Reset-Wellness

Physical therapists (PT) and other healthcare providers already provide patient on a variety of topics.
For example, physical therapists provide patient education on joint protection guidelines, proper lifting mechanics, energy conservation guidelines, pre- and post-surgical guidelines, caregiver training, and assistive device use. These are only a few areas PT’s provide education.

However, in the next decade and beyond, physical therapists will continue to play a leading role in lifestyle education and the wellness needs of the patient. The purpose of the article is to provide an overview of areas PT’s need to continue emphasizing in their clinical care of patients.

What is Integrative Lifestyle Medicine?

Integrative medicine is about including advice and recommendations from your doctor and healthcare provider into a patient’s health and wellness program.
However, it is also about incorporating lifestyle changes such as managing stress, getting adequate sleep, eating nourishing foods, meditating, and performing fun and meaningful exercises.

What does “integrative, alternative, and complementary medicine” mean?
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (https://nccih.nih.gov) defines the terms as follows:

• “If a non-mainstream practice is used together with conventional medicine, it’s considered ‘complementary.’”
• “If a non-mainstream practice is used in place of conventional medicine, it’s considered ‘alternative.’”
• Integrative health care involves “bringing conventional and complementary approaches together in a coordinated way.”
  The integrative approach typically involves pain management, relief of symptoms, and promoting healthy behaviors.

What is Mind-Body Medicine?

The mind-body medicine model includes self-care and self-awareness as a key component of care, treats the person in a holistic manner, aims to get at the root cause of an illness or disease, and encourages adopting a healthy lifestyle, which includes wholesome nutrition, meaningful exercise, restorative sleep, stress management strategies, meditation, mindfulness, balance between work and rest, and finally, involvement in healthy relationships.

Some of the basic foundations of mind-body medicine are

• that the program accounts for differences in each individual (not everyone gets the same program)
• the program is sustainable (the program is not a one-month- and-done routine)
• the program is meaningful to the person.

Some of the clinical uses of mind-body medicine (or integrative healing) include treatment and care for anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), central sensitization (or heightened sensitivity to pain), depression, fibromyalgia, headache or migraines, pain, pain catastrophizing, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep disorders, and chronic stress.