For those tired of the same old conventional medical practices, Duke Medicine is offering an alternative way to address health needs.
Duke Integrative Medicine is a branch of Duke Medicine that has recently pushed to publicize its unique approach to health and treatment. More than three years ago, Duke Integrative Medicine opened a new 27,000 sq.-ft. facility that offers alternative treatments for patients.
“Our approach at Duke Integrative Medicine is a combination of conventional Western medicine and complementary treatment, such as acupuncture, nutrition, fitness, hypnosis and meditation,” said Isabel Geffner, director of communications at Duke Integrative Medicine. “We look at the non-pharmaceutical options for treatment.”
A main point of emphasis at Duke Integrative Medicine is the idea of “mindfulness,” said Jeffrey Greeson, a clinical health psychologist at the facility.
“Being mindful means that we have an awareness of what’s happening as it’s happening,” Greeson said. “We need to be aware of our trains of thoughts and mindfully observe our habits and impulses without necessarily acting on them.”
Researchers at the facility are also trying to conduct studies to quantify the benefits of integrative medicine.
Greeson is currently conducting a study funded by the National Institutes of Health that focuses on an eight-week meditation program to improve sleep. He has been teaching meditation skills, mindful breathing and body awareness to patients at Duke since 1998.
Greeson said he wants to see the program’s effectiveness on sleep quality, stress-related symptoms, compassion and positive and negative emotions.
Although still in its early stages, Greeson said those who finish the program have exhibited a significant improvement in sleep quality and take sleep medication less frequently. He added that he also wants to learn how raising awareness of one’s mind and feelings can improve overall sleep.
“Daily meditative practices, mindful breathing or a series of yoga postures can both prevent the effects and ameliorate the treatment of stress and tension,” Greeson said.
In addition to mindful sleeping, there are also studies on mindful eating, Fikkan said.
“My area of interest is in applying integrative medicine and holistic approaches to weight-related problems and eating,” Fikkan said.
She added that she wants to observe the benefits of mindful eating and distinguish between eating out of hunger as opposed to emotional eating.
“Traditional approaches to weight loss have pretty mixed results,” Fikkan said. “Weight is typically gained back afterwards, which makes people feel demoralized.”
Mindful eating includes paying attention to what’s being eaten and observing certain body signals while eating, Fikkan said, adding that many people rely on external cues to indicate fullness, rather than on the more subtle body signals.
As a whole, integrative medicine is more of a complement instead of a replacement to traditional medical treatment, Greeson said. He noted that integrative medicine has been shown to decrease symptoms of stress, anxiety and pain as well as showing signs of lowering blood pressure and causing changes in brain structure and function.
“Conventional medicine reacts to health issues, but integrative medicine is proactive and plans for health,” Geffner said.
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