Transcription:
The Importance – and Impact – of Integrative Health

Deborah Howell (Host): It's become common knowledge that to really make an impact on your health, you need to do more than just take a pill, but what does that mean? Integrative health empowers you to use all the tools available across every dimension of health to achieve overall wellness and to help you live your best life. This may mean taking certain medications, but it also includes exercising, eating a balanced diet, practicing stress reduction, and possibly embracing such health practices as meditation, acupuncture, massage, or a host of other body mind, spirit therapies based on your individual health goals.

Today, we'll talk to Ginny Jump, nurse practitioner and integrative health professional at UM St. Joseph Medical Center, all about integrative health and how it can help you live your best life. Welcome to The Live Greater Podcast Series, information for a healthier you from the University of Maryland Medical System. I'm your host, Deborah Howell, and we wanna welcome Ginny.

Ginny Jump: Hi, Deborah. Thank you.

Deborah Howell (Host): So good to have you, I'm really interested in our subject today. So what is the difference between integrative health complimentary medicine and alternative medicine?

Ginny Jump: That's a great question. And I remember having to look up each of those and figure out what exactly they meant and how they relate to each other. And so here's what I've come up with, alternative is instead of. So an alternative treatment or, therapy would be something that you use instead of traditional treatments. The things that we're used to when we go to our healthcare provider and then integrative complimentary, or even holistic are things that come together or work together or are part of.

So there are things that we do in addition to our traditional treatments. So a good example, a good scenario is if we were to go to the healthcare provider and they told us that we had high blood pressure and prediabetes, which means to have blood sugar regulation problems, and they gave us a pill and they asked us to take that every day. And then they talked a little bit about, having a healthy diet and exercising. And so we go home and we take that pill every day, but boy, is it hard to start that diet or to change our diet?

It's just, where do we begin? And the idea of fresh fruits and vegetables and how do we prepare them. And it's just too much to add to our plate. No pun intended when there's so much else going on. So we do our best, but we really don't seem to make any change. And then with exercise, Every time we start an exercise program, our knee acts up, or our hip starts to hurt again. So we're really hesitant to start what we are used to doing because that's all we know. So we don't really get anywhere.

We do have a little bit of an improvement, of course, with the medication they're evidence based. They're important to use as part of our treatment, but overall, it's not as much as of an impact as if we had this scenario, which would be that the doctor prescribes a medication and then talks to us about our diet. And says, I'm gonna refer you to the dietician and you're gonna have a nutrition consult. And when you have that consult, you'll go over, what your current diet looks like and where are their areas for improvement.

And then certainly tips about how you can make it easier to prepare healthier foods. And then he might also, or she might also say, I'm gonna refer you to a physical therapist because there are ways to strengthen around the knee. So the knee doesn't hurt as much and certain exercises or certain exercises that won't, make a flare up of the knee pain or problem or of the hip. And then as well, we'll talk to you about, the stresses in your life or the anxiety that you have because you have so much going on that you couldn't get a healthier diet started or you couldn't exercise.

So they'll talk to you and give you references hopefully of different integrative practices that you can do such as, meditation or yoga, Tai Chi acupuncture, all of those things that they can integrate, they can compliment, they can come together and give you a more holistic approach to your treatment of the illness that's being, treated, the high blood pressure and the blood sugar problems. And you'll come back to the doctor and your blood pressure will be better.

You'll maybe have lost a little bit of weight. You'll tell them all about how you're feeling so much better. You're sleeping better. You have more energy and, better quality of life rather than just better blood pressure. So that's how I like to explain it all.

Deborah Howell (Host): Yeah, sure. And I'm glad you brought up, the term holistic because that's another confusing one. What is holistic medicine or holistic care?

Ginny Jump: It's all whole, it's bringing together. You integrate, you compliment, and you make whole so holistic medicine, holistic care is not a specific entity. It's just the idea of a term that brings it all together. for your treatment, just like integrative care or just like complimentary care, you can add the care or the medicine to any of those words and it makes you more confused, but it's really all still the same thing.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay, good to know. That's why I asked. So we mentioned some already. So what are some types of integrative therapies?

Ginny Jump: The more ancient Eastern practices, things that have been practiced for two to 5,000 years, things like yoga, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, Tai Chi, Chi Kong, Arivatic treatments, or, practices. And then there are the more modern ones. Things that have come and been researched and shown to have good results, like art therapy, music therapy, the coloring. A lot of people do adult coloring or mandalas, having a support group, doing things like journaling. so all of those are integrative, therapies and, again, there's older ones and newer ones and, we're seeing positive results from all of them.

Deborah Howell (Host): Crafting is in there too.

Ginny Jump: Yeah. So of course

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay. What are the benefits of using integrative therapies in daily life and perhaps as part of a medical treatment plan?

Ginny Jump: I think they're endless, the benefits, you know, just having a simple morning practice of meditating can reduce your stress throughout the rest of the day. Because you're in a. space in a place that you are able to cope with those stresses better. You've freed your mind for a few moments and you've gotten rid of some of the fears that you have or anxieties, and you're just better able to deal with the stresses. And we know that the benefit of that is profound. You know, having decreased stress can help with preventing, major, illnesses such as. Cardiovascular diseases or cancer, or digestive problems, mental health problems.

So the benefits are endless and it can be very simple in a daily practice. And then they can be pretty profound when you add them to a particular medical treatment. If you are having problems with, anxiety or depression, and you're seeing a mental health provider, adding yoga there's, research around that, that shows that that can be beneficial complimentary. It can really help give you a better. Result than either doing just one or the other. And for the depression, anxiety could be taking a medication.

So just taking the medication can be helpful, but adding a yoga practice to that gives you better results. And with acupuncture, there's something called chemotherapy, induced, peripheral neuropathy, an effect of the chemotherapy that makes numbness and tingling in your hands and feet. And acupuncture has some, research around it that shows that that can help. So you need to take that chemotherapy possibly, and have an unfortunate side effect, but having an integrative modality, can help with that treatment.

And there's also, a lymphatic massage, which can help with something that's called lymphedema. So there are a lot of different things that you can do with these different types of therapies, modalities daily, in a simple way. And then, in a part of a treatment plan for a medical condition.

Deborah Howell (Host): Sure. Now there used to be a lot of skepticism around quote unquote alternative medicine and integrated medicine, but less so these days, but let's make it clear. Are integrative modalities evidence based or researched?

Ginny Jump: Deborah, more and more they are being researched and, evidence based as I exampled, you know, yoga. Some research around it, that it helps with fatigue, anxiety, depression. what I like to do is go to N C C I H. That's the National Center for Complimentary and Integrative Health. And it's out of NIH, the National Institute of Health, and they report a lot of the results of research that's going on in these integrative.

Truly the research around all of these isn't as robust as more traditional treatments, the research around cancer treatment or cardiovascular treatments, because there's not a lot of funding for it.

And it's just very complicated to study. So a lot of times when you're looking for specific yes or no, to do these different types of integrative therapies or modalities, it'll say there's not enough science or evidence or research to recommend or not recommend. So you then have done a lot of, information gathering and you need to be empowered to make an informed decision for yourself. But it is important to look, to see if there's research and there is more research. And I think that there'll be more over time as there's more drive for this integrative approach to our healthcare.

Deborah Howell (Host): All and that website is N C I h.ih.gov. Once again, N C I H dot IH dot GV. Now, why is it so important to talk to all of your healthcare providers about any integrative therapies you might be using?

Ginny Jump: Yeah, it's very important. And some people feel frustrated because when we do talk to our healthcare providers, we don't always know enough of the answer. And we feel intimidated and it's just difficult to answer, but you do need to tell your healthcare provider about what you're interested in doing or what you currently are doing, because they know all of your medical conditions. And so, for example, if you have high blood pressure and you are on an antihypertensive, a medication that brings that blood pressure down.

Well, if you're interested in taking hot yoga, your provider can say that's really dangerous because in a hot yoga class, your blood pressure may lower more. You may fall and hit your head and have a major injury. So it's important to talk to them about these different things. And on a bigger scale, the idea of patient that has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy or radiation, and they wanna take strong antioxidant, a high dose beta caratine, vitamin E, or vitamin C because they hear that that can help their cells and help their overall health while they're going through these treatments.

But they need to talk to their healthcare provider about it because. A conversation between the two of you, can let you know that some of these antioxidants can decrease the effectiveness of the chemotherapy and the radiation. So taking them at the time that you're getting 'em might again decrease the effectiveness because chemotherapy and the radiation are trying to kill the cancer cells. Unfortunately, they can kill healthy cells as well. And that's where people have this conflict. Well, I'd want to take something to prevent my healthy cells from getting hurt.

But again, you just need to be informed. You need to have the conversation because in the end you do have a decision. You have the decision to take a strong antioxidant, but know that it might decrease the effectiveness of your cancer treatment or know that you can still take that once your treatment's over and you can get on a program, a regimen of building. Your health from the effects, unfortunately, of chemotherapy and radiation. So I think it's really helpful and empowering to have a conversation with your healthcare provider about what you're interested in.

Deborah Howell (Host): And to be totally honest, because otherwise you're just cheating

Ginny Jump: just cheating Yeah. Not having enough information and information is power.

Deborah Howell (Host): So what licensing or education does someone need to have to practice any of these integrative modalities?

Ginny Jump: It's complicated, right? Because there are so many different ones and there's so many different variations of practicing it, I guess we could say. but generally practitioners are, licensed or credentialed or, registered to practice and to get that they go through specific educational programs where there's, standard, curriculum or training and practice. So you can, see that they have that. and you also wanna talk to that practitioner and say, what is your training? What education did you go through?

Can you tell me more about your practice and can I read some testimonials from previous patients or clients. And talk to your family and friends and talk to your healthcare provider to see about this particular provider, if you've found one that you're interested in using. But generally there is, certification, credentialing, registration. Licensing that you can, talk to them about and validate that they have.

Deborah Howell (Host): Sure. Now you mentioned word of mouth and friends, but how else can someone find a

Ginny Jump: someone find a good practitioner?

They can start with their healthcare provider. You can also check with your health insurance carrier. Sometimes they'll have listings of that. and now more and more, there are wellness centers. So you could look for a wellness center in your area, literally online, which sometimes we worry about the validity of things. But with these health wellness centers, are so much more popular and more mainstream. And having a wellness center, they need to know that the people that are within their practice are legitimate, are certified, are educated, trained, and have good experience.

So I think you can go that way as well. And finding them, there are huge registries of acupuncturists or massage therapists. but I think for the general public, that's a little bit harder to dive into. And again, your healthcare provider, your insurance carrier, family, friends, or wellness centers as a way to go for finding a good practitioner.

Deborah Howell (Host): All great suggestions. Any final thoughts

Ginny Jump: final thoughts for I always have final thoughts and my final thought would be that we really want to, talk about the impact of integrative therapies on our health. So if we are that person in the beginning of this conversation that had high blood pressure and prediabetes, they start yoga. They have a better diet, they're exercising, they're meditating, and they come back and tell their provider. Wow. Everything is better, not just my blood pressure, but again, I've lost a little bit of weight. I sleep better. I have more energy. I'm less stressed.

Then that informs the provider who then feels good and says, okay, I'm gonna do it for more patients. And you can also tell your health. Insurance carrier, and family and friends just really talk up this benefit of an integrative complimentary holistic approach to your healthcare, because I think that will drive more money for research. I think it will drive more funding for our health insurance carriers to pay for these services because of the, huge benefit. It gives again to our overall health and wellness.

Deborah Howell (Host): I couldn't agree more. Ginny, this has been so interesting and insightful. Thank you so much for being

Ginny Jump: you so much for being Oh, Debrorah, thank you for the opportunity. I really appreciate it and enjoyed our time together.

Deborah Howell (Host): Have a wonderful rest of the week and you can always find more shows just like this one at umms.org/podcast. Thanks for listening to Live Greater, a health and wellness podcast brought to you by the University of Maryland Medical System. We look forward to you joining us again.