Integrative Medicine Overview Integrative Medicine is more than the integration of mainstream western medicine (allopathic) with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Integrative Medicine combines the best of conventional medicine with multi-disciplinary therapies to address the needs of the whole person. Integrative Medicine is for people seeking a system that addresses their physical, mental, and spiritual needs. It offers people dealing with a chronic or life-threatening disease an approach that considers all the dimensions of their lives. It also offers those that are not ill the opportunity to increase their self-awareness, enhance their well-being, and prevent health-related problems.

CAM in the United States
Alternative medicine use and expenditures increased substantially between 1990 and 1997. This was attributable primarily to an increase in the proportion of the population seeking alternative therapies rather than increased visits per patient. In 1998, a national phone survey of 1500 U.S. adults estimated that the total number of visits to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners exceeded the total number of visits to primary care physicians in 1990. It was estimated that Americans spent $27 billion out-of-pocket for CAM services in 1997.
Eisenberg et al 1998

In 2002, a much larger nationwide survey of 31,000 American adults was conducted in which a diverse population was interviewed about their use of CAM (the CDC National Health Interview Survey, NHIS ). Thirty-eight percent of those interviewed reported using some form of CAM in the previous 12 months. When prayer (used specifically for health reasons) and megavitamins were included in the definition of CAM, this percentage increased to 62%. CAM often was used to treat back or pain problems, head or chest colds, neck pain or neck problems, joint or pain stiffness, and anxiety or depression. Fifty-four percent of adults age 18 or over who used CAM were more likely to do so because they believed that CAM combined with conventional treatments would help.
Barnes et al 2004

Why Are People Using CAM
CAM is attractive to many people because it emphasizes treating the whole person, promotes good health and well-being, values prevention, and offers a more personalized approach to patient concerns.

Most people who use CAM do so to complement conventional medicine rather than as an alternative because they believe the combination to be superior to either approach alone. Independent predictors of CAM used in one written survey were a higher level of education, poorer health status (chronic pain, anxiety, etc.), and a "holistic" interest in health, personal growth, and spirituality. Dissatisfaction with conventional medicine was not an independent predictor of greater use (Astin 1998), although more than a quarter of U.S. adults in the survey said that they used CAM because they believed conventional medicine wouldn't help them.
NHIS survey