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My own interest in the integrated medical approach began some 40 plus years ago. At that time I was married to a well-qualified, main-stream medical physician. The medical care I received while I was in this medical community was one of treating symptoms as they arose but not any attention was paid to finding the underlying cause of my issues. Looking back now, in my early 20s I developed a chronic body inflammation condition that was to plague me my entire life.
Chronic body inflammation is your body's natural response to outside invaders it perceives as threats. Specifically, it's a process in which your body's white blood cells protect you from foreign substances such as bacteria and viruses.
However, when your body is in a chronic state of inflammation, the inflammation can lodge in your muscles, joints and tissues. In fact, chronic inflammation is a leading cause of many diseases, both physical and neurological, including arthritis, heart disease and diabetes.
I only knew that the Western medicine model that was taught in every medical school in the country had little to offer me in dealing with this condition. I wasn’t even able to put a name to it until I began my own search for symptom and pain control. Rheumatologists and orthopedists offered me symptom control, which meant pain pills and extreme arthritis drugs. I declined both as I somehow felt it would be a slippery slope for me without getting to the underlying cause.
So my search began. It would be much easier now with the Internet, and our access to so much reliable information. Then, it was not so easy. I started to find resources such as chiropractic and massage. Later, I found more health practitioners and over the years I put together a cadre of health professionals that helped me maintain a quality of life that I would not have had if I had opted to deal with my condition with drugs alone.
I took responsibility for my health and wellness and learned that a team approach was needed for my health and well being, and I was at the center of the team. My team includes a well-qualified rheumatologist who took a western/eastern approach to my care. It also included a holistic health practioner, nutritionist, chiropractic, acupuncturist, massage, yoga, and body/mind practitioners.
I now know what I did some 40 years ago was to put together my own version of an integrative medicine team.
Now integrative medicine has emerged as a potential solution to the American health care crisis. It provides care that is patient-centered, healing oriented, emphasizes the therapeutic relationship, and uses therapeutic approaches originating from conventional and alternative medicine. Lifestyle change is now being recognized as a strategy to address the epidemic of chronic diseases bankrupting our economy.
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About Ruth Westreich
President
The Westreich Foundation
Ruth Westreich, trained as and artist and designer, is a talented mixed-media artist working in oils, water media and glass. Her love for giving back began some forty plus years ago when she was given a life altering gift by a humanitarian who requested that he not receive pay back, but rather that she pay it forward. Since that day, paying it forward has become part of her cellular makeup. She has always freely shared what she has in terms of her time and resources. She devotes countless hours working in the trenches with nonprofits and philanthropies that she cares for so deeply.
Her commitment to the health and growth of the nonprofit in San Diego is unwavering. The Westreich Foundation, of which Ruth is the president, is having a deep and wide impact in the San Diego nonprofit community. The focus of the private foundation is Optimum Health and Wellness; and Education and Literacy; In the areas of wellness and prevention, The Westreich Foundation generously supports integrative medicine and palliative medicine nationally and locally. Nationally, she is a member of the prestigious Bravewell Collaborative, a national philanthropic collaborative furthering the cause of the integrative medical model of care. Locally she supports Dr. Mimi Guarneri's work at the Scripps Center for Integrated Medicine in La Jolla.
 She is a board member of the Institute for Palliative Medicine and the San Diego Hospice and is working to bridge the integrative, patient centered care medical model and the chronic pain and end of life care of the palliative care medical model.
She is also passionately working to bring the arts and music to the health care arena as healing modalities in restoring optimum health. Her vision, in conjunction with countless other groups is to be able to use forms of visual and auditory art therapies as a modality in healing the body and mind, and adding comfort to the death and dying process for patients and their families.
Ruth is passionately helping to strengthen the entire nonprofit sector in San Diego by being instrumental in the development of the University of San Diego’s Institute for Education and Research where Ruth serves as co-board chair with Michael Pinto. Ruth is heavily involved as an initial supporter of the USD’s Nonprofit Leadership and Management master's and doctoral program. She is working tirelessly to be a vital force in strengthening the entire nonprofit and philanthropy sector in San Diego by helping to establish best practices for nonprofits, educate and train Board of Director’s in board governance, and making clear the differences and obstacles between larger nonprofits and those all-volunteer nonprofits that are so vital to San Diego.
Ruth Westreich also has over thirty years experience as a Creative Marketing Communications Director and Strategic Marketing Director in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. She is also the visionary responsible for the creation of the highly acclaimed new business book, The Art of Original Thinking - The Making of a Thought Leader written by award winning author, Jan Phillips, which just won the Editor's Choice Award from Allbooks Review and was nominated for the Best Books Award by USABookNews.com. It shows businesses that by adhering to the triple-bottom line method of accounting you can increase profits, create loyal employees and increase employee retention and start making peace with our over-burdened planet.
She also was the underwriter of the best seller on Amazon, Gluten Nation by Jackie Townsend Konstanturos. Gluten Nation is a thorough look into the hidden role that gluten and gluten intolerance plays in the lives of millions and how taking simple, safe steps of instituting a gluten free diet can have a remarkable impact on the quality of life for millions of men, women and children around the globe. It also speaks in depth about the alarming role that gluten plays in arthritis, ADHD, autism, bi-polar disorder, cancer, diabetes, fibromyalgia and other disorders.
When asked what she does, she calls herself a connector. She connects people to people and people to causes. She believes that the sharing of information, data and resources is key to the growth and health of the nonprofit sector.
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