Here in the west, conventional medicine and pet health care is based on whether the individual is sick or not. If the individual has an illness then it is considered sick and treatment is administered. If the individual is not sick, it is assumed that it is healthy.
Unfortunately, there is a large gap between healthy and sick and our conditioning allows us to ignore this, and ignoring this will usually expedite the altered state from perceived healthy to sick. It is time that we start focusing on where our pet is along this scale and do what we can in order to move it BACK to normal health and not allow it to mover FORWARD to illness.
When was the last time that you went to have your health evaluated? Most of us don’t do this unless we become ill and then we go to the doctor. The same thing happens with our pets. Of course, there are those who go to the vet for their “shots” and the vet will give a cursory exam before giving the vaccinations. Some vets will recommend an annual exam with blood work for senior pets in hopes of picking up an indication of an early disease. This is certainly a step in the right direction.
I am always a bit skeptical as a vet when I do a cursory physical exam and laboratory work and deem the pet healthy when I don’t detect an abnormality. Lab work is very superficial and will often only reveal a problem when the disease has advanced. An example is evaluating kidney function. The primary blood test that we use to assess kidney function is called creatinine. If the test comes back elevated, then we say the pet has kidney disease. What we don’t say is that the kidney mass has to be about 75% diseased before the creatinine moves at all. So, any pet that has an elevated creatinine is working on about 20-25% function. I think we should have other methods of determining how the kidneys are working before they are just about to fail.
Instead of just having clinics and hospitals that deal with the sick, we should also have wellness facilities that primarily focuses on normal health and well being and what it takes to stay there or what it takes to return there. There are a few of these facilities starting to pop up for people across the country and none that I know of for pets. This is unfortunate but understandable, again because of our conditioning. Our pet seems happy and healthy and we surmise that it is healthy. Until it is not. Now, the horse is out of the corral and we can’t do anything to prevent it from happening.
How can we change our attitude so that we can focus on normal health and well being instead of waiting until there is illness? First, we can be proactive instead of reactive. Conventional health care is mostly a reactive mindset. Individual gets sick, reacts, in hopes of making it better. Other modalities are based on proactive mindsets in hopes of maintaining normal health and well being.
Good examples are both Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic Medicine (the traditional medicine in India). Both of these ancient modalities for health care are based on maintaining normal health and well being. In China, if the people in a province have a serious illness, the doctor is asked why he did not prevent this from happening.
The way this is done is by identifying characteristics of individuals and categorizing them into classifications that explain tendencies. In Chinese Medicine (TCM), each individual falls into one of five categories called the Five Element System. These include Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood.
Once the individual has been identified which element that he or she falls into, then there is a plan that should be followed for the individual to stay healthy. It will suggest which foods and teas will maintain balance and which ones will create imbalances. Persistent imbalances will create physical disease. Other factors such as seasons, colors, emotions and feelings as well as physical conditions are addressed. The individual knows which element that he or she is and lives according to the rules for that element. This plan insures the best opportunity for normal health and well being..
In India, the traditional medical philosophy is known as Ayurveda. This mindset classifies each individual into one of three categories called Doshas. They are Kapha, Pitta and Vata. The same thing occurs with these categories. Each one of them offers the individual a plan that will keep them in balance, preventing illness of the body, mind and spirit.
Just because we live in the west and there is no classification of individuals with a plan for health and well being doesn’t mean that we cannot find practitioners here that have the knowledge and expertise to direct you or your pet from one of these perspectives. There are many TCVM practitioners here in the US that will work with your pet from this perspective, focusing on restoring and then maintaining normal health and well being. Ayurveda practice is also getting more popular and there are some vets that are starting to use this philosophy for pets.
Both of these alternative modalities focus on the energetic body instead of the physical body. Energetic imbalances are easy to diagnose by the experienced alternative practitioner and re-establishing balance will prevent illness of the physical body. Why wait until it shoes up as a disease in your pet?
There are other methods that we can use that can help us pick up imbalances early, before they cause illness. Biofeedback is a great example. This energetic method of diagnosing and treating focuses on the energetic body. There is a sophisticated computer system with energetic technology that can scan the pet’s body (or your body) and determine an energetic profile. It will not only assess a health situation, but it will pick up abnormal energy patterns and identify them.
It is sort of like a fingerprint scan where each energy pattern (wave) is determined and identified. This might be a toxin, bacteria, virus, parasite or nutritional imbalance. It will also pick up negative emotional patterns and identify them. Once that the negative energies are determined, an energy treatment is given to eliminate their effects on the body, allowing only healthy energy to flow through the body unimpeded.
If you want to change your conditioning to focus on restoring and maintaining normal health and well being instead of waiting for your pet to get sick before anything is done, I would encourage you to seek an alternative route to be included in your health care program. You will likely see some amazing results.
