Integrating care has fascinated Jeff Feldman for most of his career.
As a psychologist, Jeff Feldman, PhD, director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, was interested in and began using hypnosis as a non-traditional pain management technique. Other than the common cold, pain is the top reason why people seek medical help.
“I wasn’t satisfied with the explanations and knowledge we had about pain,” Feldman says. “I became increasingly interested in the brain, which got me interested in neuropsychology and the neurology of what’s going on for people in pain.”
Today Feldman sees patients with all kinds of chronic pain: back pain, headaches, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and movement disorders, among others.
The common thread, he says, is how much we don’t know about people who are suffering, and the importance of giving patients helpful alternatives to traditional care that are supported by evidence.
Integrative approaches
As a full center at Wake Forest Baptist since 2009, the Center for Integrative Medicine promotes research, largely through pilot grants to physicians and scientists in fields that run the gamut from chronic disease to mindfulness research to stem cell research.
Feldman’s pursuit of the mind-body connection to health makes him a natural supporter of the FaithHealth movement in North Carolina, which is based on the idea that health is affected by many factors.
“Fundamentally, from a health psychology position, you want to change attitudes. You want to change behaviors,” Feldman says. “That’s very difficult because, quite frankly, you’re going up against profit-driven industries, especially fast food and drug companies.
“We now view sugar as the current tobacco. People are addicted to sugar; we know this. But to turn the tide involves a change in cultural appreciation,” Feldman says. “It requires an attitudinal change, as well as increasing awareness that we can’t afford health care like this. We can’t afford disaster-oriented health care.”
Rather, he says, “we have to focus on personal and community wellness that goes above and beyond the focus on profit at any cost.”
Such a mindset is helping the Center for Integrative Medicine and FaithHealth connect because both are pursuing solutions that involve new approaches.
Research projects funded via the Center often have ties to Wake Forest Baptist’s Division of Public Health Sciences and the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity (MACHE). Both target diverse and largely underserved populations in the region—people most vulnerable to chronic health issues such as type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.
Even though integrative approaches often are not reimbursed by insurers (acupuncture and mindfulness meditation training, for example), pilot studies such those pursued by Center investigators can help build an evidence base for alternative treatments of all types.
“It is synergistic to provide improved health care to communities that involves a holistic approach, taking into account mind, body and spirit,” Feldman says. “Once again, if you are doing this increasingly with a preventive or wellness orientation, that is good for everyone.”
