Lost in the Lingo of Holistic Care in Asheville?
Looking for holistic care in Ahseville—but getting lost in terms like conventional, integrative, and functional medicine? You’re not alone. This guide can help clear the air. Since the 1800s, when numerous tuberculosis sanitariums were established for people seeking the clean mountain air, Asheville has evolved into a wellness destination. Asheville has become a hub for people seeking medicine that honors body, mind, and spirit, not just disease and prescriptions.
Let’s start with the model most of us know best: conventional medicine.
1. Conventional Medicine
Conventional—or biomedical—medicine views the body like a machine: when one part breaks, you fix it. The focus is on identifying a disease and treating it with a impressively targeted therapy, usually medication, procedure, or surgery.
It’s highly effective for emergencies, infections, and injuries, but can feel limited for long-term or lifestyle-related issues. Patients sometimes experience being treated as a set of symptoms rather than a whole person.
Common practitioners include MDs (medical doctors), DOs (doctors of osteopathy), RNs (registered nurses), and physical therapists, often working in hospitals, clinics, or specialty offices.
2. Integrative Medicine
Integrative medicine blends the strengths of both worlds—conventional and holistic care. It values conventional medicine for its ability to save lives in acute situations, and holistic medicine for its power to prevent and manage chronic disease.
In practice, an integrative doctor might prescribe a pharmaceutical for high blood pressure, but also recommend evidence-based herbs, exercise, nutrition, and stress reduction. The goal is to care for the whole person, not just the diagnosis, using the best of both science and tradition.
In the author’s view, integrative medicine still leans Western in ideology, often merging conventional care with Western herbalism and wellness practices rather than drawing deeply from older global healing systems.
Common practitioners include MDs and DOs, or other licensed providers who have completed integrative medicine training or fellowships, often through programs such as the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine in Arizona or blending multiple other trainings.
3. Functional Medicine
Functional medicine (also known as precision medicine) is a growing specialty within holistic care that focuses on identifying and addressing the root causes of disease. It’s built on two main ideas: that lifestyle is often the root cause of illness, and that cutting-edge lab testing can uncover deeper biochemical imbalances.
These tests may include microbiome analysis (such as the GI-MAP), urine hormone testing (like the DUTCH test), or broad nutrient and toxin panels. (For example, Genova Diagnostics—a local Asheville company—offers several of these functional lab tests.) These advanced diagnostics are usually not covered by insurance, unless ordered by a provider who bills insurance directly, so most functional medicine care is paid out-of-pocket.
Functional medicine and their corresponding diagnoses such as Chronic Lyme, Chronic Mold, MCAS etc are not widely recognized by conventional medical institutions, but it continues to grow among patients seeking personalized, data-driven, and preventive care.
Common practitioners include MDs, DOs, DCs, nurse practitioners, RNs, and health coaches trained through the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) or local programs such as the Hedberg Institute for Functional Medicine in Asheville.
4. Other Approaches
There are many healing traditions beyond the conventional, integrative, and functional models. Chinese medicine is one of the most well-established, practiced by licensed Chinese medicine doctors and acupuncturists. In Asheville, Daoist Traditions College of Chinese Medical Arts trains students in modalities such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, cupping, and gua sha.
Ayurvedic medicine, one of the world’s oldest healing systems, originated in India over 3,000 years ago. Asheville is home to the Ayurvedic Institute of Asheville, where practitioners study Ayurvedic nutrition, herbal therapies, bodywork, and lifestyle medicine.
Asheville offers many ways to approach healing. Each model—conventional, integrative, functional, or traditional—brings something valuable. You don’t always have to choose just one; often the best care is a thoughtful blend that supports your body, mind, and spirit.
Here at RiverRock Clinic, we provide primary care that blends conventional and integrative.
Schedule your meet and greet at this link: https://www.riverrockclinic.com/meetandgreet
