Are herbal anti-inflammatories suppressive?

[EdwinA]

What is the homeopathic policy on using turmeric, quercetin etc. for inflammatory conditions?

Such supplements have been shown to exert very powerful - seemingly positive - effects on all manner of conditions, seemingly without side effects.

But are they holistic? Do they support the vital force and help the body balance itself?

Or do they obstruct the body's innate healing response and potentially suppress the disease?

Would love to know what people think...

 

[kristen_acri]

Hello again @EdwinA -- I can tell you what I think I know. ;-D

I think supplements can be suppressive. IMO, that's the seemingly positive response we might see when using them.

@Dr. Christina often suggests stopping supplements for a few days to see what shows up in terms of symptoms. It's more about what our pets look like off the supplements rather than on them.

I think it's also suggested to experiment with switching brands of supplements, i.e., don't always use the same one. I think that might be similar to feeding our pets the same food day in and day out forever. Aim for variety in everything.

Kristen

 

[EdwinA]

Do you think natural supplements can help the body get right / prevent further damage when it's out of balance - by supporting a natural inflammatory/immune response etc? Or is it always unhelpful to suppress symptoms? Have you used supplements?

 

[kristen_acri]

IMO, there's rarely a definitive yes/no answer to your questions. It just depends on so many things. Supplements MAY help the body 'get right' and/or 'prevent further damage'. It's imperative though that you look at the BIG picture. What else is going on for the animal? In some cases, it MIGHT be okay to suppress. It might be where purposeful palliation comes in. Depends on the situation. Thinking about animals in hospice care...

Yes, I use supplements for my dogs and myself. What I use varies according to what's going on and I vary the brand with breaks between running out and re-ordering in most cases. That break helps to evaluate if the supplement is really helping the symptom(s) or suppressing it/them.

Disclaimer: This is my understanding of all of this!!! ;-D

Kristen

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Wow, what a fantastic exchange Kristin and Edwin!

Thanks so much for your wonderful questions, Edwin, and for your great replies Kristin.

Yes Edwin, you are exactly right that supplements help superficially support the body while it heals. However, supplements can be palliative (cover up) and modify a symptom picture enough that it is harder to address the underlying energetic imbalance.

The best strategy is to use the 3 parts of the ASC (as in "ask" what you can do to help a pet) protocol all together. ASC stands for Avoid, Support, and Cure.

For example, let's say we're trying to heal allergic symptoms. We can avoid known triggers while supporting the body by increasing cellular energy (with fresh food, sniffing, happiness, etc.) and then curing the underlying immune imbalance sing an energetic modality like homeopathy, TCM, Ayurveda, etc.

Please let me know if I am just confusing matters more.

 

[EdwinA]

Thanks for the great advice, Kristen and Dr Jeff. What you're both saying fits with my thoughts.

Casper's liver situation seems a lot better, Dr Jeff. His BEAM is really good. But I think he's still a bit enlarged and sometimes seems a little bit sensitive in his abdomen, so I decided I'd go back to giving him some anti-inflammatory herbal/nutritional supplements - SAMe, silymarin, curcumin. Also want to help clear any infection that he might have. I feel like this could give an extra push to the healing process? I want to support the body's process, not disrupt it.

I'm most scared about renal insufficiency. Dr Jeff, do you think the occasional water sipping means kidney involvement? He goes days or even a week without sipping, then has a day or two where he occasionally sips...

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Yes, the additional supplements can support his body to help speed healing.

Water sipping is not necessarily indicative of a renal problem. What does Casper eat? Is there anything freeze-dried or dehydrated in his diet?

Is his sipping water new? It is often an early warning sign of a subtle internal energetic imbalance:

How to Use Clues From Your Animal Companions to Promote Optimal Health - Holistic Actions!

www.holisticactions.com

 

[EdwinA]

Great!

No, he doesn't have anything freeze-dried or dehydrated.

He has always loved drinking the juice from the stewed chicken we (ordinarily) give him. He would often drink that first and come back for the meat later. At times I had given him less juice to see if he wanted to drink from the bowl, but he never did.

The first time I ever saw him drink water was when we first realised he was unwell - the day he went right off his food. He jumped into the bath and sat by the tap, so I put some water down for him and he had a little sip.

Since then, he has gone through periods of not drinking (up to a week or more), and periods of having a couple of sips per day or occasionally a bit more. His blood creatinine was 2mg/dL - is that bad? Blood in the urine makes me wonder about an infection?

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Ah, that makes total sense, Edwin.

It does indeed sound like Casper's drinking sips of water was a subtle early warning sign of internal imbalance.

Regarding your question about creatinine, do you know what the reference range is for creatinine in the lab your vet used?

It would also be super helpful to look at the isolated symptom of creatinine level within the context of the holistic totality.

A useful way to start is by trending the blood test results. See if you can ask your vet to check for "creatinine creep" as well as changes in HCT, albumin, phosphorus, etc.

Here's a vet article that might be useful:

Early Diagnosis of Chronic Kidney Disease in Dogs & Cats

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common cause of decreased quality of life as well as death in dogs and cats. The prevalence of CKD has been estimated to be 0.5% to 1% in dogs and 1% to 3% in cats.

todaysveterinarypractice.com

Hematuria (blood in the urine) may be correlated to a secondary bacterial "infection". However, the homeopathic understanding of this symptom is that the cause is the energetic imbalance.

You can learn more by having your vet do a sterile urine culture.

 

[EdwinA]

Hi Dr Jeff.

Thank you so much for your guidance.

The normal range for creatinine on the lab sheet was 10-190 umol/l and Casper's was 178. But apparently above 125 is considered possible stage 2 kidney disease and the vet said that 178 was a bit too high in his opinion. 178umol/l equates to 2mg/dL. Is it true that high protein diet could raise creatinine to that level? I've read that raw-fed animals usually have elevated creatinine but I don't know how elevated. I know it's a bit stupid to obsess over precise numbers but once you've seen them you can't help but think about them.

I've given him three or four sulphur 200c over the past ten days and now I'm going to try lycopodium 30c.

Thanks

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Hi Edwin. Depending on BUN and other parameters, I wouldn't think the diet is playing much of a cr elevating role.

You may want to hold off on much more energetic stimulation (via homeopathic dosing).

My rationale is that Casper's flame (vital force) may be weak and we don't want to risk manipulating it until he gets stronger.

When was Casper's last dose of Sulphur?

 

[EdwinA]

Last dose of Sulphur was about four days ago.

He hasn’t had any sips of water for the last 48 hours, I think. His BEAM seems really good. He’s eating lots, jumping up to places and enjoying attention. He has also put weight back on.

His urea, phosphorus and albumin were normal when the blood tests were done three months ago.

 

[Dr. Jeff]

How wonderful that Casper's doing great, Edwin!

Trending blood test results over time helps put the normal results in context.

For example, his recent creatinine was within normal but we know from experience (and context) that this high normal is still a potential issue.