Integrative Medicine

• The main focus is to individualize treatment and minimize the use of drugs with questionable or unknown safety profiles and well known adverse effects.
• The attempt is to mitigate the need to use long term immunosuppressant therapies which have become more prevalent and necessary in the treatment of inflammatory disease.
• Initially, the blend of prescription medications, lifestyle changes, dietary interventions and functional medical testing is done to illicit individual immune reactions and triggers.
• It is imperative that IBD patients have baseline diagnostics including all necessary GI scopes, biopsies and imaging and that these are re-evaluated at the appropriate prescribed time intervals.
• Integrative medicine is focused on information that may be elucidated by functional testing which provides powerful clues with respect to inflammation and ulceration and the resulting symptoms (diarrhea, bleeding, abdominal pain, malabsorption)
• Genetic factors, Inflammation parameters and bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal elements are assessed.
• Testing is done for immune reactions to foods and to establish the basis of gastrointestinal hyper-permeability which exists apart from classic IgE sensitivities.
• Desensitization of the immune system to suspected antigens is addressed as well as diet alterations.
• Repair of the tissue using well tolerated natural substances in the form of nutrients, pro-biotic species and herbal medicines as individually indicted can be helpful in both moving a patient toward remission and maintaining that state.