What is a holistic approach to healthcare? There are two broad components:
Focusing on wholeness:
- In a holistic approach we believe that the body is more than simply the sum of its parts. Typically, the approach of western medicine has been to wait until something goes wrong, isolate the issue, and fix that specific issue ignoring the impacts of any number of different things. In a holistic approach we recognize the importance of many different factors in the health of your pet (physical, emotional, and environmental). With a typical approach, you bring your pet in for a specific problem and the vet will work to fix that issue. A holistic approach differs from the standard approach in that our goal is to restore your pet to their natural state-perfect health rather than fix a specific issue.
A bigger tool box:
- A carpenter is only as good as his tools right? If they need to fix something and only have a few tools on hand, they will use what they have and make the best of it. A holistic approach recognizes that western medicine only has half the tools. We simply fill out the other half of the box with tools from eastern medicine. Often this means avoiding harsh drugs that cause as many problems as they solve with natural remedies (with little or no harsh side effects) that have been proven to work for hundreds or thousands of years. This might mean that I use acupuncture instead of surgery if I know I can get the same result. At the end of the day it means that I use whatever tool I can to restore your pet back to their healthy, happy, and fulfilled self.
The vast majority of health issues in pets could be avoided by focusing on restoring and maintaining balance utilizing the proper nutritional, emotional, and physical components of care.