The Role of Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medicine in Personalized Health Care

Personalized medicine, the treatment of patients based on their individual genetic, epigenetic, and phenotypic make up, holds the promise of dramatically changing healthcare by allowing clinical researchers to find specific and more effective strategies to manage symptoms of chronic diseases. Personalized medicine also involves the development of treatment strategies that incorporate understanding of individual patient preference. In a pluralistic healthcare system like that in the United States, many patients explore health practices that are not part of mainstream medicine. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM/NIH) has sponsored two national surveys as components of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) of the centers for disease control and prevention. These surveys have shown that nearly 40% of adult Americans and 12% of children used some form of complementary or alternative medicine as a complement or adjunct to conventional care (Barnes et al, 2008). Examples include use of natural products, such as herbal medicines and probiotics, and mind and body practices, such as meditation, progressive relaxation, tai chi, yoga, acupuncture, massage therapy, and spinal manipulation. In the last decade, as evidence for some of these approaches has grown, they are increasingly being incorporated into conventional care as part of an integrative medicine approach. An understanding of the biological basis of these CAM interventions and an increasing knowledge of how CAM treatments impact disease processes in specific individuals and populations could contribute to the development of more personalized strategies for the management of chronic conditions and the support of health promoting behaviors.