Conventional and Integrative Medicine: What is the Difference?

Integrative medicine is the practice of treating the whole person with a variety of conventional treatments and complementary therapies that consider the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being of the patient. At Restoration Healthcare it means a practice of healing that considers the whole person and the root cause of their health conditions. Our physicians draw from a collective knowledge base of evidence-based practices in conventional medicine, as well as other safe, researched, and science-based complementary healing methods to address complex-chronic conditions. Our approach to healthcare is to listen to the patient, fully understand their needs and prior experience, assess all prior care, and then, working with the patient, investigate why they have not been able to regain their health. In many ways, we are medical investigators with our patients as investigative partners! We know that conventional medicine is often needed for the acute treatment of chronic conditions. This accepted standard of care is where most doctors start – and where our team starts. Many of the conditions our patients are treated for do not fit nicely into a standard of care model beyond the acute phase of their illness. Our licensed, board-certified physicians go further by utilizing other treatments and therapies that integrate conventional standard-of-care practices. We call it just good medicine. Integrative medicine includes other approaches, whose terms you may have heard – functional medicine, complementary medicine, and alternative medicine. Each one of these approaches has its own merits and each one often draws on the wisdom of the other. In our opinion, whole-person integrative medicine allows our doctors to use all of the practices they feel are best suited to the patient’s needs. When you become a patient, our doctors take comprehensive diagnostic testing to establish a baseline for your care and then continue that testing as you progress to evaluate the progress and effectiveness of treatment.

How is Integrative Medicine different at Restoration Healthcare?

Restoration Healthcare’s approach to integrative medicine is unique both in our approach and in that we take insurance. Our team has diligently and thoughtfully explored the means for specific insurance companies to pay for the treatment of complex-chronic conditions using integrative medicine. Your insurance plan must qualify and you must meet medical necessity qualifications for you to be seen at a patient (more here). We see every patient as a unique individual and draw from all evidence-base, safe, and effective therapies appropriate for care of their specific health needs. Our board-certified physicians come from a variety of backgrounds and work as a team to share their knowledge so that every patient gets the most comprehensive care possible. Instead of just treating the symptoms of complex conditions, we identify all of the contributing factors of a person’s health status. The information and data are used to diagnose and formulate a personalized integrative health treatment plan, which emphasizes a therapeutic partnership between the patient and the physician. Each is accountable to the other for doing their part to support the restoration of health.

Conventional and Integrative Medicine

1. We assess all contributing factors that may have influenced a person’s health.
2. We create a plan using all appropriate conventional and complementary methods that can be applied to each person for optimal healing.
3. We focus on outcomes. How well is the treatment working? What are the barriers to healing? Are you improving so that daily life is easier and more enjoyable

Integrative Medicine Treats Complex-Chronic Illness

Complex chronic disease is clinically defined as conditions with symptoms that last three months to one year. In actuality, you’ve likely been sick for much longer. You just didn’t know it. These conditions have an extended latency period, meaning that the time between the onset of symptoms and feeling ill can be long. Chronic disease is not contagious but it will eventually catch up to you.

1. Chronic disease develops quietly.
2. The incubation period can last for decades.
3. It often not easily diagnosed without tests that are not available at all clinics.
4. Once it flares, it is unpredictable, painful, and life-altering.
5. It cannot be escaped and very few doctors know how to address the root cause.

Despite the insidious nature of chronic illness, the body has been working overtime for months even years to try to repair the damage from a developing chronic illness and all of the other contributing stressors of modern society. When the onslaught is this continuous, our cells, tissues, and organs cannot keep up and the outward signs of illness slowly reveal themselves with inflammation, brain fog, fatigue, and loss of mobility. The traumatic effects on the brain and nervous system, immunity, gastrointestinal system, muscles, and tissue, and all the systems of body are so complex that the path back to health is blocked by significant barriers. Complex-chronic disease is often the body’s cumulative response to many different things gone awry, including:

• Inflammation
• Infectious agents
• Dysbiosis
• Exposure to toxins & toxicants
• Stressors & lifestyle strains
• Mood disorders & depression
• Genomic & genetic factors
• Poor nutrition (excess & malnourishment)
• Alcohol, tobacco & drugsSedentary lifestyle
• Trauma (physical and emotional

Treating Complex-Chronic Illness with Integrative Medicine

Anyone can benefit from integrative medicine – whether for the prevention or treatment of a disease. But at our clinic, we specialize in helping people with often debilitating, complex-chronic illnesses.

Living this way can be overwhelming and our patients tell us we offer a place of hope and respite from a system that can be overwhelming to navigate.

“At Restoration Healthcare we see the body as interconnected, rather than a list of symptoms and ailments. Shouldn’t medical care be integrated too?”

The type of healing we practice is not quick. Time is a hallmark of integrative medicine.

Our diagnostic tests look at the biomarkers of chronic disease and consider a full scope of indicators that might be contributing to health issues before we begin treatment. Doctors take careful inventory of your condition and who you are, right down to your cells. We teach you to understand the cause of your condition. We give you the knowledge you need about integrative medicine to prevent your condition from progressing, reduce triggers and minimize flare-ups. True healing starts when you use what you learn from us and apply it to daily life.

The integrative treatments and therapies may include the following:

1. Medications (yes, in some cases it’s necessary)
2. Dietary supplements
3. Herbal/botanical medicine
4. IV therapy
5. Acupuncture
6. Chiropractic
7. Osteopathic manipulation
8. Functional medicine
9. Functional neuro-therapies
10. Detoxification protocols
11. Prolozone therapy
12. Nutritional guidance
13. Stress management practices
14. Sleep hygiene
15. Mind-body medicine

Looking for an Integrative Medicine Clinic that Takes Insurance?

Living with a chronic illness can be overwhelming and all-consuming. It can be also very costly. This is why we take insurance for complex-chronic illnesses. Not all plans are included, and you must show medical necessity to medically qualify, so please read carefully.

At Restoration Healthcare, your care is yours alone. Our doctors have experience with patients who have similar conditions, but no person’s treatment is alike. This is a new experience for many because instead of treating symptoms, our integrative medicine techniques support the body’s own ability to heal.

We specialize in the following conditions:

1. Lyme disease
2. Long-COVID
3. Neurodegeneration
4. Concussions and brain trauma
5. Mold and fungi
6. Environmental toxins
7. Mast Cell Activation (MCAS)
8. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)
9. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Hypermobile (EDS)
10. Thyroid disorders
11. Autoimmune diseases
12. Metabolic disorders

For more information Contact or Call us at (949) 535-2322, please fill out our patient-inquiry packet from our homepage. Restoration Healthcare takes patients in Southern California with insurance plans that meet our qualifiers.