Holistic Medicine
About Holistic Medicine
The word holistic refers to therapies that involve treating the body as a complete system and taking into consideration the body’s connection to all its parts and even to the parts of the environment. Holistic doctors do not view just only one part of the body or any one system. While a western doctor would look at a cold as a possible viral infection and recommend rest and drugs to reduce the nasal discharge and congestion, a holistic doctor would view the cold as an imbalance in the system. Holistic doctors would look for what the patient had been doing that predisposed them to catching the virus, prescribe biologically active agents that stimulate the immune system (like the herb Echinacea) and then assist the body in repairing the area and re-establishing communication and balance with acupuncture, herbs, vitamins, rest, diet and exercise.
We can think of healing technologies and arts as tools in a great toolbox. Western doctors have drugs and surgery. Holistic doctors have herbs, nutritional therapy, manipulation, acupuncture, homeopathy, and a host of other energy treatments. Integrative doctors use all thee technologies, and therefore have a larger toolbox at their disposal to assist their patients in staying well and recovering when struck by illness. I like the term wholistic to mean that we should use all the tools that we are given to help people and their pets have healthy, active, pleasant and rewarding lives.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
Chinese Herbal Medicine
Chinese Medicine is the oldest practiced medicine, dating back over 3000 years. Acupuncture is only a smaller part of Chinese Medicine. Herbal formulas constitute closer to 70%. TCM is a complex system of understanding and describing the energy flow in the body through specific pathways called meridians. In health the system is in balance - Yin and Yang energy are in balance and the Qi, or energy, is flowing harmoniously and freely without obstruction.
Diet, genes, exercise and lifestyle all affect this delicate balance, and are tools used to promote wellness, or balance. Illness arises when there is an imbalance of yin and yang, or when the flow of Qi is blocked. Chinese herbs are classified according to their energy and the choice of the correct herb is based on the correct underlying energetic TCM diagnosis.
Chinese Herbal remedies work in harmony with the natural chemistry of our body to re-establish balance, so side effects are generally very rare. The goal of herbal medicines not to create a dependence, but to use herb to gently help the body itself to restore balance and well being.
Herbal formulas are designed and formulated for an individual’s specific needs and then changed accordingly as health progresses. Dosages may be adjusted as health begins to re-balance and eventually the herbal formula is no longer needed, or may be used periodically to maintain balance or provide a ‘boost’ when the body needs it. For most acute problems (classical case: the dachshund with a ruptured disc) some herbs are used only for a very short time - a week or two at most before having to change to a gentler formula. For more chronic problems and illnesses, herbs can be used safely and effectively for longer periods of time up to several months. The can be a much better alternative for many individuals who find bringing their pet in for regular treatments at the hospital very difficult and/or time consuming.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is one of the four branches of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM). It is an ancient art used on people for over 3000 years. Acupuncture has become a more common practice in animals in the past 30 years.
Acupuncture is the insertion of fine needles into specific points on the body to cause a healing effect by balancing the energy or Qi (pronounced chi) in the body. Each individual has an energy, or vital for or Qi that flows constantly in a specific pattern throughout the body along channels or meridians. Problems or ill health arise from blockages or stagnation of Qi along these meridians. Points exist on these channels that are local control points for the organs and tissues. Stimulating these points can increase, decrease or disperse the energy flow t these tissues, and the smooth flow of Qi restored
Acupuncture works by stimulating the nervous system, endocrine system and immune systems in the body. Many studies now in the western world are finding it to cause a complex cascade of responses involving the release of local internal and anti-inflammatory mediators, neurochemicals and hormones. By stimulating chemicals such as endorphin and serotonin to be released by the brain, acupuncture can help control and relieve pain. Acupuncture has also been shown to support the immune system, increase white blood cell counts, improve endocrine function, relax muscles, regulate the intestinal tract, reduce inflammation, improve local blood flow and speed healing.
Acupuncture can be used to treat many different problems in animals. It is especially useful to control chronic pain and disease. It can replace western pain medicine when animal cannot take them due to kidney, liver, or stomach disease.Acupuncture can support and help with other disease processes when western medicine has little to offer, or help western medicine regulate diseases that are not responding well to treatment.
Several different methods can be used to stimulate acupuncture points. The most common is to insert very thin, sterilized, stainless steel, disposable needles several millimetres into the skin; referred to as dry needling. Electroacupuncture involves connecting and sending a micro-current through the needles. Infrared energy and light with a laser can also stimulate points which is especially useful in animals that are too nervous or timid to be able to relax at the doctors office. Another method is called aquapuncture or biopuncture. With this, a variety of biological products can be placed into the acupuncture points. Some examples are B vitamins, Adequan, homeopathic remedies such as Traumeel or Zeel, and other botanicals, depending on the condition.
Homeopathy
Developed by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann, this is a 200 year old method of stimulating the body’s vital force to promote healing. Homeopathy, (the name derived from homo-same and pathy-disease), meaning a natural substance that causes symptoms in a healthy animal will cure a sick animal with those same symptoms, or ‘like cures like’. For example, ipecac taken orally causes vomiting, however in very dilute doses it can stop vomiting. the remedies used in homeopathy consist of very dilute, yet potent concentrations of glandulars, herbs, and minerals that, in high doses, produce the same symptoms as those seen in the patient. In their therapeutic form (often a 1:100,000 dilution of the original substance), they act to specifically stimulate the body to respond to illness or injury, and work harder to get well. Remedies may be administered every few hours for acute conditions or a few times weekly for more chronic conditions.