that scale are never voluntarily accepted; enormous interests are involved.

Integrating modern and self-healing medicine is essential.

1. Why is there a need to integrate modern medicine with self-healing medicine?

The SWOT analysis points to a mirror image between Modern and Self-Healing Medicines' weaknesses and strengths. Thus, Integration is requested. It will optimize healthcare.

 Self-healing medicine and modern medicine are synergistic and complementary.

 My doctor sends me to acupuncture without needing a change in perception.

 The bureaucracy is already problematic; integration will only make the problem worse.

 Self-healing (alternative) medicine is not regulated; integration will only increase the risks.

See my suggested, most suitable answer »

A more detailed explanation:

1. The most suitable answer is answer number 1.
Integrating self-healing medicine with modern medicine requires a conceptual change, including the formulation of the philosophy of medicine and integrated ethics.