Your primary care physician should be a doctor who you feel comfortable around, and who shares an interest in keeping you as healthy and happy as possible. As such, there are primary care doctors with many different interests and specialties. Here are some benefits of looking for one who has a background and emphasis on holistic health.
They focus on your whole body.
"Holistic" means "whole." Doctors who practice holistic medicine are interested in treating you as a whole person, not as a collection of parts. For example, if you go to a holistic doctor about headaches, they are not just going to look at and determine what is wrong with your head. They're instead going to consider your entire body and overall health to figure out what's amiss and causing your headaches. Many patients feel this approach is not only more effective but helps them feel seen and understood as a whole person.
They focus on prevention.
Wouldn't you rather not get ill in the first place? Holistic doctors work a lot of preventative care into their approach. They focus on exercise, healthy eating, developing a healthy lifestyle, and other methods that will help keep you from becoming sick in the first place. If you do become ill, they will treat you, but their goal is for you to not become ill in the first place.
They integrate alternative and herbal medicine.
Holistic medicine is very similar to integrative medicine in that it can incorporate some approaches that are considered alternative or natural care. Holistic doctors do not eschew Western medicine, and in fact, it tends to be the basis of their approach. However, they are generally happy to work in more Eastern, natural methods when doing so is safe and likely to be effective. A holistic primary care doctor is more likely to send you to a chiropractor, a nutritionist, or an herbalist if you and they agree these approaches will be beneficial. At the same time, they should not tout these approaches to an alternative to evidence-based, western care for serious diseases.
If you are looking for a new primary care doctor, consider choosing one who focuses on holistic medicine. More and more, patients are favoring these physicians who treat them more like a whole person and are willing to integrate more natural methods. Visit a few holistic doctors, and find one whose traits match your own needs.
For more information about holistic health, contact a local health clinic.
Share