Functional medicine is a combination of conventional treatments including surgical procedures and pharmaceutical drugs like piriton, steroids, antibiotics among others with alternative healing therapies like herbs, supplements, diet, physiotherapy, acupuncture just to mention some. This way of medicine also addresses the animal or person’s lifestyle, exercise, bad/good habits, stress levels and how to manage them.
It is an approach that makes use of all the knowledge that we have gathered throughout the past thousands of years. It focuses on creating health and healing minimizing the suffering. We take advantage of all the skills and understanding our ancestors left us to deal with our health complaints. Also, for all the research the pharmaceutical industry has done for us. Both options are ‘lame’ individually but work magic when we combine them.
What do I mean by create health and healing minimizing the suffering?
Lets explain this with examples:
My parents dog Cova was very ill recently due to vomit and diarrhoea. She went downhill very quickly. Her Vet that also practices integrative medicine gave her the best hospital care for one week. They did lots of test and gentle treatments, they could not find what was wrong with her and Cova was alive but unwell. Cova’s Vet and I decided to give her Steroids among other drugs, and she recovered immediately after that.
What would we have done without the pharmaceutical drugs that took Cova out of the emergency state?
Cova continues doing well with only natural medicine at the moment. Basically the steroids and other conventional treatments help her to get out of the emergency state. Now she maintains her health with natural therapies and exercise. If I had only used the conventional treatment strategy she would have been back in the hospital shortly after her recovery. The steroids would have only ‘patch her up’ but not heal her underlined chronic inflammatory disease. The alternative medicine has created balance and long term healing for her.
Natural medicine maintains Cova’s health and wellbeing long term.
Another example is when we see a dog with Giardia ( a relatively common parasite in our pets ) that causes diarrhoea for weeks, even months sometimes. Now, are there ways to treat Giardia naturally only? Yes! However, it would take so long to kill the parasite and restore normal faeces that to me that is not an option.
Why suffer with diarrhoea and the discomfort that comes along with it for so long when I can just treat it in only a few days with medication? It is necessary to use natural medicine alongside the conventional treatment to restore the gut health and promote long term health. This will also contra rest the side effects of the medication used. See the point now?
Combining conventional and holistic medicine will alleviate your suffering
Some people decide to use only conventional medicine. This is only a quick way to ‘patch symptoms up’ and they will continue having long term sickness. Some get stuck in the alternative option. They even feel bad about going through surgery or use pharmaceutical drugs to alleviate their suffering.
The discomfort from the illnesses itself, if prolonged for long, would cause serious struggles in your body. We can blame the high levels of stress or the disease at hand. It would be good to reflect on this. The option of surgery or medication would help to become pain/discomfort free as soon as possible. At the same time you do alternative healing therapies to contra rest the side effects of the surgery or anaesthesia. This promotes long term healing and health you will have the formula to feel your best. It is the same for our animals. That’s my humble opinion, and this is what this way of medicine is all about.
My philosophy
My philosophy is the sorter the time we use the medication, the better. If your pet needs long term medication, the aim is to reduce it to the minimum effective dose with the help of alternative medicine. In some cases to use only alternative medicine is an option. I will always aim for that, however I will use all the tools we are so blessed to have in order to relieve discomfort and create long term health and happiness.
Don’t hesitate to contact me or book an appointment if your animal is suffering from a chronic disease, and you want to restore his health again.
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