What Is Integrative Dermatology?
A growing number of individuals are realizing that symptom management is not enough to achieve full health. This is true for skin health too. Putting on some creams on your acne or eczema may help to soothe your symptoms for a while, but they will return. So what can you do instead?
The answer is integrative dermatology. Integrative dermatology offers an individualized, holistic approach that aims to find the root cause of your issues and support you on a whole-person level to achieve long-lasting skin health. Did we catch your curiosity? Read on to learn more about integrative dermatology and how it may help your skin health.
What Is Integrative Dermatology
Integrative dermatology is a form of integrative medicine that focuses on skin health with an integrative medicine approach. Integrative dermatology combines conventional dermatological skin treatments, including prescription medications, surgery, and other procedures, with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) options, including herbal medicine, dietary changes, acupuncture, and mindfulness, to achieve optimal skin wellness.
Integrative dermatology doesn’t separate your skin from the rest of your body but looks at it as part of a larger system. It recognizes that your skin health is deeply connected to your overall physical, mental, and emotional health, as well as environmental, lifestyle, and dietary factors.
When diagnosing or treating a skin disease or condition, an MD who practices integrative dermatology will look at the big picture and uncover the root cause of your skin condition while offering support from traditional and alternative models. Prevention is just as important in integrative dermatology as diagnosis and treatment (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Core Principles of Integrative Dermatology
Let’s look at the core principles of integrative dermatology:
Treating the Whole Person
Integrative dermatology approaches your skin health from a holistic perspective. Instead of isolating your skin or your skin condition, it looks at underlying physical, emotional, and environmental factors when it comes to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Their goal is to restore overall balance in your body to improve the long-term health of your skin.
Connecting the Internal Health and Skin Health
Integrative dermatology looks at your skin as a window to your overall health. Your skin is not a separate organ but is connected to your internal health. Integrative dermatologists look at your gut microbiome balance, hormonal health, chronic inflammation, nutritional factors, and other factors that influence your skin health. Integrative dermatology practitioners aim to address these factors to improve your skin and overall health from the inside out.
Personalized Care and Collaboration
When working with an integrative dermatologist, you can expect personalized care. Your doctor will spend time with you, and listen to your health history, symptoms, concerns, and goals. While taking genetic, lifestyle, dietary, and environmental factors, they tailor your treatment to your individual needs and goals. Collaborating with patients on their treatment plans is a key part of the comprehensive care you can expect from integrative dermatology.
Prevention and Maintenance
While conventional medicine and dermatology tend to mainly focus on symptoms, disease, and treatment, integrative dermatology emphasizes prevention. Even if you don’t have any skin problems, they can help you with a strategy to prevent issues. If you are experiencing skin health issues, they can help you treat your problems, prevent further issues, and maintain skin health in the long term.
Conventional Treatments Combined with Natural Therapies
Integrative dermatology combines conventional treatments with natural therapies. Let’s see how this works.
Using Conventional Treatments
Traditional dermatological treatments may include topical creams, prescription medication, procedural interventions, or surgery. Procedural interventions may include laser therapy, cryotherapy, chemical peels, microneedling, phototherapy, botox, and dermal fillers. These treatments are backed by clinical research.
Integrative dermatology practitioners may help to manage acute skin problems, and chronic or severe skin conditions, including acne, psoriasis, or rosacea, and even skin cancer. These conventional treatment options can offer immediate relief before dietary, lifestyle, and other alternative strategies can start working for long-term help.
Integrating Natural Therapies
In addition to conventional treatment, integrative dermatology uses alternative and natural therapies for holistic skin care. These complementary therapies may include herbal remedies, an anti-inflammatory diet, lifestyle changes, stress reduction strategies, and acupuncture. Chronic inflammation, chronic stress, and chronic environmental toxin exposure can all result in skin issues and flare-ups, thus integrative dermatology aims to tackle the issue from all angles with natural approaches.
Addressing Root Causes
Integrative dermatology is unique in the world of dermatology and skincare because it aims to address the root cause of your skin issues.
Identifying the Root Cause
While conventional dermatology puts the emphasis on symptom management, integrative dermatology doesn’t believe in this band-aid approach. They focus on understanding the root causes of your skin issues.
There are a number of underlying factors that may be contributing to acne, eczema, rosacea, psoriasis, and other chronic or autoimmune skin problems. Integrative dermatologists offer a comprehensive assessment, including health and medical history, lifestyle evaluation, dietary evaluation, looking at your stress levels and mental health, and lab work. Their holistic approach aims to target foundational issues to solve the cause of your problems to eliminate your skin symptoms.
Long-Term Outlook
Integrative dermatology has a long-term outlook. Practitioners aim to create sustainable solutions that address both internal and external factors. They aim to understand and improve physical, mental, emotional, and environmental factors. The goal is long-term skin health, not just symptom management.
Integrative dermatology offers a combination of conventional and natural therapies to do this. You may be recommended dietary changes, lifestyle adjustments, stress management strategies, and non-toxic skincare products. Medication and other conventional options may be needed initially and sometimes longer term. The goal is to restore balance and support your skin’s natural repair mechanism to reduce or eliminate symptoms and flair-ups, prevent recurring problems, and achieve long-lasting skin health.
Common Conditions Treated by Integrative Dermatology
Reading this, you are probably intrigued by integrative dermatology. But is it right for you? Can it help with your skin conditions?
Common Skin Conditions Treated by Integrative Dermatology
Integrative dermatology is most often used for chronic skin conditions, including inflammatory and autoimmune skin problems. Practitioners commonly see patients with acne, eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis, and rosacea.
These conditions are commonly influenced by chronic inflammation, hormonal imbalances, nutrition, stress, environmental toxins, and lifestyle choices. Integrative dermatology can help with all these factors through a root cause, holistic, and individualized approach.
How Can an Integrative Approach Help?
The secret of integrative dermatology lies in the combination of clinically proven conventional therapies and evidence-based natural interventions to address the root causes of your condition, promote overall skin health, and prevent future problems.
For example, dietary and lifestyle strategies can reduce chronic inflammation, which may play a role in psoriasis and other autoimmune skin issues. Probiotics for gut microbiome balance may help with acne and inflammatory skin issues. Stress management may help with flare-ups of eczema or psoriasis. Medications and conventional options can help with initial symptom relief and if needed, offer support alongside natural strategies.
Benefits of Integrative Dermatology
So what are the benefits of integrative dermatology? Let’s summarize it.
Improved Skin Health Through Personalized Care
One of the main benefits of integrative dermatology is improved skin health through personalized care. Practitioners tailor their treatment plans to address the unique circumstances, needs, and goals of each patient. They consider health, dietary, lifestyle, stress-related, environmental, and emotional factors, as well as, the patient’s medical and family history, genetics, and overall health to create sustainable solutions and long-lasting skin health outcomes.
Long-Term Solutions Beyond Symptom Management
Instead of putting a bandaid on your acute symptoms and flair-ups, integrative dermatologists aim to find and address the underlying root causes of your skin problems. They aim to offer long-term solutions with the help of conventional and alternative therapies and preventative strategies. Their goal is to improve skin symptoms, increase skin resilience, achieve overall skin health, and prevent future skin issues.
Achieve Healthy, Beautiful Skin With Integrative Dermatology
Integrative dermatology is a growing field that supports optimal skin health through a combination of conventional and alternative practices from a holistic perspective. Practitioners offer a personalized and collaborative approach to finding the best options for your unique situation. By figuring out the underlying issue behind your skin problem, they can correct root causes instead of simply symptom management.
Integrative dermatology helps to improve your skin and overall health from the inside out. We encourage you to use this holistic approach to skincare to treat both the skin and overall well-being. If you are looking for a personalized healthcare option, we recommend that you explore integrative dermatology and medicine. We invite you to set up an appointment with our office here. We can answer any questions you have about integrative dermatology, from the unique skills our dedicated doctors offer to questions about insurance coverage and payment.