Today's Edition
SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
In an age of modern, tech-driven healthcare, there remains a significant place for traditional therapies that date back thousands of years. Many global experts are advocating the integration of holistic healing methods with conventional care.
At the first Al Shifaa Summit for Integrative Medicine — which is part of Abu Dhabi Global Health Week 2025 — healthcare leaders turned the spotlight on how traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine (TCIM) contributes to achieving longer, healthier lives.
Speaking at the summit, Dr. Jennifer Stone, Co-Chair of the Indiana Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health at Indiana University School of Medicine, highlighted the success of this type of healthcare in the US, particularly in caring for veterans.
In the US, “all the veterans have access to acupuncture, massage, health coaching, lifestyle medicine, biofeedback, mindfulness-based meditation practices”, she said, explaining the US Veterans Affairs’ “Whole Health” initiative launched in 2013.
“Instead of focusing on the disease, it is focusing on the veteran themselves and what they need to give them a better, healthier lifestyle,” she told Aletihad.
She advocated for blending integrative therapies with Western medicine as the ideal approach for global health.
Integrative medicine is not new — just long overlooked, Dr. Stone stressed.
“Holistic medicine is the medicine that we all had 10,000 years ago. Western medicine came in the last 200 years. They want to treat disease, but if you focus only on the disease, you are losing the whole person.”
She advocated for blending integrative therapies with Western medicine as the ideal approach for global health. Beyond clinical care, education and support — such as music therapy — also help, the expert added.
“As humans age, we are in much more need of lifestyle medicine changes that benefit our health—it needs to be a part of our routine,” Dr. Stone said.
Professor Myeong Soo Lee, Principal Researcher at Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, South Korea, also spoke to Aletihad about the session on the science behind integrative medicine.
“The key highlight is the discussion around bridging the gap between clinical evidence and actual practice,” he said. “We shared knowledge from different countries to improve the quality of clinical practice in traditional medicine.”
He detailed Korea’s dual approach: “One is investing in clinical practice guidelines that integrate traditional and conventional medicine. The second focuses on treatments not previously covered by national insurance — like non-manual therapy and customised herbal decoctions.”
With their pilot programmes gaining ground, non-manual therapy is now covered by South Korea’s national insurance, and customised herbal decoctions advancing steadily, the professor said.
Describing the essence of holistic medicine, he said: “When someone has a problem, conventional doctors usually treat that one issue. But we explain the root cause, how to treat it, and how to prevent it in the future.”
In Korea, “the use of cupping, moxibustion, acupuncture, and herbal medicine carries a deep cross-cultural history,” Lee said, adding that today, AI and smartphones are already reshaping holistic care.
Dr. Karim Ali, a top YouTube health expert, clinical toxicologist, family medicine specialist, and clinical nutritionist, highlighted that “the world is currently moving towards treating the causes of diseases and preventing them before they occur”.
“Integrative medicine means preventing the occurrence of diseases. When diseases occur, we move towards complete healing. We do not just stop the symptoms that have appeared — the disease disappears completely,” Dr. Ali told Aletihad.
The experts lauded how Abu Dhabi has created a prominent platform for integrative medicine.
