Your First Appointment with Dr Joanna Hickey To ensure that your work with Dr Hickey is as valuable for you as possible while, at the same time, keeping your investment with us to an absolute minimum,at least one week prior to your appointment, please ensure that you have: Completed and returned your registration forms to … Read more
Integrative medicine (also known as Functional Medicine) at Wellness Medicine is directed at trying to treat the whole person rather than just a presenting symptom or disease. Doing this effectively requires that you, the patient, are a partner in the diagnostic and treatment process. The approach requires considering the likely most important underlying causes of … Read more
If somebody wanted to organise an appointment to see yourself or one of the integrative doctors here, what’s their next step? What’s the next big thing that they should do? If they want to come to Wellness Medicine? Well, they would call us and request an appointment for an integrative medical appointment, and the initial … Read more
Are there supplements involved in integrative medicine? Some people have seen a naturopath, and they’ve just been sold supplements. Is that part of integrative medicine? It’s certainly part of integrative medicine. I certainly do use supplements. But we’re using them as a treatment agent to really help really serious deficiencies or to actually shift biochemical … Read more
A lot of people are suffering with irritable bowel, and they’ve had the diagnosis, but they’re left with a sense of, “Well, you’ve got the diagnosis. Now, good luck.” How does integrative medicine approach that style of illness? Well, irritable bowel is another condition that’s actually a lot of different conditions, so it’s not just … Read more
With chronic fatigue, what sort of results has integrative medicine had for people living with chronic fatigue? I understand it’s a very frustrating disease that’s not well understood. It is frustrating. As a diagnosis, it’s a bucket list. I mean, there’s a whole lot of conditions that come under chronic fatigue. One person with chronic … Read more
Is integrative medicine similar to naturopathy, or is it different? There’s certainly an overlapping, there’s an area that we share with naturopathy, but as an integrative GP, I am a doctor. So I am particularly concerned with the diagnosis. Having said that I’m also interested in supporting the whole physiology and biochemistry, I am interested … Read more
What sort of tests might you be ordering in an integrative medicine appointment? Usually on the first appointment it depends how much information you bring in with you. If you’ve been to a lot of other doctors and you’ve got a lot of the tests, I’ll have a look at all that and then work … Read more
When I come for my first integrative medicine appointment, what should I expect? First of all, you will get a very thorough medical history and examination. We do ask you to bring in previous records from other practitioners and investigation results, which often people have been to a lot of doctors before they come to … Read more
Can integrative medicine also be used for some of the metabolic diseases? People who are coming in with hypertension, diabetes, even obesity, you can certainly again, by looking at the underlying imbalances, the hormonal status, and guiding them with diet and specific diets, because everyone is different with their diet. I mean, some people do … Read more