Dr. Christopher Smith, a board-certified family medicine specialist who completed a two-year fellowship in integrative medicine under the direction of Dr. Andrew Weil, recently joined UCF Health, the College of Medicine physician practice. He presented an overview of how traditional therapies, considered \u201calternative\u201d therapies in modern society, can promote good health and well-being. His recent talk was held at UCF Health\u2019s second location in Medical City to almost 100 participants. Dr. Smith also serves as an assistant professor of family and alternative medicine at the college.<\/p>\n
Research shows that 80 to 90 percent of Americans use some form of alternative medicine to treat their health conditions, he said, but few patient\u2019s if any tell their physicians. He supports the approach of \u2018integrative medicine\u2019 where alternative and complementary medicine have a duel role in conventional therapies. \u201cI don\u2019t take patients off their medicines unless they are getting better,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to tell you to wear magnets around your neck and drink a gallon of pomegranate juice every day. My approach is to cherry-pick the best options based on scientific evidence and patient need.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his talk, he provided an example of a patient with recurrent migraine headaches. Dr. Smith\u2019s approach would involve a pharmaceutical prescription in addition to recommending magnesium and riboflavin as a preventative measure, therefore reducing reliance on a pharmaceutical drug. Similarly, a diabetic patient would be given a prescription for medication but also get nutrition and supplement suggestions to help with control of blood glucose levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to treat you, not the disease,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Internet is filled with alternative medicine claims, he said, which can be false and even cause harm when taken with prescription drugs. He urged participants to use reliable scientific sources when researching alternative therapies, including the National Institutes of Health\u2019s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine or ConsumerLabs.com<\/p>\n
Dr. Smith provided perspective on a variety of topics:<\/p>\n
For more information on UCF Health and Dr. Smith, please visit ucfhealth.com. To view a video version of this story, please visit https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MJUxyIlKh_0&feature=youtu.be<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Christopher Smith, a board-certified family medicine specialist who completed a two-year fellowship in integrative medicine under the direction of Dr. Andrew Weil, recently joined UCF Health, the College of Medicine physician practice. He presented an overview of how traditional therapies, considered \u201calternative\u201d therapies in modern society, can promote good health and well-being. His recent talk was held at UCF…","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":66999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[12,17],"tags":[17969,979],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-66998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-medicine","tag-christopher-smith","tag-college-of-medicine"],"yoast_head":"\n