Selected Podcast
An Integrative Approach to Health and Wellness
Dr. Alan Roth and Dr. Gina Basello will explain the principals of Integrative Health, dispel any misconceptions, and describe how it can be used as a complementary form of care to achieve overall wellness.
Featured Speakers:
Dr. Basello is a graduate of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is Board Certified in Family Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She completed her residency training at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center Mount Sinai School of Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program. She has always been passionate about education and immediately accepted a faculty position at the program and was quickly promoted to Associate Program Director. She was appointed Program Director in 2008 and her favorite part about being a Program Director is mentoring Residents. She also serves as the Associate Director of the Palliative Care Fellowship Program and Director of Graduate Medical Education at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. Her professional areas of interest include cultural sensitivity training, faculty development and Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Alan Roth, DO, FAAFP | Gina Basello, DO
Dr. Roth is a dually certified Diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine. He is also Board Certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He presently serves as Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine and Director of the Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program. Dr. Roth’s primary goal is to develop and enrich the training experiences of physicians interested in urban Family Medicine. He has completed a Residency Program Director Fellowship with the American Academy of Family Physicians and lectures nationally on urban Family Medicine Residency training and curriculum development. His special areas of interest include cultural competency training in graduate medical education, palliative medicine, disease prevention, health promotion and procedural skills. Dr. Roth is a community-minded physician who regularly mentors many of our local youth interested in becoming Family Physicians.Dr. Basello is a graduate of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is Board Certified in Family Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She completed her residency training at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center Mount Sinai School of Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program. She has always been passionate about education and immediately accepted a faculty position at the program and was quickly promoted to Associate Program Director. She was appointed Program Director in 2008 and her favorite part about being a Program Director is mentoring Residents. She also serves as the Associate Director of the Palliative Care Fellowship Program and Director of Graduate Medical Education at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. Her professional areas of interest include cultural sensitivity training, faculty development and Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Transcription:
An Integrative Approach to Health and Wellness
Deborah Howell: Welcome to Jamaica hospital med talk I'm Deborah Howell. And today we have two experts with us to explain the principles of integrative health dispel, any misconceptions, and describe how it can be used as a complimentary form of care To achieve overall wellness. Our guests are Dr. Alan Roth, chairman, family medicine and integrative medicine and Dr. Gina Basello vice chairperson, family medicine at Jamaica hospital medical center. Welcome Dr. Roth and Dr. Basello.
Dr. Gina Basello: Thank you.
Deborah Howell: So before we dive into describing the concept of integrative health, let's start by hearing how our experienced primary care physician guests define health and wellness in general, Dr. Bestseller, I know it's a broad topic, but can you do that?
Dr. Gina Basello: Sure Debra. Thank you. It's definitely a broad topic. If you ask the world health organization they'll define health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing. And it's important that it's just not the absence of disease or a problem. Separately wellness is really just an optimal state of that health.
So the way I look at it is in a nutshell, Health is the goal and wellness is kind of the process of how to achieve that. Being that I was trained by Dr. Ross. I'm hoping he liked my answer, but I'm sure he has something that he would like to add as well.
Dr. Roth: I totally agree with Dr. Basello about that definition and what integrative health actually is, is actually, you know, a whole person approach to healthcare and a whole person approach to wellness and wellbeing which is a state of mind, a state of body, a state of spirit. It has to. With all aspects of care and its approach that combines the best of traditional medicine.
We totally believe in everything that our country and our world has to offer and what's best and healthy for us. But we think that there's more than that. There's you need the whole person involved in this care and you need a team of people caring for that. With a change of focus, the change of focus is on prevention.
It's on wellness. It's about a proactive approach to care that rather than a reactive sick care approach that we currently have in our.
Deborah Howell: Oh, what's not to love about treating the whole person. Dr. Roth, can you talk a little bit about integrative health or IAH and explain to us how it fits in with conventional.
Dr. Roth: Sure. So, you know, an integrative approach to healthcare involves. Total health and wellness, which includes traditional medicine and going to your doctor and well visits and checkups and traditional medicine. But the foundation is on the prevention of disease and illness rather than the treatment of disease and illness.
So we look at the nutritional aspects. Okay. Exercise and the body's well-being we look at mind, body interactions, including some of the complimentary medicine techniques that when people hear about integrative health, they think of, you know, yoga and Tai Chi and acupuncture. Those are more that we use, but it's not about what integrative health is.
It's a modality. Integrative health is about a D emphasis on traditional. Over testing and over-diagnosis and over-treatment and a shift to prevention, wellness, and well.
Deborah Howell: Got it. And while I have you, Dr. Roth, what are some of the benefits of an integrative health?
Dr. Roth: Well, benefits are people do better. You know, the evidence clearly shows that, you know, we are human beings are born in a certain way. We have a certain genetic makeup that, that we have and what we do with that genetic makeup in our life, as far as diet and exercise and preventative medical care is what leads to longevity, wellness.
And.
Dr. Gina Basello: Yeah. Dr. Roth said it really well in terms of recognizing that there's a combination of what is known, you know, more conventionally as traditional medicine, but it's just as evidence-based as some of the complimentary that we use in integrative health. And I think that sort of focus on that person centered care and the prevention is really the key to wellness and the key to the best use of resources in health care.
Dr. Roth: And I would like to add, so without that, but Cielo said, you know, we do a really good job treating high blood pressure and diabetes with drugs and various things. If you have a heart attack or a stroke, we're going to save your life. But all of those conditions could be. They could be treated more importantly than being treated.
They could be prevented and they could be prevented with diet, exercise, and mindfulness types of activities.
Deborah Howell: Uh, Phrase comes to mind, nip it in the bud.
Dr. Gina Basello: Okay.
Dr. Roth: Love that.
Dr. Gina Basello: Yes, that's a good one.
Deborah Howell: Dr. Basello it's clear that preventative care is very important. What can an individual person do to take charge of his or her own?
Dr. Gina Basello: Well, I think that is definitely the key is that individual is in charge of his or her own health. And then it's important that we empower our patients to realize. That we are here to willingly partner with them on their health and do all of those preventative measures and encourage them and sort of review all of those lifestyle choices.
Like Dr. Ross was saying it's not just about after you have the hypertension and the heart attack it's before that it's health and wellness come down to every behavioral choice. And the options that folks have available to them, both individuals and communities.
Deborah Howell: That's beautifully said Dr. Roth, what barriers can potentially get in the way of a patient achieving?
Dr. Roth: Well, there's multiple barriers. You know, there are certainly system-based barriers. You know, our healthcare system is not designed for an integrative approach to health care. As I've mentioned before, we have a sick care system it's reactive rather than proactive. You know, doctors are not paid to keep people well, they're taped paid to take care of sick.
Surgeons are paid to operate on people and interventional radiologists and interventional neurologists are paid to prevent, you know, treat strokes and heart attacks when they're happening. But as I say, those things are prevented. An interventional neurologic procedure makes the hospital a hundred thousand.
Preventing the disease doesn't make the hospital anything. So there's a huge investment in time, money effort in keeping people well and healthy. And there's not a financial system to pay for it. And many of these modalities, especially in the healthcare system, we work where we have a very diversified and underserved population can't afford many of the modalities that would be helpful to them to prevent disease and promote well.
Dr. Gina Basello: I agree wholeheartedly. And those social determinants really are a huge part of what we're able to achieve when we partner with our patients. So when you talk. The underserved patients or those over-testing kind of issues. They may feel like that's, you know, not good care if you don't get all those tests.
But in fact, it could do a lot more to prevent things when you're doing a thoughtful approach to, to wellness from before those diseases and not over-testing and not over utilizing resources and really. Partnering with patients and communities to improve access to healthcare and take care of some of those systems things really early on to avoid illness.
Deborah Howell: It's really kind of a 180. My father was a physician and back in the day, people started talking about wellness and he would just roll his eyes. But I think today he would understand, oh yeah, if you prevent things, you don't need to treat them as much. Everybody wins.
Dr. Gina Basello: Right.
Dr. Roth: So I, I agree with that. Totally. And unfortunately, the healthcare system in our country, you know, we ranked number 27 in longevity, in life expectancy and we have the. Sophisticated advanced healthcare system. So why is that? The other countries that do better, they invest in their people's wellbeing.
They invest in nutrition. They invest in education. They invest in exercise and they invest in the prevention of the disease rather than the treatment.
Dr. Gina Basello: Yeah. And it's almost embarrassing when you look at all of those resources and how, you know, perhaps the allocation of where we spend our focus, they should be asking Dr. Roth and I, when they make those policy decision because I think that would make a much better difference in actual overall wellness of our patients and our communities.
Deborah Howell: So true. And you spoke a little bit about this earlier, but Dr. Basello, how important is it for patients to really partner with their physician while taking into account all of these crucial social determines.
Dr. Gina Basello: I think that's a crucial concept, especially with certain communities that don't feel particularly empowered. They are actually in charge of their health care too. And they can insist upon being offered. What is possible. And the ways that they can do that and to use their influences, to partner with their physicians.
And one of the concepts that's really important to us is continuity of care. You know, myself and definitely Dr. Roth for even longer, there are certain patient relationships that have gone on for decades, those folks, and the relationships that go along with following with the same doctor over the course of your life really makes a difference.
Ability to establish trust and have a bi-directional open, honest approach to maintaining that prevention and that wellness. And then it's also, you know, making sure that there's a focus on shared decision-making that patient and that doctor have to decide together what's best for the patient. It's not just what we want as a physician or what we think is important.
Like what we were talking about earlier when Dr. Roth is talking about health and wellness as mind, body spirit, what matters to that? It's going to need to be at the core of all decisions about their health combined with the medicine and the options available in the healthcare system.
Deborah Howell: Dr. Roth. Is there anything else you'd like to add to our conversation today?
Dr. Roth: Sure. You know, I certainly think that, you know, we need an integrative approach to healthcare in our nation. We, you know, we currently have a very disjointed, fragmented healthcare system that, you know, focuses on. chronic disease management, rather than this wellness and health. And it really is time to transform our healthcare system for the wellness of our nation, for the wellness of our people and for our everyone's mental and physical health.
And by combining, you know, a preventive kind of approach that involves the mind body and spirit in this integrative way to me is what's needed to help us, you know, move along.
Deborah Howell: Dr. Basello?
Dr. Gina Basello: Totally agree. And I would just like to encourage all of our patients to insist upon the care that they deserve and to ask their questions and insist that their doctor sort of explain things. It's okay. If they don't understand, it's not okay not to ask us. And we prefer that you do.
Deborah Howell: Great. Well, we want to thank you both so much for taking the time to be with us today to talk about integrative health. It was very refreshing.
Dr. Gina Basello: Thank you so much for having us.
Dr. Roth: Yes, it was great. Thank you.
Deborah Howell: For more information about Jamaica hospital's approach to integrative medicine. Visit our website at Jamaica hospital.org/podcasts. This has been Jamaica hospital med talk I'm Debra Howell. Thanks for listening and have yourself a great day.
An Integrative Approach to Health and Wellness
Deborah Howell: Welcome to Jamaica hospital med talk I'm Deborah Howell. And today we have two experts with us to explain the principles of integrative health dispel, any misconceptions, and describe how it can be used as a complimentary form of care To achieve overall wellness. Our guests are Dr. Alan Roth, chairman, family medicine and integrative medicine and Dr. Gina Basello vice chairperson, family medicine at Jamaica hospital medical center. Welcome Dr. Roth and Dr. Basello.
Dr. Gina Basello: Thank you.
Deborah Howell: So before we dive into describing the concept of integrative health, let's start by hearing how our experienced primary care physician guests define health and wellness in general, Dr. Bestseller, I know it's a broad topic, but can you do that?
Dr. Gina Basello: Sure Debra. Thank you. It's definitely a broad topic. If you ask the world health organization they'll define health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing. And it's important that it's just not the absence of disease or a problem. Separately wellness is really just an optimal state of that health.
So the way I look at it is in a nutshell, Health is the goal and wellness is kind of the process of how to achieve that. Being that I was trained by Dr. Ross. I'm hoping he liked my answer, but I'm sure he has something that he would like to add as well.
Dr. Roth: I totally agree with Dr. Basello about that definition and what integrative health actually is, is actually, you know, a whole person approach to healthcare and a whole person approach to wellness and wellbeing which is a state of mind, a state of body, a state of spirit. It has to. With all aspects of care and its approach that combines the best of traditional medicine.
We totally believe in everything that our country and our world has to offer and what's best and healthy for us. But we think that there's more than that. There's you need the whole person involved in this care and you need a team of people caring for that. With a change of focus, the change of focus is on prevention.
It's on wellness. It's about a proactive approach to care that rather than a reactive sick care approach that we currently have in our.
Deborah Howell: Oh, what's not to love about treating the whole person. Dr. Roth, can you talk a little bit about integrative health or IAH and explain to us how it fits in with conventional.
Dr. Roth: Sure. So, you know, an integrative approach to healthcare involves. Total health and wellness, which includes traditional medicine and going to your doctor and well visits and checkups and traditional medicine. But the foundation is on the prevention of disease and illness rather than the treatment of disease and illness.
So we look at the nutritional aspects. Okay. Exercise and the body's well-being we look at mind, body interactions, including some of the complimentary medicine techniques that when people hear about integrative health, they think of, you know, yoga and Tai Chi and acupuncture. Those are more that we use, but it's not about what integrative health is.
It's a modality. Integrative health is about a D emphasis on traditional. Over testing and over-diagnosis and over-treatment and a shift to prevention, wellness, and well.
Deborah Howell: Got it. And while I have you, Dr. Roth, what are some of the benefits of an integrative health?
Dr. Roth: Well, benefits are people do better. You know, the evidence clearly shows that, you know, we are human beings are born in a certain way. We have a certain genetic makeup that, that we have and what we do with that genetic makeup in our life, as far as diet and exercise and preventative medical care is what leads to longevity, wellness.
And.
Dr. Gina Basello: Yeah. Dr. Roth said it really well in terms of recognizing that there's a combination of what is known, you know, more conventionally as traditional medicine, but it's just as evidence-based as some of the complimentary that we use in integrative health. And I think that sort of focus on that person centered care and the prevention is really the key to wellness and the key to the best use of resources in health care.
Dr. Roth: And I would like to add, so without that, but Cielo said, you know, we do a really good job treating high blood pressure and diabetes with drugs and various things. If you have a heart attack or a stroke, we're going to save your life. But all of those conditions could be. They could be treated more importantly than being treated.
They could be prevented and they could be prevented with diet, exercise, and mindfulness types of activities.
Deborah Howell: Uh, Phrase comes to mind, nip it in the bud.
Dr. Gina Basello: Okay.
Dr. Roth: Love that.
Dr. Gina Basello: Yes, that's a good one.
Deborah Howell: Dr. Basello it's clear that preventative care is very important. What can an individual person do to take charge of his or her own?
Dr. Gina Basello: Well, I think that is definitely the key is that individual is in charge of his or her own health. And then it's important that we empower our patients to realize. That we are here to willingly partner with them on their health and do all of those preventative measures and encourage them and sort of review all of those lifestyle choices.
Like Dr. Ross was saying it's not just about after you have the hypertension and the heart attack it's before that it's health and wellness come down to every behavioral choice. And the options that folks have available to them, both individuals and communities.
Deborah Howell: That's beautifully said Dr. Roth, what barriers can potentially get in the way of a patient achieving?
Dr. Roth: Well, there's multiple barriers. You know, there are certainly system-based barriers. You know, our healthcare system is not designed for an integrative approach to health care. As I've mentioned before, we have a sick care system it's reactive rather than proactive. You know, doctors are not paid to keep people well, they're taped paid to take care of sick.
Surgeons are paid to operate on people and interventional radiologists and interventional neurologists are paid to prevent, you know, treat strokes and heart attacks when they're happening. But as I say, those things are prevented. An interventional neurologic procedure makes the hospital a hundred thousand.
Preventing the disease doesn't make the hospital anything. So there's a huge investment in time, money effort in keeping people well and healthy. And there's not a financial system to pay for it. And many of these modalities, especially in the healthcare system, we work where we have a very diversified and underserved population can't afford many of the modalities that would be helpful to them to prevent disease and promote well.
Dr. Gina Basello: I agree wholeheartedly. And those social determinants really are a huge part of what we're able to achieve when we partner with our patients. So when you talk. The underserved patients or those over-testing kind of issues. They may feel like that's, you know, not good care if you don't get all those tests.
But in fact, it could do a lot more to prevent things when you're doing a thoughtful approach to, to wellness from before those diseases and not over-testing and not over utilizing resources and really. Partnering with patients and communities to improve access to healthcare and take care of some of those systems things really early on to avoid illness.
Deborah Howell: It's really kind of a 180. My father was a physician and back in the day, people started talking about wellness and he would just roll his eyes. But I think today he would understand, oh yeah, if you prevent things, you don't need to treat them as much. Everybody wins.
Dr. Gina Basello: Right.
Dr. Roth: So I, I agree with that. Totally. And unfortunately, the healthcare system in our country, you know, we ranked number 27 in longevity, in life expectancy and we have the. Sophisticated advanced healthcare system. So why is that? The other countries that do better, they invest in their people's wellbeing.
They invest in nutrition. They invest in education. They invest in exercise and they invest in the prevention of the disease rather than the treatment.
Dr. Gina Basello: Yeah. And it's almost embarrassing when you look at all of those resources and how, you know, perhaps the allocation of where we spend our focus, they should be asking Dr. Roth and I, when they make those policy decision because I think that would make a much better difference in actual overall wellness of our patients and our communities.
Deborah Howell: So true. And you spoke a little bit about this earlier, but Dr. Basello, how important is it for patients to really partner with their physician while taking into account all of these crucial social determines.
Dr. Gina Basello: I think that's a crucial concept, especially with certain communities that don't feel particularly empowered. They are actually in charge of their health care too. And they can insist upon being offered. What is possible. And the ways that they can do that and to use their influences, to partner with their physicians.
And one of the concepts that's really important to us is continuity of care. You know, myself and definitely Dr. Roth for even longer, there are certain patient relationships that have gone on for decades, those folks, and the relationships that go along with following with the same doctor over the course of your life really makes a difference.
Ability to establish trust and have a bi-directional open, honest approach to maintaining that prevention and that wellness. And then it's also, you know, making sure that there's a focus on shared decision-making that patient and that doctor have to decide together what's best for the patient. It's not just what we want as a physician or what we think is important.
Like what we were talking about earlier when Dr. Roth is talking about health and wellness as mind, body spirit, what matters to that? It's going to need to be at the core of all decisions about their health combined with the medicine and the options available in the healthcare system.
Deborah Howell: Dr. Roth. Is there anything else you'd like to add to our conversation today?
Dr. Roth: Sure. You know, I certainly think that, you know, we need an integrative approach to healthcare in our nation. We, you know, we currently have a very disjointed, fragmented healthcare system that, you know, focuses on. chronic disease management, rather than this wellness and health. And it really is time to transform our healthcare system for the wellness of our nation, for the wellness of our people and for our everyone's mental and physical health.
And by combining, you know, a preventive kind of approach that involves the mind body and spirit in this integrative way to me is what's needed to help us, you know, move along.
Deborah Howell: Dr. Basello?
Dr. Gina Basello: Totally agree. And I would just like to encourage all of our patients to insist upon the care that they deserve and to ask their questions and insist that their doctor sort of explain things. It's okay. If they don't understand, it's not okay not to ask us. And we prefer that you do.
Deborah Howell: Great. Well, we want to thank you both so much for taking the time to be with us today to talk about integrative health. It was very refreshing.
Dr. Gina Basello: Thank you so much for having us.
Dr. Roth: Yes, it was great. Thank you.
Deborah Howell: For more information about Jamaica hospital's approach to integrative medicine. Visit our website at Jamaica hospital.org/podcasts. This has been Jamaica hospital med talk I'm Debra Howell. Thanks for listening and have yourself a great day.