Let us first define illness – or disease, “dis – ease”: A state of imbalance in the body where optimal health cannot be maintained at rest and especially when a stress is introduced.
What is optimal health? The abbreviated version is “to feel good” – to be able to maintain normal activity, and even encumber stress (like exercise or play), without pain and inhibitory body functions (like shortness of breath or lameness, etc.)
Holistic medicine looks at the body functions at health and in a diseased state as a whole. For example, thyroid disease (high or low function) is not ever a disease state alone. The thyroid gland functions within a system and becomes imbalanced when the system becomes imbalanced (I look at the endocrine – hormone – system as a whole starting with the hypothalamus / pituitary gland in the brain down to the adrenal and thyroid gland in the body and further to the reproductive system (ovaries, testicles, uterus)).
I am a member of the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) with 10 years experience and recognize the importance of specific conventional drug treatments for some acute and serious problems; however I have become aware of nutrition as a powerful preventative medicine and cure for many ailments rather than symptom abatement with drugs. As a holistic veterinarian I can provide a balanced holistic and conventional approach to my patients.
