Dr. Erica Steele – You wanna learn more about integrative health and what it is as well as what it isn’t? We’ll tune in to find out. My name is Dr. Erica Steele. I’m a holistic doctor in family practice. I hold six degrees in my field and they’re all in the natural healthcare space, and I choose to be a drugless.
Integrative doctor, so let’s talk about integrative health. So it’s very necessary that we as doctors I don’t care what kind of doctor you are, if you’re an allopathic doctor or you’re a drugless doctor like me, that you use integrative healthcare because. , it’s important to give the patient what the patient is looking for and what the patient needs.
So that’s why it’s necessary, because even though we may not necessarily be helpful for the patient, it’s important for us to educate the patient about their risk versus benefits. They can make an informed decision and then we send them wherever they need to. , it’s very unethical if providers discredit modalities that they’re not trained in.
And so I see this more so in I see it in both worlds and I see it in both communities where, an allopathic doctor will say that doesn’t work. Don’t do that modality, that’s dangerous, that’s not proven, et cetera. And while it may be true that there’s not a study that proves that it works or doesn’t work, Placebos do work.
And so if a allopathic provider is not trained in a specific modality, for instance, we’ll just say reiki as a, for instance if they’re not trained in reiki as a reiki modality, I can’t necessarily discredit it because I don’t, I’m not educated enough about it to be able to talk about it in an educated manner.
I can say I don’t know about it, if you. In that, go see X, Y, and Z. There’s a lot of modalities that people will come to me and ask about. And I’ve been in practice for a long time and there’s not a whole lot that I’m not somewhat knowledgeable about or experienced in. So I’m grateful for that to be able to have that broad knowledge.
But even if I’m not, I. I will advise that patient and say, these are the benefits, these are the risks. And then check out this type of qualified provider to be able to help. And so my role is to just send people where they need to go. For instance, I’ll have a patient come in and they say like a patient with glaucoma for instance.
There’s not too many things natural that can heal. It’s just not, there’s not enough data to be able, for me at least to feel comfortable, but I’m going to refer that patient to an ophthalmologist. I’m gonna refer that patient to, somebody that’s specialized in that area to be able to serve that patient appropriately.
I’m not gonna then say, oh yeah, let’s go ahead and try it, because that would be unethical. So it’s really important to know. That our training begins and ends up with where our comfort level is. And so integrative healthcare, while it is an amazing modality because it helps to really help you to see the person as a whole, we really wanna be mindful of recommending modalities that either A, we’re not aware of, or b, we’re not trained in.
We also wanna be mindful of not discrediting things that we’re not trained in as well as equal. . Integrative health really brings that conventional and complimentary approaches together in a very coordinated way. And so sometimes it can be a little challenging because again, if you’re not trained in certain things, how do you know how to coordinate them?
And so I think it’s really important that if you do hang your shingle out as an integrative healthcare provider, That you do, train in various modalities. You also experience various modalities so that you can educate your patient about what it is and what it isn’t. So from a patient perspective, though, integrative healthcare really brings all of it together.
You may have an integrative healthcare provider that’s an MD or a do, and they can either prescribe drugs or they do surgeries, but they can also provide mind body services or nutritional services or supplement recommendations, et cetera. You can also find, let’s say a chiropractor or a acupuncturist who are trained in their primary modality of chiropractic and acupuncturist.
And then there also have some other modalities that they’re trained in, maybe functional medicine or Chinese herbs or they may be trained in breath work or nutrition, et cetera. And so they offer more of a wellness. Based approach. And then naturopathic doctors such as myself, who also have integrative healthcare training, even though I’m not an allopathic doctor, I have been around them and I work with them enough to know when I hear something, I go, oh, you know what?
I wanna, I need you to, I need you to go and see a cardiologist to go get a stress test. Or, I need to send you back to your primary care because you haven’t had a DEXA scan and you’re getting up there in age. Or, oh, you’re over 50, you haven’t gotten. Colonoscopy, you need to go and do those preventative services.
I am able to identify that with my patient. And even though I’m a Drugless doctor, even though I’m a natural doctor, I’m able to advise to make sure that we are checking all of the boxes cuz it’s really about the patient. It’s not about our egos or about what we think or don’t think, et cetera. And so I think it’s really important that we just share.
If we’re not familiar with something, we just say, you know what? I don’t know about that modality, but here I recommend something, somebody to, see a person about that. There’s a lot of various modalities out there. And and a lot of different coaching and that kind of thing. It’s really important that we.
Stay humble and we stay committed to making sure the integrative healthcare grows because human beings are very complex and they need multiple modalities to help them get well. My name is Dr. Erica Steele. I’m a holistic doctor and family practice and we help families live naturally.
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