Re-connecting Science, Medicine and Healing for Pets

[Dr. Jeff]

The intent for this thread is to get everyone's input into areas where there seems to be dis-connects. This could be anything relating to pets, people or the planet.

One goal for HA! is to help all pet parents to recognize areas where the hyper-focus required by doctors and scientists overlooks the intuitive aspects of life. Missing the forest for the trees.

Things like my friend being discharged out of the hospital, after having a sextuple bypass, to a house where he lives alone and has to do everything to heal after major surgery.

There's a disconnect there between the miracles of modern medicine and using them to help patients heal. Besides the well-known disconnect between lifestyle and heart dis-ease.

My experience is that pet parents have many other dis-connected areas than those which I have expressed below.

Thanks in advance for participating! ?

I'll start and would like to see a reconnection between:

1. Nature and medicine, e.g. today, medications are believed to be needed to force healing rather than harnessing the natural healing ability of the body.

2. Science and medicine. For example, there's lots of important research being done about changing the body using lifestyle and safe actions which is not being shared.

3. Cellular energy and symptoms.

4. The germ and terrain theories of dis-ease. Veterinary (and human) medicine focus on sickness caused by bacteria, viruses, etc. But the germ theory alone can't explain why one pets sick from the same germ that doesn't affect another.

5. Re-connecting physical energy like ATP and mitochondrial function, with non-physical energies of prana, chi and the biofield (vital force). This has to happen before the next step.

6. Connecting western and eastern medicine. Integrating medical philosophies and practices into a modern day medicine.

Lyme Disease and Modern Chinese Medicine: Dr. QingCai Zhang, Yale Zhang: 9780967721316: Amazon.com: Books

Lyme Disease and Modern Chinese Medicine [Dr. QingCai Zhang, Yale Zhang] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Lyme Disease and Modern Chinese Medicine

www.amazon.com

That's enough for now, but I know that there are others.

@Dr. Christina, @Dr. Sara, @Dr. Sue, @dr_ judy herman, @novasimpson, @Keely Parr, @ivegrgas I bet you have thoughts about other things relating to pets, people or the planet that would be great to re-connect.

 

[Dr. Christina]

Being part of HA! helps the planet.
When you make your own food you can help the local farmers who are raising food respectfully and sustainably. If buying food, you can find companies who are doing their best to be sustainable (one of the farmers who supplies Answers Pet Food milk had a cow who was over 14!).

When you mindfully exercise your dogs and cats you are appreciating nature, mother earth, water, trees and you can say thank you to all life - even the rocks!

When you pay attention to BEAM and Early Warning signs and work to build balance, your companions, and you, are less likely to need medical interventions that use up planet resources. We are so grateful that when needed, modern methods are available.

Because you are avoiding toxins so your pets are healthier, and asking neighbors and HOAs to not use pesticides, you are minimizing the poisoning of the earth.

Making your own fun toys for cats and dogs is reusing rather than exploiting our natural resources.

Mother Earth is grateful, as am I.

Dr. Christina

 

[Keely Parr]

I believe that a huge disconnect exists in the role that nutrition plays in healing. Most doctors and veterinarians do not give it a second thought when prescribing medicines, especially for chronic conditions.

My father lived to 91 after I put him on a diet with strictly organic and natural foods, nutritious fruits, vegetables, etc. No one in my family lived past 84 and he had a major heart attack at 84. The nutrition gave his body the boost it needed to heal and stay healthy. He was still dancing at the senior center!

My cat was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2011 and is still here. I stopped all cat food and put him on totally organic food. He eats organic chicken drumsticks from Trader Joe's, organic baby food for his veggies, etc. He is now 17.

I eat all organic, mainly fruits and vegetables and although i am past 55 I still do yoga, go hiking, walk miles, etc.

Nutrition is so extremely important. A new career needs to be formed for a pet nutritionist in the same way that humans have nutritionists!!!

Keely

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Thanks so much for sharing, Keely and Dr. Christina.

Speaking of food and re-connecting with the wisdom of Mother Nature, here's another connection which I just read in Dr. Valter Longo's great book, The Longevity Diet.

Dr. Longo is a research-oriented scientist who has developed a diet to help cellular rejuvenation and which mimics fasting called FMD or the fasting mimicking diet.

When discussing his friendship with a 110 year young man in southern Italy he wrote this in the section titled

From Tradition to Science:

I've lived the full range of good, bad and excellent nutrition, that has helped me formulate hypotheses about the connection between food, disease and longevity. It has also helped me realize in order to understand how people can live long, healthy lives, we need to go beyond scientific, epidemiological, and clinical studies and investigate actual populations that age successfully.

In other words, this scientist is saying that we may need to go beyond science and base our hypotheses about health and longevity on observation.

This is just one example, homeopathy being another, of going beyond rational (hypotheses-based) medicine that relies solely on current science to empirical or observation-based medicine, which is informed by current science and is not 100% based on it.

Here's a quote about homeopathy's empiric approach that combines observation with science:

Hahnemann's attitude towards knowledge was very modern; he took a very scientific approach. To be regarded as "fully successful a scientific theory must provide us with a literally true description of what the world is like." [Zynda] The "acceptance of a scientific theory involves the belief that it is empirically adequate," [Zynda] which basically means it must be in accord with all the observations of the matter concerned, not just some of them or some of them some of the time. A scientific theory "is "empirically adequate" if it gets things right about the observable phenomena in nature." [Zynda] What counts as "observable" "is what could be observed by a suitably placed being with sensory abilities similar to those characteristic of human beings..." [Zynda] This attitude is called, "Sola Experientia: any claim to knowledge, any support for opinion, must come from experience; experience trumps all" [Van Fraassen; 120] "The empirical sciences do live by the rule of Sola Experientia: nothing trumps experience. The bottom line is agreement from experimental and observational fact." [Van Fraassen; 152] For Hahnemann experience did trump all. Repeatedly in his writings he mentions observation and experience as the sole arbiters of truth, in contradistinction to the received authority and cherished theories of long-dead revered figures from the medical past.

You can access the full article at:

Hahnemann's Good Reputation and Empirical Stance. - Peter Morrell

Dr. Longo's book is:

The Longevity Diet: Discover the New Science Behind Stem Cell Activation and Regeneration to Slow Aging, Fight Disease, and Optimize Weight: Longo, Valter: 9780525534075: Amazon.com: Books

The Longevity Diet: Discover the New Science Behind Stem Cell Activation and Regeneration to Slow Aging, Fight Disease, and Optimize Weight [Longo, Valter] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Longevity Diet: Discover the New Science Behind Stem Cell Activation and...

www.amazon.com

 

[novasimpson]

Hi! Dr Jeff said something to me a while ago that stuck. I asked if a remedy brought on a health issue in Tater Tot and Dr. Jeff said, "her body is doing the best it can."

I started repeating it to myself on a regular basis (even with a little thing like an annoying coworker) -"she/he is doing the best they can." And it helps me accept and forgive myself too, "I am doing the best I can." And for the pups, "They and their bodies are doing the best they can."

And although I totally agree with living the healthiest & most organic lifestyle as possible, just realizing we are doing the best we can in any moment. Trying to stay present and connected in appreciation and love. And accepting (as much as possible that those around us are doing the best they can do too.

 

[Dr. Christina]

That is absolutely beautiful and I hope everyone reads your post.

A great book to help support you in this thinking is by Ruiz - The Four Agreements. One of the agreements is to do your best - even if that means just getting out of bed that day.

Since every individual may need different treatments and lifestyles, and we keep learning more every day, there is no "right" answer, so there is no need for guilt.

As you said, your best quality of life, therefore the best for your pets is to stay present and connected in appreciation and love.

Dr. Christina

 

[Carol L.]

Beautiful! Both posts.
Thank you dr Christina. And for reminder of Ruiz! Read twice, put on back shelf, literally and figuratively!
Thank you Nova. Definitely good reminder for our fellow human interactions also. I will definitely try to weave that into daily life.
And thank you dr Jeff for getting it started!