Transforming Wellness: Navigating Integrative and Personalized Healthcare Approaches

Can understanding the gray areas of health transform your wellness journey? In this episode, we uncover how to navigate the complexities of integrative care, blending acute treatments with mind-body practices and alternative therapies. As a multiracial nurse practitioner, I share personal insights on the significance of tailoring healthcare to individual needs, rather than relying on one-size-fits-all solutions. From my own battles with injuries and health issues, I reveal how integrating various techniques led me to better outcomes and a more holistic approach to health.

Join us as we challenge the quick-fix mentality of the healthcare system and emphasize the importance of preventative care and personalized approaches. We delve into the influence of big corporations and legal constraints on healthcare practices, advocating for education and awareness to maintain optimal health. Listen to heartfelt stories and actionable advice on how to take charge of your wellness, ensuring a healthier, longer life through mindful and informed choices. This episode is not just a discussion but a call to rethink how we approach health and wellness.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

And I'm your nurse practitioner integrative nurse practitioner and here to discuss living in the gray area. What does that mean? Living in the gray area of health or in life in general? So, as a healthcare provider, I really am so about integrative. So for me, integrative health and a way of living is that there's no right or wrong per se. There is an area in the middle of health, meaning when you have an acute stage of care and needs, those are absolutely necessary. But then there is a point in time when there's an interconnection between the mind, body and other modalities that you still need additional assistance and sometimes there is not a answer for every ailment and everything that we may have in our life. So what does that mean? What it really means is that we have to go by guidelines per se, but those guidelines don't go for every person.

Speaker 1: 2:09

I may follow certain algorithms for a certain type of disease or illness, but really, until I'm looking at the whole preventative perspective and a person's past, present and possible future, I really am not giving them the full picture. Everything is not black or white, and I think that I mean maybe in this world, maybe because I'm a multiracial woman and black and Spanish, anditerranean, uh, from arab nation. And so I think that for me I am so multiracial that I think I definitely have always lived in the gray area of life, figuratively and work-wise, and for me it just comes down to wanting to do the most for not just patients, but for myself and for others that there's no right or wrong answer to everything. I mean, granted, there are some things that are neurological and figuratively, but when you look at a little bit more in-depth conversation but things are a little bit more complex in our healthcare field and when we just get a narrow-minded point of view and just do a quick fix, we're not really treating the whole picture. Granted, yes, you may be putting a band-aid on or you may be suturing up something literally, or you may be giving a medication that still may not be looking at underlying causes. And even if you do look at the underlying causes, are we then addressing the actionable steps or our fundamental behaviors to get ourselves to an optimal state? I mean, the person's state of mind or their individual situation may not be able to do that.

Speaker 1: 4:12

So for me in a world of health, and even for myself, I've lived in that middle area because I know that there is no one answer and with my own injuries and my own health issues, I had to find many ways to grow and be better, and it was a variety of techniques. It was anything from you know, learning that naproxen was going to mess up my stomach because of pain and there was no pain medicine that was helping. And then to find out that, you know, I had to use alternative herbs and creams and movement modalities even when I was in pain, and that movement, even in the most stressful times, still actually was beneficial, and that even that previous traumas and pasts are part of the equation and connections. And I can go on and on and on. But the part in which can get complicated in the world of health care is that there's all of these big companies and I don't even want to get too much into it, but there's always of these legalities or companies and big this and big that that will try to dictate what is better for individuals' healthcare.

Speaker 1: 5:38

And as someone that tries to help as many people as possible in her career and with education too, I cannot fathom that there's a one fix all.

Speaker 1: 5:53

But that's the society that we've been living in and I'm hoping that with this podcast and with education that we can kind of open up the eyes to more individuals that there is not a it's not a broke fix, you know it's.

Speaker 1: 6:05

Let's kind of fix it before and maintain it before it gets worse, and understand we can keep our beautiful machine bodies in the most optimal health to live the longest that it could ever live, by building up and understanding our body's energy and our bio engineering and the mitochondria and her health overall and getting a real understanding of that without just trying to just not acknowledge those parts. And for me I think it's a complex conversation today. But I really wanted to kind of just do a quick touch base of. I don't live in the black and white and I'm mostly in integrative, so for me the gray area or that overlap is where those intrinsical circles of individuals illness changing to a wellness state of mind. If you have questions or you'd like to reach out more, please touch base with me on email or on the website and I'd be glad to talk with you guys soon. Have a good rest of your day and make sure you find a mindful way each and every day.