Integrative Medicine

Integrative medicine is a term for a style of medicine that blends conventional treatments with diet, supplements, and other types of treatments. We used to call treatments like acupuncture and massage “alternative,” or “holistic,” and some veterinarians still like describing their style of medicine that way. Integrative medicine is a more inclusive and less polarizing term for treatments that have been shown to help. An integrative veterinarian might treat cancer with surgery, chemotherapy, supplements, acupuncture, and vaccines or immunotherapy, using each approach for its own sake and the way it supports the other treatments.