Holistic Medicine
What Is Holistic Veterinary Medicine?
Holistic (or Integrative or Complementary) Veterinary Medicine is the examination and diagnosis of an animal, considering all aspects of the animal's life and employing all of the practitioner's senses, as well as the combination of conventional and alternative (or complementary) modalities of treatment. When a holistic veterinarian sees a pet, besides giving it a comprehensive physical examination, he/she wants to find out all about its behaviors, distant medical and dietary history, and its environment including diet, emotional stresses, and other factors.
Holistic medicine, by its very nature, is humane to the core. The wholeness of its scope will set up a lifestyle for the animal that is most appropriate. The techniques used in holistic medicine are gentle, minimally invasive, and incorporate patient well-being and stress reduction. Holistic thinking is centered on love, empathy and respect.
This mixture of healing arts and skills is as natural as life itself. At the core of this issue lies the very essence of the word "(w)holistic". It means taking in the whole picture of the patient-the environment, the disease pattern, the relationship of pet with owner-and developing a treatment protocol using a wide range of therapies for healing the patient.
The holistic practitioner is interested in genetics, nutrition, family relationships, hygiene, and stress factors. Many patients present in a state of "dis-ease." At this point the holistic challenge lies in the question "why?" By a series of analytic observations and appropriate testing the goal becomes finding the true root source of the pathology. A simple-appearing symptom may have several layers of causation. Only when the true cause of the ailment has been found is there the possibility for a lasting recovery.
It is at this point that the most efficacious, least invasive, least expensive, and least harmful path to cure is selected.
In many acute situations, treatment may involve aspects of surgery and drug therapy from conventional western technology, along with alternative techniques to provide a complementary whole. This form of treatment has great value for severe trauma and certain infections. It often outperforms other methodologies. It is also at this time that other treatment plans such as those listed below are brought into use. Once the symptoms have been treated, the task is not complete until the underlying disease patterns have been redirected. The patient, as well as the client, will be guided to a new level of health.
Nutritional Therapy:
Proper nutrition is the best preventative medicine. Each pet patient is designed a specific diet which will be palatable, preservative free, practical and cost-effective, environmentally sound and in keeping with the client's abilities to provide.
Mega-nutrients, Augmentation Therapy:
Sometimes known as Orthomolecular Medicine, it uses supplemental minerals, vitamins and nutrients that correct deficiencies, prevent pathology and reverse tissue damage. Supplements are prescribed that support the organs and body tissues, aid body detoxification and give energy to assist in the healing process.
Behavior Modification:
This incorporates ethology, biology, nutrition, pharmacology, lifestyle evaluation and aspects of modern psychotherapy. Every discipline listed here affects behavior (particularly homeopathy and Bach Flowers), disease and health. Humane considerations are often at stake.
Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine:
Acupuncture has been used in China for 3500 years. It is the main treatment for a quarter of the world's population. Thousands of years of acupuncture treatment prove its efficacy.
The primary aim of veterinary acupuncture is to strengthen the body's immune system-to stimulate the body's adaptive-homeostatic mechanism.
Acupuncture is a technique for relieving pain and for improving the function of organ systems by stimulating acupuncture points on the surface of the body.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) believes that Chi, the vital force that flows throughout the body, travels throughout the body along channels of energy flow called meridians. Acupuncture points along the meridians are treated whenever a disease condition exists that blocks the normal flow of energy along these meridians.
Acupuncture treatments elicit responses which regulate physiological processes. Acupuncture spans from ancient Chinese knowledge to state-of-the-art electrodiagnostic instrumentation.
Mustang Animal Health Clinic is certified by the International Veterinary Accupuncture Society IVAS is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting excellence in the practice of veterinary acupuncture as an integral part of the total veterinary health care delivery system.
"Homeopathy:
Homeopathy dates back to the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates. Samuel Christian Hahnemann, a German medical doctor in the mid-1800's, developed the system we are using today.
Homeopathy works on the principle of "Similia Similibus Curentur", or "like cures like." When a large dose of a toxic substance is swallowed, it can produce death, but when a homeopathic, diluted, minute dose of the substance is given, it can save the poisoned animal.
Homeopathic remedies are made from plants, minerals, drugs, viruses, bacteria or animal substances. These remedies do not mask or suppress symptoms, they treat the deepest constitutional causes of the illness. Homeopathic remedies contain vibrational energy essences that match the patterns present in the diseased state within the ailing patient.
Herbal Medicine:
The use of specific herbs and plants for medicinal purposes has been practiced for millennia all over the world. Veterinary herbal medicines include North American herbs, Aryuvedic herbs from India, traditional Chinese herbs and other herbs from all over the world. Herbs have healing powers that are capable of balancing the emotional, mental and physical dimensions of animals.
Veterinary Chiropractic:
Chiropractic can be used to treat a broad spectrum of conditions in animals. It works for any patient with a spine, bones, joints and muscles. There are healing potentials achieved through chiropractic that are not achievable by other forms of therapy. In chiropractic, the subluxated or fixated vertebra is identified and through hands-on specific adjustments the problem is alleviated and homeostasis is restored.
A Wide Variety of Other Diagnostic and Therapeutic Modalities:
Virtually every form of medicine and therapy used in holistic medicine for humans exists for veterinary medicine. Seminars, programs and workshops are conducted all over the world which advance and promote these valuable skills. The new and the old combine to make the future of veterinary medicine a healthier, more humane endeavor.
Prolotherapy
Prolotherapy is also known as nonsurgical ligament reconstruction, and is a treatment for chronic pain. The treatment is useful for many different types of musculoskeletal pain, including arthritis, back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia, chronic tendonitis, partially torn tendons, ligaments and cartilage, and degenerated or herniated discs. Treatment causes the proliferation (growth, formation) of new ligament tissue in areas where it has become weak.
Prolotherapy treatment sessions are generally given every two to six weeks. Many patients receive treatment at less and less frequent intervals until treatments are required only every several years, if at all. Prolotherapy is often used as an alternative to an invasive and expensive surgery.
Ozone Therapy
Ozone therapy is not new technology. These applications have been in use around the world by alternative health care professionals and in veterinary clinics for over fifty years. Its been proven to work by doctor and veterinary clinic's for bacteria and viral infections, and pain with the lowest side effects in existence.
When the immune system is at its peak with proper oxygen levels it can prevent many disease and other health problems. Oxygen plays the most vital role for an optimum immune system and maintaining health. Oxygen, along with food, is the primary nutrient that cells use to generate energy for all its functions. With oxygen, the energy production is through oxidation of the unhealthy cells.
Oxygen regulates all activities of our bodies and the bodies of our pets . Our ability to think, feel, and act comes from the energy created by the oxygen. Approximately 90 percent of the our energy originates from oxygen. The oxygen we breath is our most vital element for good health.
Ion Cleanse
The Ion Cleanse is a simple and powerful way to cleanse and detoxify your body on a cellular level.
Detoxifying the body periodically is essential to maintain good health and avoid disease. With the vast array of pesticides, herbicides, colorings, additives, preservatives, and chemicals that pervade our water, air and food, the body can become bombarded and overloaded with these toxic substances. These toxins and chemicals get stored in the body's to joints, organs, arteries, nerves and tissues, disrupting their function and creating an environment for disease, allergies and immune system breakdowns.
The Ion Cleanse provides a thorough and efficient way to detoxify the body of these wastes, in combination with a healthy lifestyle, a detox program can help you and your pet maintain high energy levels and long term wellness.
