Just what is Integrative Family Medicine? Google the phrase and you come up with different answers.
Traditional medicine is integrated with what -- acupuncture, yoga, special diets, massage therapy, hypnosis, meditation or some combination of all of these? Why?
Tune in to SMG Radio to hear Dr. Marianna Shimelfarb demystify the issue and explain how integrative family medicine works, which holistic practices can be incorporated in patient treatment, and the health benefits you and your family will accrue if you choose to embrace integrative medicine.
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What is Integrative Primary Care Medicine?
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Learn more about Marianna Shimelfarb, MD
Marianna Shimelfarb, MD
Marianna Shimelfarb, MD specializes in Integrative Family Medicine. Before joining Summit Medical Group Family Medicine Department, she served as an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Williamsburg (Brooklyn), NY. She is also a teaching faculty at the Interdiscilpinary Integrative Medicine Fellowship at Mount Sinai Beth Israel and at the Holistic Family Nurse Practitioner track at the New York University College of Nursing. Dr. Shimelfarb is a recipient of several teaching awards, including Preceptor of the Year Award at the NYU College of Nursing.Learn more about Marianna Shimelfarb, MD
Transcription:
What is Integrative Primary Care Medicine?
Melanie Cole (Host): There are many specialties in medicine for many types of conditions and diseases but what is meant by integrative family medicine? My guest today is Dr. Marianna Shimelfarb. She specializes in integrative family medicine at Summit Medical Group. Welcome to the show, Dr. Shimelfarb. So, there are so many different specialties in medicine today, what is meant by the term “family medicine” and “integrative family medicine”? Really, start off with what is integrative medicine altogether?
Dr. Marianna Shimelfarb (Guest): Absolutely. So, integrative medicine is a term that describes a field for the past two decades. In the past, we used to have a term “CAM”, which stands for “complementary and alternative medicine” and it was described to indicate a broad range of healing philosophies and approaches that were outside of conventional approaches. However, over the last two decades, the integrative medicine term has been used and preferred by educational and academic institutions as well as to describe the practices and it emphasizes the integration of CAM, which is complementary and alternative medicine with conventional medicine. Family medicine is a description of the practice of family medicine that provides care for newborns and up to the ages of last days, whatever that 100+ years would be and integrative family medicine that I practice is employing my training, my fellowship in integrative medicine, and my training in resident and family medicine.
Melanie: In the past years, Dr. Shimelfarb, doctors haven't received a lot of training for nutrition or exercise physiology and the profound effects that nutrition, dietetics, and exercise have on the body. Do you see that changing or is that only for integrative medicine physicians that you might see that changing?
Dr. Shimelfarb: I have been involved in educating medical students, residents, family nurse practitioners in the field of integrative medicine and I see a great trend in, again, in academia. There is at least an awareness that is brought to medical schools and nursing schools about this sort of integrative medicine and the opportunity for those interested in integrative medicine to learn about it. So, we see younger population of health practitioners that are interested in the learning where we do see the big gap in practitioners who have been in practice for a while. They are, unfortunately, don't always take out their knowledge about integrative medicine.
Melanie: And, how important do you think it is to incorporate diet and exercise and all of these other facets into a person's whole well-being?
Dr. Shimelfarb: I, to me, it's crucial and essential to incorporate the nutritional counseling and exercise into anybody's visit. There's not a single visit that I have with patients where I do not ask them about their lifestyle, whether we're talking about a cold or we're talking about depression, we're talking about stomachaches, we're talking about join pain—whatever. I always tell my patients, whatever we put in our body is what we then experience and I really believe in approaching a person as a whole without separating their organs, without separating their body from their emotions from their mental health and spiritual health. I really believe we are to help the person heal, we need to help our patients see where imbalances are in all of their systems. And this is what a lot of integrative medicine is all about. So, to go back to your question, yes, I think talking to our patients about diet and exercise is really important, but what's more important is for us providers to be educated and practicing healthy lifestyles as well.
Melanie: Do you think the insurance companies are starting to get on board with preventive medicine and complementary medicine? Things like chiropractic treatments and nutritional counseling, biofeedback--these types of treatments? Do you think the insurance companies are getting on board?
Dr. Shimelfarb: It seems as if some insurance companies are getting on board with integrative care with covering some services. Some will cover chiropractic care, some will cover nutritional counseling, some will cover acupuncture. It's coming out together slowly, but the trend is there.
Melanie: And, what about the mind/body connection? How is that related to treating somebody as a whole person and what do you tell people that are skeptical of some of these type of treatments?
Dr. Shimelfarb: Well, I always discuss with patients about the mind and the body connection and how our beliefs really influence our health and it doesn't take a lot to convince a person that the state of their mind influences the state of their body. I always encourage my patients to consider daily practice of meditation because in the world of having hyperstimulation coming from social media, the computers, the cell phones, the news, a person rarely gets a mental break. When we don't get a mental break, we end up running on the high adrenaline throughout the day, and then the problems, a lot of health problems and emotional problems, stem from that. So, among those are sleeping problems, again, digestive issues, mental health issues, immunity problems. So, my patients when they come, they'll say "I don't know why I'm having this problem. I've been healthy all my life and now all of a sudden, I can't seem to get over this cold. It just comes and goes," or, again, any number of issues, we always talk about the mind/body connection within the context of the visit, yes.
Melanie: So, wrap it up for us with your best advice about integrative medicine incorporating complementary therapies into that treatment as a whole body and what you do at Summit Medical Group.
Dr. Shimelfarb: My best advice is to establish your care with a doctor who you will trust and work together on getting yourself to a better state of health, to the state of health that one envisions. To me, the gist of integrative medicine is patient-centered care where the provider and the patient work together as partners on getting the patient to the health of their dream.
Melanie: Thank you so much for being with us today and just tell us about your team at Summit Medical Group.
Dr. Shimelfarb: This is a fantastic group that I joined in September of 2016 and the practice where I work at Montclair is a fantastic group of six doctors who are all family practice doctors and we're part of a larger Summit Medical Group which is a fantastic group of primary care doctors and specialists.
Melanie: Thank you, again, for being with us. You're listening to SMG Radio and for more information, you can go to www.summitmedicalgroup.com. That's www.summitmedicalgroup.com. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
What is Integrative Primary Care Medicine?
Melanie Cole (Host): There are many specialties in medicine for many types of conditions and diseases but what is meant by integrative family medicine? My guest today is Dr. Marianna Shimelfarb. She specializes in integrative family medicine at Summit Medical Group. Welcome to the show, Dr. Shimelfarb. So, there are so many different specialties in medicine today, what is meant by the term “family medicine” and “integrative family medicine”? Really, start off with what is integrative medicine altogether?
Dr. Marianna Shimelfarb (Guest): Absolutely. So, integrative medicine is a term that describes a field for the past two decades. In the past, we used to have a term “CAM”, which stands for “complementary and alternative medicine” and it was described to indicate a broad range of healing philosophies and approaches that were outside of conventional approaches. However, over the last two decades, the integrative medicine term has been used and preferred by educational and academic institutions as well as to describe the practices and it emphasizes the integration of CAM, which is complementary and alternative medicine with conventional medicine. Family medicine is a description of the practice of family medicine that provides care for newborns and up to the ages of last days, whatever that 100+ years would be and integrative family medicine that I practice is employing my training, my fellowship in integrative medicine, and my training in resident and family medicine.
Melanie: In the past years, Dr. Shimelfarb, doctors haven't received a lot of training for nutrition or exercise physiology and the profound effects that nutrition, dietetics, and exercise have on the body. Do you see that changing or is that only for integrative medicine physicians that you might see that changing?
Dr. Shimelfarb: I have been involved in educating medical students, residents, family nurse practitioners in the field of integrative medicine and I see a great trend in, again, in academia. There is at least an awareness that is brought to medical schools and nursing schools about this sort of integrative medicine and the opportunity for those interested in integrative medicine to learn about it. So, we see younger population of health practitioners that are interested in the learning where we do see the big gap in practitioners who have been in practice for a while. They are, unfortunately, don't always take out their knowledge about integrative medicine.
Melanie: And, how important do you think it is to incorporate diet and exercise and all of these other facets into a person's whole well-being?
Dr. Shimelfarb: I, to me, it's crucial and essential to incorporate the nutritional counseling and exercise into anybody's visit. There's not a single visit that I have with patients where I do not ask them about their lifestyle, whether we're talking about a cold or we're talking about depression, we're talking about stomachaches, we're talking about join pain—whatever. I always tell my patients, whatever we put in our body is what we then experience and I really believe in approaching a person as a whole without separating their organs, without separating their body from their emotions from their mental health and spiritual health. I really believe we are to help the person heal, we need to help our patients see where imbalances are in all of their systems. And this is what a lot of integrative medicine is all about. So, to go back to your question, yes, I think talking to our patients about diet and exercise is really important, but what's more important is for us providers to be educated and practicing healthy lifestyles as well.
Melanie: Do you think the insurance companies are starting to get on board with preventive medicine and complementary medicine? Things like chiropractic treatments and nutritional counseling, biofeedback--these types of treatments? Do you think the insurance companies are getting on board?
Dr. Shimelfarb: It seems as if some insurance companies are getting on board with integrative care with covering some services. Some will cover chiropractic care, some will cover nutritional counseling, some will cover acupuncture. It's coming out together slowly, but the trend is there.
Melanie: And, what about the mind/body connection? How is that related to treating somebody as a whole person and what do you tell people that are skeptical of some of these type of treatments?
Dr. Shimelfarb: Well, I always discuss with patients about the mind and the body connection and how our beliefs really influence our health and it doesn't take a lot to convince a person that the state of their mind influences the state of their body. I always encourage my patients to consider daily practice of meditation because in the world of having hyperstimulation coming from social media, the computers, the cell phones, the news, a person rarely gets a mental break. When we don't get a mental break, we end up running on the high adrenaline throughout the day, and then the problems, a lot of health problems and emotional problems, stem from that. So, among those are sleeping problems, again, digestive issues, mental health issues, immunity problems. So, my patients when they come, they'll say "I don't know why I'm having this problem. I've been healthy all my life and now all of a sudden, I can't seem to get over this cold. It just comes and goes," or, again, any number of issues, we always talk about the mind/body connection within the context of the visit, yes.
Melanie: So, wrap it up for us with your best advice about integrative medicine incorporating complementary therapies into that treatment as a whole body and what you do at Summit Medical Group.
Dr. Shimelfarb: My best advice is to establish your care with a doctor who you will trust and work together on getting yourself to a better state of health, to the state of health that one envisions. To me, the gist of integrative medicine is patient-centered care where the provider and the patient work together as partners on getting the patient to the health of their dream.
Melanie: Thank you so much for being with us today and just tell us about your team at Summit Medical Group.
Dr. Shimelfarb: This is a fantastic group that I joined in September of 2016 and the practice where I work at Montclair is a fantastic group of six doctors who are all family practice doctors and we're part of a larger Summit Medical Group which is a fantastic group of primary care doctors and specialists.
Melanie: Thank you, again, for being with us. You're listening to SMG Radio and for more information, you can go to www.summitmedicalgroup.com. That's www.summitmedicalgroup.com. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.